Yearn for Surrender: I Am In Shock... I have an 18 month old!

Last Friday I became a mommy to an 18 month old! How did the time go so quickly? We have now been home for more than 6 months and T is doing so well. We feel so blessed to be her parents. It is harder and harder with each passing week to imagine our lives without our sweet T in them.

It has been interesting for me to compare T and M at 18 months. M came home at 17ish months old so for the first time I can compare them to come degree. Before you get nervous, I use the word compare in the least judgmental sense possible. I simply mean that it is fun to see what they were each doing at this age.

Because M had just come out of an institution it would be easy to imagine that T would be far ahead in every area. While she is much more ahead of M at her age in some areas, M showed his age in many areas as well.

A little glimpse of M at 18 months...
M could sing melodies of many songs at 18 months, listen to books for long periods of time, make animal sounds, and say many words even though he had not been home long. He was not yet walking or even standing on his own. He was eating only baby food and was still dealing with terrible diapers. He took two naps a day and was a terrible sleeper at night.

A longer look at our T at 18 months...

Sleep:
Overall she continues to be a super sleeper. We finally figured out a method of getting her to sleep that has proved to be highly effective. If you remember she used to head bang if we put her in the crib or in a bed next to us. This was dangerous so we tried the Ergo. This worked overall and there were many weeks when I know the bonding of having her in there was worth it, but it was not sustainable because she would get so wound up being in it that it would take a LONG time for her to go to sleep. Her excitement would sometimes lead to anger and result in many scratches on our arms. She sometimes even hurt herself. We knew that we needed to try something else.

A couple of times we laid her in her crib and realized she was still a bit awake, but tiptoed out the door and she didn't make a peep. This got me thinking. Maybe all along WE were the reason she was not going to sleep. Maybe she needed to be alone to go to sleep. Friends, I was scared to try this. I was an attachment parent. I was choosing to not let me daughter "cry it out" and if I left her she might cry.

We decided to try it one night. We got her ready for bed. We prayed with her and rocked her and then laid her in the crib and left. Guess what? Nothing happened. She went to sleep. Well, I am not saying she fell asleep the second she laid down, but she was quiet. Life was good. There are some nights that she whimpers a little. It is short lived and lasts a matter of seconds. I have a video monitor at our room at the end of the hall. If she is fussing when I close the door I walk down the hall to our room to check on her and by the time I get there she is usually peacefully laying down. She has now started to tell us when she is done cuddling. After prayers she buries her head in my chest. This is so special. When she is ready to go in the crib she points her whole arm to the crib.

We still have some nights that are not perfect, but overall it is quite lovely! She usually goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up around 9:00. Yes, that is 13.5 hours! Recently she has been laying in her bed babbling for a long time and waking up earlier. She is cutting 5 or 6 teeth right now so we are quite sure this is influencing her sleep totals.

She also takes one nap a day in the afternoon for about 2ish hours. Sometimes it is only 1 hour and sometimes 3 hours. Overall, she is a sleep rock star!

Food:
T is a great eater. She likes almost everything and is willing to try new foods most of the time. There are a few veggies that we have to mix with meat to get her to eat them, but she seems to do quite well. She loves to eat whatever Brandon is eating and is not super patient when she is hungry. She can feed herself with a spoon, but she has a hard time eating slowly enough so we often feed her. We think she was underfed before coming home because she can't seem to get food into her mouth fast enough. If we give her a pancake she puts the entire thing in her mouth at once. If we break up a pancake on her tray she puts every bit in her mouth before even chewing. We have learned to slowly give her bits of food.

Dairy:
We have another child with a dairy allergy. I am serious. What are the odds? A couple of months ago T's diapers started to have the awful aroma that I remembered from M. I told Brandon that I suspected that is what it was. We decided to take her off for a week and sure enough the diapers changed. We really didn't want her to be off dairy so we reintroduced it. We only gave her Greek yogurt hoping it was a lactose thing only. Well, the awful diapers came right back. Bummer. So now we have 2 kiddos and a mom who can't do dairy. Well, I guess we are meant to be a family.

Verbal:
T loves to squeal in a very high pitched squeal. She is adding new sounds and words to her list every day. She can say: hi, bye, daddy, mama, Prada (dog next door), doggy, puppy, J (the name of the boy next door), kitty, water (wawa), bottle (bobbi). She attempts many others and I am sure I am forgetting many. She can do a puppy woof and pant, a roar, and a neigh. She doesn't want to try other animal sounds. She loves to make other sounds she hears as well. She can make crazy sounds that we try and fail at. She likes music, but doesn't really try to sing along. She recently said "Hi kitty" putting her first two words together just before turning 18 months. T understands us very well. She listens and obeys. She can follow simple tasks like putting something where we tell her to and coming to us when we need her.

Motor Skills:
She can walk, run, jump, and climb. She can climb ladders with ease. She can jump and land on her feet. She can do the splits easily. She can hang from a bar for an extended period of time. She can do summersalts. She and throw a ball and kick a ball. She can (and enjoys) drawing with both hands. She can stack cups. She can open things (that she shouldn't) faster than me. She can go up and down stairs on her tummy and seems to understand that is the safe way to do it. She can clap, high five, and blow kisses. She is fearless. She will climb onto things that are not stable and run right into the street. She sure keeps me on my toes.

Play:
T loves to play with her dolls and her tea party set. She loves to carry toys around the house. She enjoys emptying bins of toys. The wonderful thing is she actually likes to put the toys back in the bin when she is done. She tolerates books for short periods of time. She loves listening to music and drumming along with the beat. She LOVES the sandbox and puddles and anywhere she can find to get a bit dirty. She loves parks and going for walks to parks... as long as she has plenty of Chex on her tray. She enjoys doing whatever M is doing. She likes to copy him in what he says, his expressions, his games etc. Tonight M and Brandon were racing and she was watching. They went upstairs and she went to the starting line and was making all sorts of noise and then said "go" for the first time (another new word). She was wanting me to say "ready, set, go" so I did, over and over again.

Affection:
T is finally giving us kisses, but only on her terms. She usually gives me kisses before bed. She must kiss us on the lips and her mouth is very open when she kisses, but after she moves her mouth off my lips she makes the kiss sound, so she will get there. She is cuddling a bit more at bedtime too. She loves a quick cuddle from Brandon when he gets home. By quick I mean under 10 seconds literally. She loves to sit in my lap and be held by me while I am cooking (of course). She appreciates affection from our family members as well. We have now let our friends hold her a bit, but overall she is not super interested in being held by most of them. Charissa, L's mom, is the only other person she will willingly go to with ease and joy. It makes sense as we are with them most days.

She is growing and changing every day and in every way. We are so thankful and proud and blessed and humbled to be her parents. We love you T.

Here is a look at our Sweet T through the months on the red chair. The newest is at the top. You can scroll to the bottom and then scroll back to the top to see youngest to oldest. I see her every day so it is hard for me to believe she is really changing that much. Then I look at these photos and realize how very much she is changing. She is much less interested in sitting in the red chair than M was. We have so many great photos of T. Many new ones will be added to the blog soon actually. Funny that these month photos are often not her best, but they are a good gauge of her growth and still very fun to look at, even if you can tell she is trying to get away in most of them.