Our little monkey is 18 months today. Can’t call her a baby anymore!

Hair:
I’m guessing her hair is going to be wavy like Leah’s. It’s still got a lot of red in it. It’s getting thicker but no mullet quite yet.

Teeth:
There are no gaps in her teeth. I haven’t checked the back lately.

Ears (a new category!):
Two ear infections in the past two months. Good times. She also had a horrible cold last month and for a few nights didn’t sleep more than 45 mins straight.

Sleep:
When she’s healthy she goes to bed a little after 7 and wakes up once in the night. We are still giving her milk. She was sick for most of the month and not eating so I had another excuse to just leave it as is. One of these days I am going to put water in the bottle and see what happens.

She gets up insanely early even when her sisters aren’t around to wake her up. After getting up at 5am one morning I stuffed towels in the window to darken the room. She slept til 8. Sadly it was just a one off and has been up at 6:30 consistently. Usually she wakes up happy but sometimes she is grumpy and clingy and in obvious need of more sleep. There’s no convincing her to go back to bed though.

Daycare nap training seems to have paid off and we can usually get a decent nap out of her after lunch. While Leah and Emma were in Windsor I put her up for a nap the same way I used to put them up for a nap. She went willingly at both bedtime and naptime and just went to sleep. It’s not so smooth when they’re here (she knows they’re still up) but if she’s tired enough she will go down without a fight.

Getting Around:
Thankfully her basement door radar has subsided. Every once in awhile she’ll try and open the door but she’ll say uh oh and slam it. I still don’t trust her though since she used to say uh oh when the stair gate was left open but now quietly climbs up the stairs. The other day John couldn’t find her and looked upstairs to see her tearing by giggling. Stairs make us both nervous.

She is doing really well at the park and is fearless. She’ll also push any kid who gets in her way which isn’t so great. She thinks it’s funny when you hover near her and will run across the structure giggling. Running away is a fun game to Claire.

While her sisters were away in Windsor we did a bunch of shopping with her. I just carried her and let her walk. She’ll tolerate holding our hands well but once she decides she’s done she can squirm and scream. She catches on pretty quickly that screaming only makes me more stubborn.

She is now sturdy on the kitchen chairs and I let her have snacks up there with her sisters. She’s like a dog and will get up and eat their breakfast if they leave their seat.

Things she’s saying:
She’s saying all sorts of things. My favourite is when she kisses you and says ove you. Mak is now milk. She will beg for cheese at every meal and now points to food on the counter and says more. She can say eyes, nose, toes, tummy, bum and ears. When you ask her where her hair is she’ll say hair then pull her own hair and say owww.

Old Jen would be disgusted but she can pick out  and call Dora, Boots, Backpack and Map by name. She gets very excited about Dora. She also has a thing for Elmo. It’s pretty cute. Tickle me Elmo never fails to make her laugh. She says tickle tickle then squeals when he laughs.

I got her a simple word book with matching buttons that say the word when you push it. She’s got all 10 words figured out. She can pick out family members in pictures and tell you who they are. She can say Nana, Papa, Ganny and gampa. She even indulges Emma and calls her rella (cinderella). She can yell John…

Her receptive language is really good. She follows all sorts of directions and has picked up some good things from her sisters. The other day I was vacuuming and she’d dumped Candyland on the floor. When she saw me coming she jumped up and started tidying it up and put it back on the shelf. She listens pretty much all the time except when it comes to running away because she thinks it’s a game.

Eating:
When she’s healthy she’s a really good eater. Her current favourites are red grapes, cheese and yogurt. She’ll eat lots of other things and she’ll try anything. She will not let us feed her and can use a fork and a spoon with ease now. She’s good as long as we’re not in a rush. The one thing I find interesting is that she’s not a big fan of bread or crackers.

When she wasn’t healthy this month she was a horrible eater. It got so bad I bought some toddler formula and gave her that for her bedtime bottle.

Fun things she’s doing:
-pretend cooking and feeding the dolls and Elmo
-climbing up to the sink and saying on so she can wash her hands and off when she’s done
-saying doggy and birdie when we see them outside
-walking up to mid calf when we went to the beach and then deciding playing in the 1 inch water with her pail was more fun.
-letting me pour water on her head to wash her hair (her sisters used to hate this)
-washing herself with soap and listening to what I ask her to wash
-telling us the name of everything she knows
-sitting on the stairs and asking me for help to put her shoes on
-puttnig things in the garbage, tidying up, pretend vacuuming and dusting
-using a mouse and smacking the keyboard
-pushing the buttons on the fridge toys and dancing (complete with stomping feet dance)
-sitting on the potty before bath. No connection there yet.
-Trying to hoist herself up onto the toilet like her sisters?!
-Pushing the babies around in teh shopping cart and putting them to bed
-mastering the park structure (attempting to go down slide face first…)
-blowing kisses, saying bye bye and ove you to everyone
-giving her sisters hugs. She goes from one bed to another and kisses them goodnight.
-on the rare occasion she gets out of her stroller when we’re out she insists on holding on to it and walking (she copies a lot of the things her sisters do)
-sitting on the couch in between her sisters and watching Dora. She has zero attention span for anything else.

Personality:
I just read Leah and Emma’s 18 month update. It’s an interesting read and I see how much having two older sisters (and not being 2 months premature) has helped Claire grow up quickly. I hadn’t read that in a long time and it’s also interesting to see how their personalities were there for all of us to see at 18 months.

I’d say Claire is right in the middle of them both in terms of temperament. She’s probably the most easy going of the three of them but her temper is quick like Leah’s and she’s stubborn like Emma. I haven’t seen her act shy in a long time and she can hold her own with older kids. The main issue we have is that Leah and Emma laugh when she’s naughty and it is hard to discipline. We are working on getting them to stop but even tonight Emma let her pull her hair and just smiled and asked her nicely not to do it again. Claire giggled and made Emma laugh and then Claire got her hair again. Emma rarely loses patience with her.

Claire is still a mommy suck. She will scream daddy when he comes home and run to hug him. I should enjoy every month I get as I’m sure my days are numbered. The closer we get to bedtime the more Claire can’t handle me leaving the room. She will go to bed for other people but if I am around she wants me.

So life with Claire is still good. Leah and Emma have been away a week in April, May and June and will be in Ottawa at the end of July. It has been nice to get some alone time with Claire. She’s at a really fun age. If she could just kick this night time bottle thing she’d be near perfect ;)

I’ve put up lots of pictures/videos up on Flickr. My compact video resolution experiment won’t be repeated!