February 10, 2017

thea - eighteen months

Hold me.  We're getting closer to two faster than I can handle!  I tried to convince Elsie she wasn't allowed to turn four, but she went and did it anyway.  Maybe I can keep Thea from having any more birthdays.  Someone has to stay little for me!

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Proud of myself, I actually have Thea's measurements.  At her well check she weighed 25 pounds 3 ounces (82nd percentile) and was 32 inches tall (56th percentile).  I felt like her length would have been higher up in the percentiles, she seems tall and I also don't see her as a chubby girl at all.  But whatever.  I think her head was somewhere around the 50th percentile too.  She is wearing 18-24 month as well as some 2T clothing.  Mostly size five shoes, a few sixes in there.  And size five diapers.

Her upper canines are pretty much all the way in, and the bottom gums have started swelling.  Thea has also been shoving her hands way back in her mouth, I don't know if that means the two year molars are moving around at all, or she is just doing it for the heck of it.  But between teething and never ending nasty colds, I feel like the poor girl has been a hot mess for a while.  The bottom of her nose is either cracked and bleeding, covered in boogers, or covered in aquaphor to try and keep it from cracking and bleeding.  I also slipped and used some regular baby wash on her (Shea Organic) thinking since she was older maybe her skin could handle it.  Yeah nope.  She has little eczema spots all over her back and arms. They aren't too bad, but it is clearly from the soap.

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Piggy wants more marshmallows.  Lol.

Thea is still the sleep champ in our house.  Not because she sleeps a ton or anything, but she definitely sleeps the most.  And is the easiest to put to bed by a long shot.  She goes to bed between 7:30-8pm, and wakes up anywhere between 5:30-7:30am.  And you really can never predict what you're going to get.  If she had a really short nap then you can maybe guess she'll sleep in the next morning, but not always.  Nap time is between 12:30-1pm, depending on what were doing and when she got up for the day.  She usually sleeps 2-3 hours.  We've added a second baby to the needed crib items.  Going to try and keep the collection from growing for a little bit.  It isn't like they are tiny dolls, not the easiest to drag that crap places!  But watching her snuggle up with the baby dolls still makes me smile.

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finally getting some hair!

Lately Thea will repeat almost anything we say.  Some words sound perfectly clear, some words I don't have the slightest clue what she is trying to say.  But for the most part I can figure out what she talking about.  She has been adding more and more phrases.  If I say something like, "Who likes cheese?" she'll respond with "I do!"  It's pretty cute.  She has also learned her name, and occasionally talks in the third person.  Such as "Ee-uh tolor (color)" or "Ee-uh dan (dance)."  The blanket we got her for Christmas has 'Thea Lorraine' embroidered on it, and hearing her try to say the whole thing is adorable.  It comes out something like "Ee-uh oh-waine."  I love it.  Also over the last month she has been very into giving ownership to items.  Distinguishing between people's drinks and plates and clothes and such.  We've picked up that she refers to Elsie as "El-ee", but Ryann as sissy.  Even though she can say Ryann pretty clearly.  I thought that was interesting.

A lot of times I still breeze over stuff, or have a conversation as if Thea isn't listening.  But she usually is and she is pretty dang smart.  She is figuring things out left and right, learning how stuff around the house works, following my conversations and engaging when I didn't think she'd understand.  It is so amazing to watch little brains work and learn.  Thea now can name lots of her body parts and can rattle off dozens of animal sounds.  She regularly crawls around the house pretending to be a dog or a cat.  Thank you very much, sisters, for that one.

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Yes, not only is Thea parroting words and phrases, but she is copying her sisters' every move.  One morning I was pouring bowls of cereal for both Ryann and Elsie.  I gave Thea a bowl too.  Then I added milk to the big girls' bowls.  Thea began saying "Ee-uh mil! Ee-uh mil!"  I ignored her for a bit, knowing that if I put milk in her bowl I'd probably be cleaning milk and cereal off the floor in a matter of minutes.  But she looked pretty pitiful, and you know, the third child gets away with everything, so I caved.  I barley put any in there, but to my surprise she managed to eat the whole bowl without spilling and then asked for more.  I guess shame on me for not wanting to give her the opportunity?  Oy.  I'm just tired of constantly cleaning milk off the floor.  The 360 sippy cups are great until they slam into our hardwood floor and explode everywhere.  Does anyone else have that problem?

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Thea has more or less mastered shape sorters and understands puzzles.  She loves to put on a tutu and then requests to dance, while putting her hands on her bum and bouncing up and down.  Actually she also feels the need to dance if I put her in a dress in the morning.  Fisher Price Little People still keep her pretty well entertained.  She loves to go in the bounce house, but only lasts a little bit before she bolts back out of the basement.  And she love love LOVES to be outside.  We've had a few warm days sprinkled in here and there and she gets so excited to play in the yard.  She really enjoys going down the slide but it is kind of terrifying.  I have to watch her on the ladder to make sure she doesn't fall off, then run to the other side and catch her because our slide is so dang fast.  For the most part she waits for me, but sometimes I'm cutting it close on getting to the end before her!

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And baby dolls.  Man she still loves her baby dolls.  She is so sweet with them most of the time.  The other day I caught her 'reading' to her baby, and having her feel the different sensory spots throughout the book.  It was adorable.  On that note, Thea is enjoying being read to more and more.  I think her favorite books are Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Little Thea.  The latter I got as a Christmas gift for her last year.  It is a personalized book from i See Me and I highly recommend them.  The book is wonderful quality and I'd attribute half of Thea learning her name from reading that book.  She likes to point to her name on each page when I'm reading.  For Valentine's day I picked up Love is a Tutu, and Thea pointed to the word tutu and said "Ee-uh!" I guess she recognized the similar length and the T.  Or something like that, but I thought it was cool.

She still geeks out over Frozen characters.  Still a crazy climber and constantly scaring the crap out of me.  Loves to wear her June + Penny bracelets.  Still hates getting her diaper changed or being offered new foods.  Is still definitely a mama's girl, though she is becoming more and more receptive to other people.  Not necessarily willingly going to other people, but not freaking out when everyone looks at her.  Except for our friend Chris.  She avoids eye contact with him most of the time, haha.

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Speaking of being with other people, I left Thea in the church nursery for the first time this month.  The first week I was paged 15 minutes into the service because they couldn't get her calmed down. As soon as I opened the door I could hear her screaming down the hall. Poor girl.  When I got back to my seat she grabbed onto me, held on to Chris's hand, and promptly passed out.  Those 15 minutes wore her the heck out.  I expected the second week to go much the same, but to my surprise she lasted the whole service.  When I picked her up one of the girls was holding her.  They said she cried on and off, but overall did ok.  It'll be two weeks before we can get back to church again, hopefully she still does well.

Really I think 18 months might be one of my favorite ages.  Of course there are things I enjoy about every age, but Thea just makes me smile so much.  I enjoy just sitting and watching her play and explore, and absolutely love all the affection she shows me.

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Stay sweet baby girl, I love you!

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