18 Months Old!

Family and friends, these precious baby blues have been taking in the world for 18 months now. That's a year and a half. Oh my WOW - it's gone fast.

Oh, Kendall. I know. This is precisely how I feel about you turning 18 months old too...

I can't decide what's more surprising: a) that our little Kendie is already a year-and-a-half old (!!!!!) or b) that I'm actually posting her monthly update within a day of the 7th :) At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we are having so much fun at this stage. The girls (mostly) play well together, we all laugh together... a lot, Kendall is learning new words everyday, and we're really just in a great pattern of life right now. (Including watching Curious George during the photo shoot... ya do what works, peeps!)

Here are some quick stats on Kendall at 18 months...

Number of teeth: 6 total, 3 top, 3 bottom (until a couple weeks ago, it was just 4!)

Shoe size: just upgraded to 6

Diaper size: 4

Clothing size: Mostly 18 month, but some 24 mo/2T things

A big update since our last post is that Kendall is now "sleeping in" - and by sleeping in, I mean she's no longer waking up in the 5 o'clock hour ready for the day and instead snoozes until at least 6:30. Woohoo! This is a major breakthrough after months of early wake-ups. How'd we do it? Started putting her to bed earlier - at 7 pm instead of 7:30. We are also in the process of dropping her morning nap, so the earlier bedtime is helping with that too. A few times a week, she still takes a morning snooze, but for the most part she catches at least an hour of zzz's in the afternoon (which is also an improvement over her 35 minute naps!) We can tell that she's now getting the sleep she needs!

Kendall still gives the best leg hugs and she knows they usually result in lift-up and a real hug. She also says "hi" to people in public, but other times if she's feeling bashful and someone smiles at her, she'll simply look the other way and pretend not to see them. 

Everyone seems to comment on Kendall's big blue eyes. And also her prominent eyebrows - it's an Ellis/Ridnour thing, just ask my Grandma. A couple people have even compared Kendall's to Brooke Shields' eyebrows - something I heard frequently growing up as well.

Kendie is saying new words every day. If we ask her to say a word, she always gives her best effort and it's usually pretty close! She's started to put two words together lately too - most recently "Daddy home?",  "baby eat" (when she's feeding her dolly) and "baby poop" (when dolly needs her diaper changed and Kendall proceeds to grab one of her diapers, unfold it, and set the baby on it :). New words are "help," "yuck," "bowl," "purple," "blue," "bear," "deer," and "George." (One of her favorite books right now is a Curious George book where a bowling ball rolls into the mud - "yuck!" Which is where she learned that word, too!)

Kendall enjoys coloring with markers (and leaving the lids off). And I can always tell which drawings are hers as she loves to move her hand around and around in a circular motion creating lots of little round creations across the bottom of the paper. She also loves play dough, but if any gets stuck under her fingernails or on her clothes - watch out. She is not a fan of that and will squeal "uh-oh" for "hep!"

We have been busy with play dates, ECFE class, Bible Study play group, church class, and playing in the kid's area at the gym. Whenever I ask her what she will do at any of the above activities, she always without-fail replies, "babies! babies!" Which means she'll play with the dollies (but the teachers at the gym have also told me that she helps with the real babies as well!) This little one loves the babies - no doubt about that!

Kendall loves to request "hop" for snack which is code for Annie's brand bunny crackers. She especially likes the cheddar cheese or white cheddar cheese varieties. The one food that I can always get her to eat is scrambled eggs with cheese. That, bunny crackers, and her milk are the only guarantees these days. Some days she'll devour something and the next day won't touch it (pizza, mac and cheese, or turkey, for example). Always keeping us on our toes and forcing creativity with mealtimes :)

Kendall Jean, 18 month old girl. Wow! No matter how much we plead with you to slow down, you just keep on growing ;) You are one of a kind and we're so lucky to be your mom and dad. Your sweet, sometimes skeptical, personality has created more love in our hearts than we thought possible. Thank you for expanding our capacity for love beyond what we ever dreamed of! May we do the same for you, sweet girl.