18 Months

My little girl is 18 months old today!! She's still a tiny little thing... any 18-month size pants are huge on her around the waist and won't stay up. In fact, the 6-month and 12-month jeans that I have for her are also still too big around the waist for her to wear. She can still fit into one of her pairs of 6-12 month size pants, although to be fair, I'm pretty sure they run big. She finally fits into 18-month shirts, and she has 18-month overalls and sleepers that she can wear as well (since they don't have to be tight around the waist to fit!).

One of Naomi's favorite toys are these fairy magnets that my friend Jess made for her out of styrofoam board and fairy stickers (Thank you, Jessica!!). She LOVES them. She plays with them on the refrigerator, the dishwasher, and on a magnetic dry erase board we have. Lately, she enjoys putting them all on the fridge and then hitting them until they've all fallen onto the floor.


Naomi babbles all the time, but she still doesn't say a whole lot that we can understand. She says mama, dada, dog, ball, dat (that), beep (will explain that one in a minute), ow, cack-uk (which I think means "cracker"), ni-ni (night-night) and probably some other things that I can't think of at the moment.

She understands a lot of things that we say, even if she can't say them. When she hears "movie", she runs over to the TV. "Diaper change!" sends her running as fast as she can in the opposite direction, sometimes to hide behind the parent who isn't holding the wipes & new diaper. When we ask if she wants her bottle, she will run to the kitchen and wait for us to get it ready. She likes us to hold her while it's heating in the microwave, and we count down the last 10 seconds until the beep, which is when she chimes in with her own little "beeep". It's pretty adorable. She knows "nap", "sleepy time", "beddy-byes", and "bedtime"--if we say any of those things, she runs over to the bottom of the stairs and waits for us to take the gate down so she can go to her bedroom. She also knows certain books and will bring them to us if we ask her to, like "Chicka Chicka" (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom) or "Bubbles" (a Sesame Street book I got for a dollar at Target--love their clearance/dollar section!).

She loves to clap, and she gives high-fives, and if you catch her in the right mood she will give you a big hug and the cutest, wettest kisses. We still keep a gate up at the bottom of the stairs, because although she can go up and down on her own, she often gets distracted halfway up and falls because she tried to turn around or play on the stair. Naomi knows that the gate belongs there, and if Jacob or I don't put it up right away, she will pick it up and try to put it into place herself. She still isn't much of a snuggler--she doesn't like to be held much, and she won't ever sit on our laps for more than 30 seconds. She loves wearing her new shoes (and who can blame her--they're pretty awesome), and she will wear them all day long if we don't hide them from her (which we often do, because she will take them off and then scream if we don't put them back on for her two minutes later). Most of the time, it's almost impossible to get her to eat, which is part of the reason she's so dang skinny. Every once in a while, she'll have a day where she does really well and eats a ton... but these days are rare. She likes dipping things, so if we give her a pile of ketchup or syrup and then a dippable food, she will sometimes eat a decent amount. I can also sometimes get her to eat if I use 3 separate spoons--one for each of her hands, and then one for me to shove food into her mouth when she'll let me.

We sure do love our little girl!