The Crow's Nest: 18 Months....

Where did my baby go???? Brooklynn is 18 months old!!! She is half way to 2 years old. How is that even possible?? She is growing up way too fast.

I have realized in the last couple of weeks as I have been going through both old and new pictures that she has officially lost her baby look :( Where was I when all this happened??? She now looks like a little kid running around - its crazy.

Its also funny b/c a few months back when she was about 15 months old, I was touring several preschools/Mother's Day Out Programs in our area and was worried that she was way too young for these things. Of course I realized that she wouldn't be starting until the fall and she would be the same age as these kids by that point, but it scared me b/c these kids I saw in the classrooms were like little people - they weren't babies!! At 15 months - there seemed like a world of difference to me when looking at Brooklynn compared to these kids who were 3-6 months older than her. How could she possibly change THAT much in just 3 short months? I didn't think it was possible - but how wrong I was!! She is now THAT kid that I saw in the classroom - she is one of those little people and she's 18 months! These last 3 months have probably seen some of the biggest changes in her to this point. She is so full of life and character and is just so much fun. She is always making us laugh and I swear she just gets cuter and sweeter every day - There are still days after all this time I still catch myself thinking, "Wow I have a kid.... I am a mom"...and I still find myself in awe of her and wondering how I ended up with such a great kid.....she can make your heart melt a million times a day.

Anyway...just thought I would share some of what Brooklynn is up to these days....I've seen other people do this and I thought it was a fun way to keep track of what's going on in their lives at this point....(make sure you click on the green italic words for links to different videos of Brooklynn)

At 18 Months, Brooklynn:

is much bigger than your average 18 month old and wears mostly size 2T & 3T clothing with some 4T clothing in there as well (she has her 18month appt next week so I will have her #'s then)
talks in her very own language non-stop (we're still working hard on our ENGLISH vocab but for now she is saying mama, dada, gramma, car, fan, that and vrrrooommm when asked what a car sounds like...and I'm sure there's tons more, that we just don't realize.
loves to read books - her favorite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? She can point to any animal you ask her on the last page of the book.
can point to 13-14 different body parts when asked
loves watching airplanes, school buses, cars and trains go by
loves anything to do with water (bathtime, pool, sprinkler, water hose, dog bowl, etc.)
sits at the table with us to eat in her 'big girl' chair
loves to be outside as much as possible and her...
favorite thing to do outside is draw with sidewalk chalk on our driveway
still loves to play with Rocky and torment poor Daisy....
is extremely ticklish on her feet, under her arms and under her chin and will go into giggling fits if you start tickling her in any of those spots...
is down to 1 nap per day
can throw a pretty impressive temper tantrum when things don't go her way
knows what 'Time Out' means and where she has to go for it
loves to climb on anything and everything (both on things that are meant for her and not meant for her)
and our absolute favorite thing - all the kisses, hugs and snuggles she loves to give us

So that pretty much sums up where we are now at 18 months...such a fun age with so many new things being learned on daily basis. We are loving every minute of her and she just continues to amaze us. I can't wait for all my family and friends up in Toronto to see her now and how much she has changed since last summer...its unbelievable. We'll see y'all in July :)

But for now, here are some recent pics of our 'little person' ... Enjoy! :)

Eating like a big girl.....we have since bought her
one of those booster chairs for the seat...she loves
it - much safer than the Bumbo chair stacked
on top of phone books....lol

we did get her a bigger pool - this one was from
last summer when she was barely sitting up...
poor girl felt like she was getting ripped off
from her pool fun that day...