So Happy Together: 18 Months Old

On the 2nd of this months Ainsley hit the 18 month mark. I know all parents say this, but wow, it went by fast. It is an absolute joy to watch Ainsley grow from a baby to a little girl. As I mentioned in the last post we are seeing more and more of her personality come out as she gains more independence.

Right now we are seeing her "strong-willed" aka, stubborn, qualities come out. Part of this is of course due to her heading towards toddler hood and the so-called terrible twos. But, I think part of it is her personality. I like to think of it as that fighter, stubborn quality we saw in the NICU coming out in her. =)

Our latest battle has been over saying the word please. She has a rather large vocabulary and so we have been working with her to add please to it. We do not expect it to be a perfect please, peas or even something starting with a p sound will do, but she refuses. In fact she makes what we call her angry face, where she furrows her brow and glares at you. I need to get a picture of that - it is pretty darn cute actually. She also breaks out this face when you ask her to be gentle with something (like grandma's earrings) or when she is told no.

Speaking of vocabulary, Ainsley favorite word right now is stuck, it usually comes out as tuck. She uses it when something is actually stuck, when she is stuck, or when she wants to be somewhere other than where she is at that moment, for example trying to climb onto the couch. She also uses it when a toy or book doesn't work the way she wants it too.

Another area of vocabulary development has been animal sounds - she really enjoys her books with animal pictures and loves to make the sound of the animal. Right now she can do the animal sounds for sheep, lion, elephant, monkey, bee, and cat. She will even do this when she sees the pictures of animals in other places, this was especially cute when she "neighed" at me when I was wearing my Myers Mustang sweatshirt.

She is still working on walking. Generally she takes about 6 or 7 steps at a time. She still prefers to crawl on her own, but also loves to walk around while holding on to mom or dad's hands.

Ainsley had her 18 month well baby appointment this week, she is now 24 pounds 9 ounces and 32 inches long. This puts her in the 75% for weight and 50% for length, not bad considering this is for her real age and not her corrected age (15 months vs. 18 months). We are so incredibly proud of her - she has grown so well and fought so hard!

It was a fun doctors appointment, Ainsley was very engaged with the nurse and the her pediatrician, Dr. Hoelter. I am pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but we love Dr. Hoelter! She has been a fantastic doctor for Ainsley and has supported us so much, even visiting her twice while she was still in the NICU. Anyway, at one point Dr. Hoelter said to me, "I hope you know how well she is doing." What a fun thing to hear at a doctors appointment, we have thought that about Ainsley, but it is great confirmation to hear that from her doctor. And, our next appointment isn't until she is two - wow a whole six months between appointments, pretty crazy!

Here are some recent pictures:

Our friends the Chavez's came over for dinner while they were in town for Christmas. It was fun to see Elianna and Ainsley play together. Elianna was kind enough to share her giraffe.