18 months

At 18 months this once-upon-a-time "itty-bitty" is closing the gap with her peers. Today she had her well child check-up and here are her stats:

weight: 23 lbs. 8 ozs. (35th %))

head circumference: 19" (92nd %)

length: 32 5/8" (75th %)

Here is the kicker folks, since her 15-month check-up she has grown 3 1/8 inches!! She used to be in the 20th percentile for height. When the nurse went to chart Baby Sister's measurements on the growth chart she was impressed that she'd grown so tall and measured her again just to be sure that she'd gotten the right height the first time around.

Aside from all of that progress, she is growing in so many other ways and has a personality the size of Texas with a grin to match! She loves to give 'knuckles' (also known as the 'fist bump') and perplexed our pediatrician when she held her fist out to her. Dr. A looked at me questioningly and I told her that Baby Sister wanted to giver her knuckles. Dr. A thought that was pretty awesome. Baby Sister also has an affinity for wearing the Girl's dresses. Never mind the fact that Baby Sister has a gazillion of her own dresses to wear. She'd still rather wear the Girl's and to her credit, the Girl is more than willing to indulge her sister's whims. Another new fascination is the discovery of her own belly button, or "belly buh" as she says it. She loves to lift up her shirt and run her little fingers over her tummy until she finds the indentation that is her belly button upon which she squeals, "Belly buh!". Beware though, she also likes to lift the shirts of others in her belly-button searching quests. In addition to her belly button, Baby Sister can identify and locate several other body parts - eyes, ears, nose, mouth, head, hair, fingers, toes. Her vocabulary is rapidly expanding and now includes: kitty (which says "Maow!"), dog (which says "Ooof!"), whee! (when she is riding the rocking horse or is on the swings), uh-oh, more, whoa!, oh, dank-du (thank-you), eyes, hi, bye-bye (accompanied by a wave), kay (ok), yeah (in response to almost any question that you ask her). It is clear that she also understands quite a lot of what we say to her. For example, when I say, "Let's go brush your teeth." She responds with an enthusiastic, "Yeah!" and runs toward the kitchen sink. As for her motor skills, she is now adept at climbing up on the furniture and getting down by herself, has mastered the art of backing down the stairs (She lays on her belly and pushes herself down in one continuous motion which looks to me like it would hurt but that's the beauty of the ever-forgiving nature of little kids' bodies.) and is now tall enough to reach the pantry door handle. The other day I scolded the Girl for leaving the pantry door open upon finding Baby Sister scavenging around the bottom shelf. The Girl was adamant that she hadn't opened it and that it was Baby Sister. I didn't believe until a few minutes later when I caught the little culprit in the act. Now we can't keep her out of there!!