19 Month Update

Let me apologize in advance for this extrememly long post.  I just have so much to say about this little girl! So sorry!

I can't believe my little girl is 19 months already!  It has flown by!  We just took her to her 18 month appointment (we had to postpone when she was sick).  She gets it now- doctor's office= shots and being poked.  As soon as she see's the room now she cries. The whole time she was saying, "ba-bye" and "all done." It was cute, but sad. I wish I had a picture of her in her little gown!  She is 25lbs now, 75th percentile for weight and height.  Our doctor says she is a very smart and healthy girl. 

Here are some Bailey updates:

*First of all, she's been watching me... I love it- it is so adorable!  She tries to do everything we do.  Here are a couple things she was doing last night and this morning

*She has become so so  SO SO sweet lately!  She has this little soft sweet voice sometimes. She gives out hugs and kisses like crazy, whether you ask for them or not.  She'll just all of the sudden give you a kiss or lay her head on your chest forever.  Ahh, we just melt! It is THE BEST! That is when I wish I could freeze time!

*She has this HUGE, genuine smile that warms you up inside.  That is when I pray that nothing in this life will take away her joy!

*One of her favorite things is breakfast with daddy.  Every morning she gets so excited as they sit down to have fruit and "tee-wow-wow" (that's cereal).  She runs to breakfast. It's a cute little thing they have going.

*She is so into markers and crayons.  She loves to scribble.  She'll scribble and then point to it and say. "mama" or "circle" or whatever she thinks she just made!

*She lets us rock her now!  She hit an age where she did not want to be rocked to sleep- she was all restless and wiggly at bed time.  That was ok, because it was time to start teaching her to soothe herself to sleep anyway (I always had to lie on the Kaiser questionnares!).  It was agony at first but she picked it up pretty quickly, and now bedtime is awesome!  We read books and then lay her in her crib, cover her, hand her the bunny, and say "nigh-night." It's so sweet.  And now it's even better because after we read books, she lays on my shoulder for a little while while I rock her and sing to her.  Then, she starts wiggling and lets me know she's ready to be put down and she sweetly looks up as we say our good-nights.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE our bedtime routine :)

*She still loves the park.  I think I could write park reviews for a living, we have been to so many.  We go all the time now, but the excitement never fades! Her favorite thing was the swing. WAS.  But now Bailey thinks the swing is just so last week.  It's ALL about the SLIDE now!

*She's really into eating boiled eggs, and olives.  Cheese is probably one of her favorite things right now (she gets that from Rich).  She never eats a lot for meals, but she likes to snack all day (she gets that from me).

*And, on that note- she's been working on feeding herself lately.  I know my mom has been working on this with her.  My little miss independent will sometimes refuse to eat unless she does it herself, which leads to us throwing her food on the tray (messy) or giving her the spoon (also messy).

*We are done with the bottle. GOOD BYE!  She just started pushing it away at about 18months, and if she did drink it, it was only an ounce. She's over it. YAY!!!! And for that matter, she's done with milk too.  She will not drink it.  Not in a bottle, not in a cup, not in a sippy, not in her socks, not with a fox.

*She has new words coming out of her mouth like crazy! I'll drive by a gas station and all of the sudden from the backseat I hear, "gas".  What did you just say? How did you know that? Then, we'll leave the park and she looks at me and says, "back?" And she'll pretty much repeat anything you ask her to say. Rich and I are kinda tripping out right now because she has about 437 new words a day.  She just recently said "starbucks" (you go girl!), so now we are working on "tall cafe vanilla frapuccino with no whip"

*She's starting to put a couple words together into phrases.  She says things like, "Bye-bye park" and "all done" and "up please" (which sounds like "uh peez").

*She loves to learn and be quizzed on stuff. She can't quite say, but can point to most basic colors, body parts, shapes (including rectangle and oval! wow!), and she loves to do the animal sounds.

*She dances every time she hears music.  She loves to strum daddy's guitar and do the drums at church. The girl LOVES music.  Hmmm, where'd she get that from?

*She is starting to recognize when she needs to "potty."  She'll look at us and say, "poopy" sometimes and then in about a minute, we see THAT face.... Maybe we can get that done this summer... :)

Now, I could stop right here. You'd probably think, "Wow, isn't Bailey wonderful?" 

Well, she IS wonderful, but it's not always rainbows and butterflies. 

Here's the other stuff:

*I'm gonna just say it in one word: molars. 'nuff said. poor baby and poor mommy :(

*She can get up onto the couch now, but she doesn't "sit" on the couch (usually).  She climbs all over it- not good.  We're trying to get her to understand the the living room is not the park. This is her about to get into trouble

Then I told her in my stern mommy voice to "sit!" she sat.  But then...

*We're trying to teach her to use her words and she's finally getting it.  For a while there she sounded like a little cave person grunting and pointing, or worse, whining and pointing. NOT CUTE!

*She wants to do things on her own.  When she can't, she gets very frustrated!  Usually if I try to help her she gets more upset. 

*She's at a height where she can reach most tabletops now.  So, whatever is up, comes down. You would think I would've learned my lesson by now.  You'd think...

*Her hair is growing longer now, and she looks so cute with it up in bows!  One problem... EVERY TIME we are in the car, the bows, barrettes, hairbands, everything COMES OUT.  I have to keep hairspray and a comb in the car and it gets a little annoying redoing her hair eight times a day.  So, usually it's a clip on the side to keep it out of her eyes and we're done.

*She likes the word "no."  It's not so bad, because she says it like a question.  So it's not an annoying no, it's a cute "no?" but it's getting old.  I have to be careful now because I tend to phrase things like a question, like, "Do you want to take a bath Baileygirl?"... "no?" .   "Are you ready to go na-night?"...  "no?"   "Can you go get your jacket?"... "no?"  as if these things are an option for her.  I guess I'm asking for it.  I need to just tell her what we're doing, and I'm catching myself more lately!

So that's life in Baileyworld.  It has it's ups and downs I guess, but I really am loving every minute of it.  I never dreamed being a mommy would be so incredible.  I feel so blessed!  19 months has gone by so fast, and that's my reminder to cherrish every moment with her!

Here are a couple video clips I found on our camera. It's too long, I know.  I should have shortened it.  The last one is her at our Bible study, after she had some cake.  I had never seen her so hyper!  It was pretty entertaining!