Julia is 17 months old! She is doing and saying new things each day, which has been fun and exciting to watch.
Some things we want to remember about her at this age:
- She loves Chapstick! She knows where to find it and is so pleased when she has one to hold, take the cap on and off, and put on her lips and surrounding mouth area. It is sometimes difficult to trick her into giving it back, so we try to hide them from her. Her word for it is "daddist".
- She has always gone to bed easily at night, but over the past few months it has become something she asks to do, and enjoys telling us "night night!" She often comes to me saying, "night night" and pointing to or walking to the stairs and says "airs" so I'll take her up. If I agree and she knows she's going to bed, she gets giddy and begins blowing kisses and shouting, "night night".
- She is beginning to pretend play. We often see her putting dolls/toys "to bed" (laying them down and covering them up with something) and telling them "night night".
- She still works on her puzzles a lot, and sometimes for fun (or maybe out of boredom) she purposely attempts to put a piece in the wrong way and says, "no", shaking her head no. She then says, "nurn-nit" as she turns it the right way.
- For the first time since she was born, she now sleeps with a blanket at night and she loves having it on her - so much so that I feel bad for depriving her of one all this time (since she has been old enough for one). When we put her to bed, she says "rover" as soon as she hits the mattress because she wants to roll over before we put her blanket on her. She then grabs however many lovie blankets are in her crib and asks for "one more", referring to the big blanket. Then she says, "night night" one last time. So sweet!
- We almost always understand her words, but she has begun to add hand motions when she says certain things to help communicate. For example, when she wants to eat or drink, or brush her teeth, she will point to her mouth after she says the word that she wants us to hear. Or if she wants her face wiped after a meal she says, "vace" and wipes her hand across her face. It helps, since some of her words sound similar.
- She walks around saying, "B - R - B - R" over and over again. They are her favorite letters.
- She has learned to say, "cheese!" when she sees a camera.
- Each day she puts more words together. Some examples include:
"boben door" (open door)
"hi dogs"
"bye dogs"
"daddy here"
"hare here!" (we're here!)
"almose here" (almost here)
"hah chair" (high chair)
"more ___"
"___ p'ease"
"vee-vee ov" (tv off)
"dirty bopper" (dirty diaper)
- Some other cute words: "bee-babbies" (blueberries), "neeze" (sneeze), "diss" (kiss), "babbis-ball" (basketball)
