My Baby Girl Is 18 Months

A few weeks ago I wrote about my thoughts about Alyssa nearing the 18 month mark, you can read them here.  Now we're here!

Let's address the things I talked about.

Her vocabulary:

I was concerned about how little she was saying.  Since writing it she's making "oo" sounds - her favourite is "uh oh".  She can say: bye-bye, hi, uh oh, ball, mama, dada, mo (more), bapa (grandpa), bafa (brother), ta-ta, ta-to (thank you), and "talking" more. 

Her communication skills:

They just keep getting better.  She is fantastic about letting us know what she wants and understands just about everything we say to her.  You ask her where her sock is, she gets it.  You ask her to put something away and she knows where it goes. 

Independence:

I'm lucking out.  She's pretty attached to me so she looks to me for approval of something.  However, she has decided she would rather walk than ride in her stroller, which is fine.  It just takes us longer to get to and from the park now.  The really nice thing is she wants to hold hands when she walks.  If I let go of her hand she will stop and hold her hand out to me and will not walk until I'm holding her hand.  It's going to make the "hold hands or up" problem pretty obsolete... for now.  Although she has her moments.  We spent Saturday at the lake and there was going to be no hand holding in the lake.  Any time you put your hand out she would turn away from you and make a very unhappy noise.  Even when she fell into water that was too deep for her to get up on her own she would not hold your hand.  That, might be a problem. 

Possessive Aggression:

It's escalating.  She follows Lynden's every movement.  If he's playing with cars she wants to play, if he's reading she wants to read, if he's drinking or eating she needs to.  The problem is she wants the book he's reading, the car he's playing with, etc.  It doesn't help that the moment she plays with any toy of his he's ripping it out of her hands, so she's learned that's how to get the toy you want.  We're stressed with Lynden the importance of sharing, saying ta-ta, and asking instead of taking.  This past week we were able to show Lynden how much he influences his sister.  At dinner everytime he hit the table she did, he stopped she stopped, he ate she ate.  We were able to point that out and it seems to have gotten through to him.  As much as we think we show Alyssa the right or wrong thing Lynden seems to have a greater influence. 

Other things I've noticed:

She's quite quick at trying to figure things out.  Her latest thing is she has found a stash of shoes she's a little too small for.  She brings them to me, sits, and tries to put them on herself - so far no real luck but it's super cute to watch. 

She has also figured out electronics.  She knows how to turn certain things on and off, and with Lynden's V Reader she knows how to turn it on and get to the games Lynden plays (she hasn't figured out how to play them yet).  This has made me start looking for games for her on Craigslist so she can play with her own games later. 

She's also more adventurous, which isn't news for us.  Lynden won't walk on the curb unless he's holding our hand, Alyssa's content to try to balance on her own (I see gymnastics in her future).  She's also a lot less gun shy about trying new things; parks, slides, etc.  See my above comment about the lake.  She has very little fear at trying things out, which is a nice change from Lynden who won't do anything without our help. 

She is one determined little girl.  If she wants something she will figure out how to get it.  If we're too slow opening the car door on her side of the car she will try to crawl in through Lynden's side and get up into her seat.  Same with the stroller. 

Her personality is shining through; I love it!  My favourite is when she knows she's being funny.  Her laugh is the best and she makes this great cheesy face. 

I'm going to leave you with some pictures of her at the lake.