18 Months!

Annabelle is 18 months (and a week) old. These past few months have been by far my favorite time in her life. I loved the newborn cuddles, but from about 10 months until now, things have just been a blast! I love, love, love watching her learn new things every day. Her language has exploded--I can't even count how many words she can say now. She's running, climbing, jumping, crawling, rolling, swimming, going up and down stairs with ease, and even can hang for a few seconds on the gymnastic bars at the Y. It's truly amazing how much human beings develop so quickly in their first few years of life. It's just crazy to think about how she was inside of me less than 2 years ago. Wow!

Stats at her 18 month well baby visit:
Weight: 22 pounds (with clothes on--petite little thing!)

Height: 33 inches

Teeth: All four on top in the front, three on the bottom in the front, one molar fully in, and three molars about half way in.

Dislikes: Diaper changes, getting in the car after being somewhere fun, when I turn off Nemo, drinking milk, eating raw veggies (like salad), when Mama leaves at bed time.

Likes: Annabelle is a super happy kiddo. She generally is smiling and having fun unless she is hungry, thirsty, or tired. She loves playing with her friends, going to the pool, taking baths, tormenting Mojo, reading books, doing puzzles, making towers out of anything that will stack, cooking with Mama, coloring, and watching Nemo.

New Things: The most recent "new things" to note are:

• She can complete puzzles by herself--this just randomly happened one day a couple of weeks ago. She never cared about puzzles at all, then just sat down and started doing them. So fun!
• She understands what "sorry" means, and can use it appropriately without being prompted.
• She loves to say, "I got it!" if she picks something up, or "I did it!" if she completed something she was trying to do.
• She can swim! Seriously, this girl is a fish. At the Y when we go swimming, as long as she has a noodle under her chest and arms, she can paddle and kick her way around the pool with very little assistance. 
• Associating different things with different places, and verbalizing it. For example, at her friend Luke's house, there is a big tree out front with a hole in it, and squirrels live in the hole. When I tell her we're going to Luke's house, she starts talking about squirrels going night night in the tree. Her friend Hope had a couple of cats up until a week ago, and every time I say we're going to Hope's house, she says, "meow!"
• She has come up with her own names for my mom and dad--Nama and Papa. Cute!

Sleep: Yes, this deserves it's own section. Her sleep is Uh-maz-ing. Ever since we completely cut out gluten (and me caffeine), she is sleeping completely through the night (the WHOLE night, not just the 5-hour stretch that medical professionals consider to be STTN), or sometimes waking up once but going right back to sleep. Unless she falls out of bed (which has happened a few times), then she's usually a little slower to go back to sleep because she gets pretty upset by that. It's been just incredible. It's amazing how quickly my body adjusted to getting more sleep--now if she's up twice or three times because of teething or whatever, I am a total and completely grumpy crazy mom. I seriously have no idea how I functioned for so long waking up every 1-2 hours all night long. (I do--it was totally God. He provides what we need, and that includes supernatural energy). So anyway, my baby is sleeping, and we are sleeping, and the nights are generally quiet and peaceful in the Rackow house.

Pics from 15-18 months:

Ready to play in the snow!

Making a snow angel at Nama and Papa's house

She loves walking in mama's shoes!

First haircut!

Future doctor on our hands?

Bathtime with her friend Luke

Cooking with Hazel in her awesome new kitchen!

Meeting Grandma Audrey in Burlington, Iowa

First ride on the carousel at the mall--did NOT go over well. They had to stop the ride for me to get her off the horse because she was throwing such a fit. We rode the rest of the time on a bench.

 

Random warm day in November at the park

First visit to the Orpheum Children's Museum--she loved the sand table!

Playing with Gak

Thermometer in the belly button? I'm pretty sure that's where it goes.

Hanging out with Caleb

She loves her Noah's Ark animal sorter!

MORE whipped cream!!

Being mini-mama's with Evie

My little girl is no longer my baby. She's growing so fast, and I wish I could make it slow down! I will add, one thing that I have been loving is my line-a-day journal that I got at the book store. The book is 5-years worth of memories. Each page is dated, and has 5 different sections on it, one for each of 5 years. There are a few lines per year to just jot down a quick memory of something that happened each day. It's fast, fun, and an easy way to keep track of little things that happen each day to remember. I plan to start one for each of my kiddos. So far I've been doing it for about 6 months, and it's been great!

Happy (belated) 18 months, Annabelle!