1 and a Half

Evie is officially One and a Half! I say officially because her Daddy has been saying, "She's about one and half" for a while now. I, however, hold out until the 18th of every month and particularly when I'm thinking it's nearly time to abandon the monthly age all together. This makes me sad. But then I look at that picture up there and can't help but smile too. Parenthood is such a roller coaster of emotions.

Evie saw the doctor on her birthday and was weighing in at 27 lbs fully dressed and diapered and 32 1/2 inches tall. That puts her around the 75th and 80th percentiles respectively. She received her polio and chicken pox vaccines plus 1/2 of her flu shot. She'll go back next month for the other half of her flu shot and her last DTaP vaccine.  The doctor and I didn't get to chat much given that Evie recognized him instantly (even in the hallway and he wasn't in scrubs this time!) and screamed in terror every time he entered the room.  But he did say that her memory must be excellent and that her lungs worked extraordinarily well.  On a positive note, the doctor was uninjured during this visit...unlike the previous shot taking adventure where Evie kicked him in a very sensitive spot.

Unfortunately I think the waiting room chairs got the better of my little monkey. We were the only ones in the waiting room and she enjoyed climbing on all the chairs and testing them out while we waited for our appointment.  She is working on one final tooth before we should get a reprieve until those nasty 2 year molars come in. So naturally plastic chairs that previously held sick people + hands + mouth = baby with a cold.  Her nose started running on Sunday and I think may get worse before it gets better. And just before Thanksgiving too. Bummer.

I did manage to ask the doctor about her lack of speech and he reaffirmed my belief that this is nothing to be concerned about since she has such an extensive sign language vocabulary that she actively uses and learns quickly. She has figured out and is trying to say several words, "Flower", "Diaper", "Up" are among them but they're still unintelligible to us if she's using them unprompted. However, her signing is growing almost daily. I keep having to look up new signs to teach her since she very much wants to learn.  In the past month she has mastered and uses without prompting: Pickle, Apple (which she now uses for Apple Juice too), Cheese, Grapes, Trick or Treat (which she uses when she wants a piece of left over Halloween Candy- just one per day if she's really good), Please, Thank you, Baby, Car, Puppy, Bird, Monkey, Lion, Giraffe, Elephant, Penguin, Bear and Rhinoceros.  She really enjoys looking at books that picture these animals. She points at them and then does the sign.  She has also started using her books to communicate. For example, if we are reading her alphabet book and we get to "J is for Juice" she'll point to the picture of the juice cup then make the sign for apple and point to the kitchen.  The most revolutionary communication has been nodding. I can't remember if I wrote about this last month or not and I really can't remember when she started doing it but it has been life changing. She can now tell me a very clear yes or no. You can phrase a lot of things as yes or no questions so we can almost have a conversation now.

I attempted to teach Evie the sign for "Trick or Treat" with a Pavlovian method. It was messy.

While her spoken vocabulary may lag slightly behind others of her age, her motor skills and problem solving skills do not. The kid can jump. And I'm talking full on both feet off the ground at the same time not holding on to anything jumping. Bed, floor, grass, concrete- doesn't matter. She can jump on it. And she LOVES it. We need to get the kid a trampoline.  And problem solving... I was thinking that wouldn't come for a while yet, but no. She knows that she needs to move one object to get to another in her toy box. She knows she needs to move a chair to stand up on it to reach the counter. Bad news for Mommy and Daddy.

Did I tell you she can play the piano? Well, not really, yet but it's coming along much faster than I anticipated. I've been teaching her "Twinkle Twinkle," and she's nearly got it. She knows to just hit one key at a time and that if she hits one, say in the region of Middle C, then she needs to hit it again and then move a certain number of keys to the region somewhere around G. She's come astonishingly close to getting it dead on a few times. Her Daddy was very impressed when he came home from work and found her playing.

The past month has been sugar filled! First there was Evie's first Halloween Party.

We held it in the back yard and invited all her little friends to play on the swingset, color, pin the broom on the witch, read spooky stories and play dress up. I think the kids had fun and not one melt down. WIN!  Many thanks to all my fellow Mommies and Daddies who pitched in to help put it together and pull it off on short notice.

Then, of course, there was Halloween itself. A local portrait studio was offering a free Halloween session so we took her over in costume for some photos... that reminds me, I still haven't ordered prints. Must get on that.

  

FX Studio ROCKS. What a great treat!

Evie wasn't big on Trick or Treating but sure likes the results.

One Saturday she helped her friend Cooper celebrate his first birthday. 

Then the next day she celebrated Quorynn's 3rd birthday!

She got her bangs trimmed and discovered the joys of sugar free chocolate pudding.

And she had a wrestling match with Pooh Bear.

I'm not really sure how that fits in but I like the photo.

It's been too cold in the mornings for the park. Alas. But we have managed to get together with her little friends and their Mommies about 3 times a week at Toddler Time and Story Time at the Library. I think the social interaction is very good for her. Too bad we won't be going tomorrow due to that yucky runny nose.

The holidays are coming and time will move even faster I think.  I wish it could just slow down a little bit. Sometimes in the evenings when I'm rocking Evie to sleep (something she lets me do less and less these days) I feel like she's my little snuggly baby again, for just a moment. There's that roller coaster thing again.