18 Months Old!

Leah is 18 months old! Her 18-month mark was actually on Monday, but I didn’t get a chance to post anything until today.

It’s so funny how different she is from Anna Claire. While Anna Claire was more than a pound heavier at birth, Leah is clearly a much bigger baby. Anna Claire is more petite in features, foot size, head size (she was in the 5th percentile). Leah, on the other hand, is in the 49th percentile for weight, the 85th percentile for height, and a whopping 95th percentile for head size. She had her checkup yesterday and all went well. We had to laugh when the nurse practitioner referred to Leah as “highly spirited.” We would completely agree. We have our hands full. She is in the throes of tantrums, and shows all the signs of being extremely strong-willed. She also has a much more active temper than Anna Claire. But you know what? Honed correctly, and used for good instead of evil, these are great traits that I want my little girl to possess. I want to raise daughters who know right from wrong, aren’t afraid to be vocal about it, and who have a clear sense of themselves. So, Gary and I have some work ahead of us, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Leah now enjoys playing with her baby doll, her Fisher Price Little People, and doing anything her big sister is doing. Leah especially loves to hunt down magic markers that Anna Claire may have left lying around, and colors on anything she can get her hands on. She is also experimenting with our reaction when she turns the TV off, dunks her head in the toilet, and stands on the dining room table. So far it hasn’t been favorable. She can’t stand to wear clothes, so we’ve had to cut the feet off of her sleepers and turn them around backwards so she can’t get them unzipped and take her diaper off.

A big thank you to my cousin Autumn for her encouraging words about tantrums last week. Because Anna Claire never did that, it’s hard not to take it as a personal failure when you have another child who constantly makes her displeasure known. Autumn gave me some great tips for how to deal with them and they’re working well (and I’m a little more relaxed). Autumn and I have children who are similar ages, so it’s been fun to compare notes.

On Saturday night, while Gary was still in Houston, the girls and I went out to dinner with our good friend, D. for some fajitas at Rio Grande. Leah LOVES fajitas. When I asked her if she wanted more, she did the sign language sign for “more”! You have to know how long I’ve been signing to her to really appreciate the magnitude of this. Until Saturday, she had looked at me like “Momma, you can sign ‘til the cows come home, but I am not a trick pony and I’m not going to do sign language.” Seriously, she’s quiet in her defiance but makes it clear that she has no intentions to comply. Anyway, I was very excited and she is now so proud when she makes the sign for “more.” The only problem I’m finding is that she often signs “more” and then gets frustrated when I can’t figure out what she wants “more” of – she does it somewhat randomly.

Leah’s vocabulary also continues to expand – something we were concerned about at her 15 month checkup. She’s just talking a little later than Anna Claire did. Her pronunciation is getting better and sounding less garbled, so it’s evident that she’s hearing better as a result of the tubes we had put in last October. She still says just a few words, but she is showing some improvement.

That’s about it on the Leah front. I can hardly believe she’ll be two in August – where did the time go?