Or maybe eighteen months and two weeks. But this photo was taken the day she turned eighteen months old. This will be my last monthly update. I will also try to not be such a blogger slacker going forward.
I felt like when Hope turned one year old, a whole new world opened up. She was mobile. She started to develop an attention span, and even if it was ever so short, I could see the start of it. I feel the same way about Hope turning eighteen months old - it is a whole new world. She acts more and more like a little girl every day.
Hope talks pretty much all the time. She talks in complete sentences and tells me stories. Of course I cannot understand most of what she says, but a lot of sentences start with Mommy. She is also starting to put words together. Her most commonly used phrases are "Mommy Help" and "Mommy More" and "Down Please" or "Up Please." Then of course there is "Abby Down!" and "Abby Go!"
Hope loves her baby dolls and takes really good care of them. She changes their diapers (which often end up around their head), she cleans them, brushes their teeth, burps them, and of course hugs and kisses them.
We no longer have two dogs named Abby - she actually says Morgan now, which sounds more like
Mormon. She will miss them when they go elsewhere to live.
Hope pretends to blow her nose and likes to hide. She somewhat understands counting. One day in the backseat of the car she counted to four, but we haven't had a repeat performance. She will get out her abacus out and count - each number is usually 'two' which seems to be her favorite. Sometimes she uses the number three though.
Hope still loves to color and scribble. While she usually uses her right hand, sometimes she still uses her left so I think it is still undecided which will be her dominate. She is developing a little personality trait that some might call '
stubbornness', but I prefer to use 'determined.' Sometimes she gets this look in her eye and you can tell she has made up her mind to do something and she blocks everyone and everything else out and focuses on her goal. I don't know who she gets that from. Joe has his opinions, but in spite of what he believes, he's not always right.
Hope is still really outgoing. When we go out to eat, it usually takes us about ten minutes to leave because she has to stop and say good-bye to all of the friends she made while dining. Hope's favorite foods are cheese, scrambled eggs, yogurt, Rice
Krispies with milk, any fruit except raspberries, waffles, mac-n-cheese, pizza, spaghetti, and a ham/turkey/cheese Subway sub, toasted. On yeah, and let's not forget
Popsicles.
Hope may be developing a little OCD. She likes to clean out my lazy susan. But, she doesn't just pull things out and throw them. She takes things out, one by one, and lines everything up. All items needs to be standing upright. It upsets her when things fall over. Joe might have his opinions about the 'determination' but I have my own opinions about this behavior.
Hope has a whole mouthful of teeth. She has at least 11, and may have 12. She bites me before I am able to finish taking inventory. She had six at 17 months, so it has been a busy time lately in this department. We have had a few rough evenings, but overall she has been a really good trooper.
Hope had her eighteen month check-up last week. She weighs 24 lbs, which is right at the 50th percentile. She is just under 31 1/2 inches tall, which is close to the 75th percentile.
