Addison Mae - 18 months

 

How is my girl a year-and-a-half old already?! I think she officially has more words in her vocabulary than I do. She says everything, including, "no doctor," "no medicine," "no Tylenol," "no ears" and "no nose." Clearly we've had a bit of a rough month. She's so smart that she says "no doctor" any time she hears me say the word doctor, when we pull into the parking lot at his office and she even said it when I was on the phone with one of the nurses. And sometimes just for good measure. After several weeks of being healthy (yay!) she got a cold, sinus infection, double ear infection and stomach virus, pretty much all at once in true Addie style. Her ears were actually completely clogged, which meant a super fun visit to her ENT for him to suck out her ears for the longest 15 minutes of my life. Thankfully, he was able to culture them and tell us that the lack of bacteria likely means her ear/respiratory issues are caused by reflux, which we've dealt with before but had no idea she was still suffering from. So, daily doses of Zantac and no more dairy is our plan for now. After a week of feeling really, really great after that insanity, she's now got a flu-like virus. Whew. How people have kids and accomplish anything else ever is completely beyond me. In other news, she also really likes to tell me no, tell the dog no, tell the cat no and even tell herself no. I can tell what I've been telling her no about by what she repeats to everyone else. She loves to slide and swing, be chased around the house, ride in her wagon, play games, sing songs, listen to her music and give the sweetest, slobberiest kisses in the world. She is seriously obsessed with her friends, and she loves to talk about them all the time. Make no mistake that when she names her friends, Elmo is at the top of the list.

Weight: 21 lbs 8 oz
Length: 29 1/2 inches

New things this month:

• More multiple word phrases, including the "no doctor" etc above. "No bark Izzy/Cowboy," "no lick Izzy," "no milk Mia" (when she's inspecting Addie's cup) and I'm sure to be clear that she's in charge of all of them. Also "Addie mama" anytime I hold or touch any other babies, or even our dog and cat, just to be clear that I belong to her and her alone. Another of my recent favorites was "more strawberries please mama." Her "I love you" is actually starting to sound like the real words. "Play kitchen" means it's time to head to the playroom.

• My favorite recent words are: blueberries, strawberries, yucky (which she says about 37 times per day ... about anything on her hands she doesn't like, food she doesn't want to try, etc), Mickey Mouse (and all his friends... this is usually accompanied by her shoving the remote in my face to turn Mickey Mouse on TV), hummus, vacuum, whiskers, owie, mustache, sock, pants (she is typically declaring "no pants," which I hope she gets over before she's a teenager ...), diaper, whoopsie (my very favorite), muffin
• Calling Mia and Izzy from across the house. She calls "Mia, Mia, Sopapilla" (yeah, apparently that's what I call her). Calling Jordan or me from across the house. My favorite is when we ask where one of her toys or books is and she calls said item "Monkey!" "Elmo" "Go Dog Go!"
• Calling my mom Debbi. Hilarious.
• Calling my parents dog and cat and Jordan's parents' dog by their rightful names, rather than just Izzy or Mia.
• An obsession with the park in our neighborhood. We can see it from our house, and if she gets a glance, she asks to go until we pretty much have no choice but to take her. Jordan caught her running halfway across the open lot next to us, on her way to the park by herself. She LOVES to slide (all by herself!) and swing. She does not love when Izzy accompanies us to the park because she does far too much barking for Addie's taste.
• Music class, which we go to every Tuesday morning at Edmond Fine Arts Institute. There are four other kids in the class, all boys and all at least a year older. She loves this class. She loves to impress her teacher. She also loves to do her own thing and rifle through instruments or enjoy a snack while everyone else is paying attention. Clear which she gets from which parent. They get to play with fun instruments, sing consistent songs each time (perfect for my sweet OCD girl), play peekaboo, play Ring Around the Rosey and get stamps at the end of each class. It's crazy, but I can totally tell that she's singing much more and noticing music a lot more. We listen to her CD from this class anytime we're in the car. Which actually means we listen to the first song on the CD (her favorite) over and over and over. If you try to change to another song, she says "more lalalala" quite insistently until it's required that you oblige.
• No more dairy, per her reflux, which actually hasn't been too painful. The switch to almond milk took about three days, during which time she told me her milk was yucky and asked for the milk with the "moo moo" on the front. Easy transition to non-dairy cheese, too. Now we're focusing on making sure her snacks, other foods, etc. are dairy-free. We're planning to try this for the next 3-6 months to see if it makes a difference. Perhaps I am a little anxious for this to work, but it already seems to have made a difference in her attitude and overall health.
• Her first haircut, which went surprisingly well. Just a few tears and protests. Thankfully it seems to have somewhat calmed her unruly mop (sorry, kiddo) and caused it to fill in a little more.

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Likes:

• Coloring. We color no less than 12 times per day. And she prefers to have all 64 crayons out of the box to color with. Coloring isn't really worth it if not also accompanies by stickers.
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We also watch this about 12 times per day. She wants to see the opening song and then fast forward directly to the Hot Dog Dance at the end. She dances and sings "hot dog, hot dog." Sure to bring a smile to my face every time.
• Singing and dancing.
• Playing "ashes ashes" (ring around the rosey)
• Her microphone. No surprise there. Miss Julie at music school has a microphone, and since she thinks Miss Julie is especially cool, she clearly needed a microphone, too.
• Pushing Elmo, Ernie and other dolls around in her grocery cart. She just doesn't understand why she can't get in there, too.
• Making "calls" on her play phones, our cell phones, remote controls or her hand. Her phone calls are almost always made to her Pawpaw.
• Books. I love that she loves to be read to. She even knows the names of several of her favorites and will ask for them by name.
• Her people. I love the way she talks about and loves on her grandparents and close family. I also love that she calls our brother-in-law "Beard"

Dislikes:

• The doctor. Being poked and prodded. Being held down for the administration of medicine, a diaper, a kiss ... pretty much anything.
• Anyone else touching her mama.
• A new aversion to loud noises. Apparently from the sucking sound of having her ears cleaned out.