Abby is 18 months!

Abby is 18 months! Here's what she's up to!
Height: 32.5 inches (grew 1 inch in 3 months) = 75%

Weight: 24.8 lbs. (gained 1 lb in 3 months) = 75%

Head: 48.5 cm (up 0.5 cm in 3 months) = 90%

Diaper: Still in 4's and still using night diapers
Eating: We've got a picky eater on our hands. She LOVES peanut butter crackers, PBJs, bananas, squeezies, & yogurt. We always have her try whatever we're eating, but she's very stubborn. She still takes a bottle at night. She's basically stopped humming while she's eating.

Clothing: 18-24 months and some 2T
Sleeping: Still sleeps 12 hours at night and takes 1 nap (1.5-2 hours). She doesn't wake up easily. She likes to linger in her crib for a bit. She is always the last one awake in the morning, but then the first one awake from naps.

Talking:

People: Mama, Dada, Bubba, Lola, Abby ("Ahd"), Grant (but just sounds like "Dah"), Papa, Rose
Food: Apple, Cookie, Nana (banana), Mmm (Milk - while squeezing hands feverishly signing and reaching up at the cabinet),
Animals: Duck (and quack), Cat (and meow), Bird (and tweet), Frog (and ribbit), Dog (and panting noise); Noises for Cow, Lion, Dinosaur, Monkey, Horse, Camel, Alligator, and cute face/lip noises for Fish
Things: Mmmm (more), Ball, Book ("Buh")
Other: Up and down. She can say "no" now, but it's still cute. I give it another 2 weeks.

About 6 weeks ago, she put two words together. "Bye bye, Dada."
Songs: Twinkle, twinkle (she can carry the tune and opens and closes her hands); If You're Happy and You Know It (she puts her fingers on her cheeks, claps, says hooray, but her favorite is stomping her feet);

Body Parts: She can point to ears, hair, head, toes, eyes, belly, hands, teeth, knees

Teeth: I lost count. You can see some gums in there, but it's mostly teeth.
Milestones: She's still biting Grant, but it's less and less, and he's getting better about running away. Putting words together too. Like "Hi mama" and "bye bye doctor".

Guaranteed Smiles: When you get on to her and she defies you - If she's standing on the couch and you tell her "Sit on your bottom, Abby" she'll either sit down or continue to stand and give you her toddler defiant smile.
Guaranteed Crying: Telling her "no" when she asks for milk (she wants a bottle) in the middle of the day; Brother taking away her toy; Brother getting food or something she wants; Walking away from something she wants when you're holding her.
It's interesting to reflect on the differences in Grant and Abby. Grant would completely tear up any book that wasn't a board book at this age. But the only books that Abby damages are pop-ups. She is gentler with the books. Plus they are her favorite toy right now. Grant would fall over and not make a peep. Abby cries and needs to be held any time she falls, even on the carpet. Grant took out his frustration at this age by hitting - Abby is still biting (mostly just Grant). Abby will SOMETIMES hit, but it's pretty rare. Now that this is in black and white, I'm sure she'll start hitting more just to prove me wrong.

And here are Grant's stats from his 18 month post.

Twinkle, Twinkle

He was getting distracted, so I struggled to keep him focused. But this is Grant singing Twinkle, Twinkle:

Grant's baby - and singing

There is one specific baby doll at Julie's that Grant just LOVES! It is his baby. Exhibit A:
Changing her diaper

Exhibit B:
Feeding her lunch

He loves to push the doll around in the stroller too... and generally likes pushing around the stroller even if it's empty or full of cars.

Singing

I don't think it's a secret that we're a singing household. We work everyone's name into songs and bust out singing with little provocation. But Derek has made it clear that my new little ditty has to go. I just sing/spell Abby's name to the Alphabet Song (btw - Derek is STILL unsure whether this is REALLY the same tune as Twinkle, Twinkle. So clearly our singing skills are questionable). But try her name and see - A-B-I-G-A-I-L H-I-C-K-S-M-N-O-P.... The AB, HI and K all line up to the real song!! Derek says I can't sing it tho because Grant won't learn his alphabet. :(

Derek on the other hand is teaching Grant new songs. Lately it's been Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." He yells sings "MAMA!!! Oo-oooooo-oo!" Grant has started joining in. Sometimes Grant changes MAMA to DADA or BABY. Grant will also try to sing "Skatman" with Derek - basically just repeating a lot of "B" sounds. So cute. I've gotten a few decent clips on HeyTell (to Derek and Susie), but I'll have to try to catch some video of it soon to share on here!

Talking

This weekend Grant started saying "Baby Abby". In the past it's been "Baby Ah-Bah", so he's getting better!! It's still hit or miss, but I'm sure in short order, I will miss hearing him say "Baby Ah-Bah"!