{lion: jellycat via Nordstrom // heart tee: Zulily // jeans: babyGap // bow: Hadley Girl (Liberty of London Eloise print) via Brickyard Buffalo}
{month eighteen} Despite her face being a bit out of focus, I can Eloise to smile at the camera by saying “cheese!” So this is her best “cheese” face. Oh toddlers, such a fun time!
Every month I say this, but EIGHTEEN MONTHS?! How did that happen? It is so bittersweet. I love this age; Eloise is so fun & interactive, but where did my tiny, immobile baby go? The toddler antics are at an all time high around here & Eloise is keeping me on my toes!
The biggest thing we’ve noticed in this past month is how much Eloise is talking. She has always been good a signing, but she is really starting to communicate about what she wants or sees & is learning so quickly! I am with her all day, every day, & there are still times that she says or does something & I am like “where did she learn that?” The list of her current words is growing at an alarming rate, but here are some of her words: bye bye, Papa, Mama, Sadie (mostly just the S sound), Leo ( her lion who is most often called Leo Leo), bath, poop (um, thanks Aaron!), dog (mostly the G sound), woof woof (the F sound), Eloise (it changes each time but mostly focused on the L sound & she pats her chest), Grammie (which is Mimi, for now), book, bag, up, down, night night. And the list goes on! Eloise has also learned to nod and shake her head (and say No, of course), though she sometimes doesn’t know which one to do.
Food-wise, we are definitely seeing some toddler pickiness that is humbling, to say the least, especially since Eloise has always been such a good eater! She is still trying almost everything we offer, but refuses a lot more food these days. Surprisingly, she is going on a fruit strike! A lot of her daily staples are being shunned: oranges, blueberries, kiwi, mango, blackberries. Eloise has learned about food being hot, and that Mama blows on it to cool it off. So naturally Eloise has learned to blow on her food before she takes a bit. Hilarious! Especially since she doesn’t realize not all food needs to be blown on before eating, like apples (that are kept in the refrigerator). I am offering Eloise a fork and/or a spoon at every meal, and she is really improving on her skills; it is frustrating at times & so, so messy, but she has to learn, right? I am also trying to work with her on drinking out of a cup though I need to be better about introducing it consistently so it isn’t such a novelty. I am dreaming about the day I can give her a regular glass cup to drink water out of & not have to worry about her spilling it or dumping it all over. Eloise is really, really good about eating off of a real ceramic plate, whether it is on her highchair tray or on the table.
I try my best to make sure Eloise has access to a water glass at any time of the day, so we often have at least one water cup out in the living room for her. And, being the detail-oriented gal that she is, she has learned to use a coaster. Talk about monkey-see, monkey-do! And if she sees a cup that isn’t on a coaster, she will find a coaster for that cup. I adore this kid! Eloise also likes things to be closed, so any open door or drawer will be dealt with accordingly!
In the past few weeks, Eloise has been all about music. She loves it! We almost always have music on when we are in the car, but until recently, we haven’t played it much at home. Eloise would like that to change, however, so in the afternoons we play music. She will let you know she wants to hear music by putting her fists up in the air and waving her arms. We call it party party and it is so cute. And once she hears music (of any kind, including a ringing phone) she will dance. She twirls and side-steps and bounces up & down.
We finally got Eloise on board with the high-five. It is great, especially as an alternative to a hug if we are saying good-bye. Eloise has recently started to hug her friends, but usually saves them for Mama & Papa. Eloise also learned, from a friend, about knuckles (or fist bump) and she is obsessed! If you say knuckles, she will fist bump and want to do it over and over again!
Another thing that Eloise wants to do all the time is to color. When my mom was watching Eloise a few weeks ago, they did a lot of coloring, and now she wants to do it all the time. We are mostly thru the putting-the-crayon-in-the mouth phase which is pleasant. She seems to like coloring on pages that already have color or drawing on them, so I join in on the fun and color with her too!
Eloise’s single biggest obsession of the moment is a bath. If she hears the word bath, she will shout “bath” and head downstairs (well, to the gate at the top of the stairs) regardless of the time of day. And after dinner, she will almost always declare it is bathtime and start heading downstairs even though we don’t do baths every night (though she totally would if we did!). She loves to splash in the water and pour cups of water everywhere, including outside of the bath which we are working on nipping in the bud! After diaper changes, I always head to her bathroom to dispose of the diaper and to wash my hands, and she always goes over to the tub, stands on her tippy toes, looks in at her bath toys and says “bath!”
And the other bedtime activity Eloise loves is brushing her teeth. We have been brushing them each night for quite some time, but Eloise is so independent about it now. After getting into her jammies, she will head into the bathroom, push her stool over to the sink, climb up on the stool, grab her toothbrush and toothpaste (we use this one from Honest Company), and turn on the water. We still help her squeeze the toothpaste onto the brush, especially since she is just to have a tiny amount, and actually brush. She does brush some, but we help make sure she got all of her teeth!
Leo the Lion, who has been Eloise’s monthly picture partner from the beginning!, has become one of her very favorite toys. Despite him being totally squished in the picture above, he is often found being loved and cuddled, and carried around everywhere. Eloise requests him frequently (saying Leo Leo) and likes him to sleep with her. It is the cutest. When I bought that lion before she was born, I knew he would play a role in the monthly pictures (mostly to have something of consistent size to show E’s growth) but I didn’t know if he would become a favorite!
And finally, the gate that is in our upstairs hallway that keeps Eloise out of the entryway and stairs is back up. Even though we had it down for a few weeks and nothing terrible happened, Eloise spent a lot of time digging thru everything in our entryway, and also started a lot of unaccompanied trips down the stairs. We know that she can safely go up and down the stairs by herself but aren’t totally comfortable with the idea that she is going by herself! So, for now, the gate is back up.
{weight} 26.5 pounds as of last weekend!
{hair} dark (reddish) brown.
{teeth} 12 teeth plus four molars.
{eyes} dark brown.
{clothes} 18 month (growing out of), 18 to 24 months, and 2T. I am only buying 2T at this point since I don’t want to have her wear something just one time before she is out of it!
{diapers} full-time cloth {bum genius freetime, pocket, & elemental} & honest company size 4 diapers at night with a bum genius diaper cover.
{feeding} during the day, three meals, an occasional morning snack, & one afternoon snack. sippy cup of milk with every meal.
{likes} books, mama & papa’s cell phone, toys that squeak or rattle, singing & music, dancing, Sadie, standing, FaceTime, bathtime, her snack cup, shoes, mama’s (diaper) bag, clapping, putting things inside a bag or box, taking lids off of things, talking (Mama, Papa, quack quack), coloring, helping with anything & everything, when Papa comes home from work.
{dislikes} having something taken away from her, diaper changes, not eating when someone else is, being hungry.
{nicknames} Bug{s}, Love Bug, Baby Bug, E, Wheezy, Kiddo, Love, Bugaboo, Ellie or Elle.
Happy seventeen months Eloise!
M
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