Brynn Tracker: 18 Months

Oh. Muh. Gah.  Why am I so awful at being timely?  I'm sorry.  Please forgive me.  Let's still be friends, internet.  Please?  Truth be told- I fell off the wagon (as you'll notice I do often on these Tracker posts) because I couldn't get my act together to do a proper photoshoot.  So.  Lest we further delay my life's documentation, I'm going to write this post and attach the hasty photos I took on May 18th in an effort to get one for Instagram.  It's by no means my finest work nor the greatest representation of how FREAKING CUTE my kid is.  If I happen to get some photos later, I'll add them.  If not, well, who will be surprised?  No one.

The Big Cheese.

The Story
On May 18th my Boo Boo Kachoo (I totally exclaim this when I walk in the door to pick her up each day at school- second grade Brynnie might not be as thrilled by it as toddler class Brynnie) hit 18 months.  So I guess this was kind of a Golden Birthday, Round 1?  I pray her real Golden Birthday is every bit as family-filled and classy as this one.  (Haaaaa.)

Brynn still adores books, chugging milk, dogs, her sister, her Mama and going to sleep on her self-imposed time schedule.  I'm not sure if I've fully elaborated on it before, but she also LOVES laughing and smiling.  Perhaps Buddy the Elf is her real father?  I'm not sure, but my Mom or Dad pointed out the other day after she capped off a short-lived fit with a huge toothy grin, "she really can't go long without smiling."  I realized how accurate that is and how utterly blessed we all are for it.  Her sister, Daddy & I have all been known to get a little cranky sometimes and Brynn completely dissipates it in seconds.

What makes her laugh?  Playing chase.  Funny faces.  Lola.  Tickles.  A lot of stuff, but nothing makes her laugh as hard as stunts with her Daddy.  She like a maniac when Daddy tosses her in the air, tosses her on the bed, lets her ride around on his shoulders- basically, all the things that cause Mama to question whether she needs blood pressure meds.  She also LOVES being upside down.  I am sure I will rue the day that she meets her first roller coaster.  She will probably put personal roller coaster on her Christmas List soon thereafter.

She is also VERY into shoes.  She always wants her shoes ("doos") on.  She also wants YOUR doos on.  If you leave them out where she can see them... or even get to them... she will bring them to you and demand they go back on your feet.  I have to be very careful about which of her shoes she can see and/or reach.  Otherwise when I ask her to bring me her shoes in the morning, she'll return with some red, sparkly mary janes that are 2 sizes too small.  That's not a fun battle- speaking from experience.

Couldn't you just eat the ponytail up?!  I'll miss the antenna when her hair starts to lay flat.

Brynn still has a temper.  It's still a little funny because its such a stark contrast to her general personality and attitude.  It remains short-lived and always ends well.  As you'll note in the school section below- her new teachers have also noticed it.  Lately when something makes her angry, she will throw herself on the ground kicking.  Or she'll randomly hit the air.  We, of course, still work on hitting when/if it actually extends to one of us or Emery, and as she gets older and understands more we will work on emotional control.

Physically, she's more advanced than I recall Emery being at this age (sorry Em- you probably got some Mama genes there).  Brynn can "hop".  She doesn't fall much at all.  Her running is looking more and more controlled.  She climbs things with no problem.  On the flip side, she's not as good at fine motor skills as I think Em was (sorry Brynn - Daddy genes there) at this age.  Brynn still has a ways to go when it comes to using a fork or spoon.  She gives up and uses her hand when we aren't watching nearly every time.

In this 3 month time span she came a very long way in terms of speech.  She has added agua (used for ANY beverage- milk, water, my coffee), Nonnie, Pawpaw, da-dawg, kitty, go, hi, ba ba (bye bye),  my (mine!), ow-side, bah (ball), wee-bra (zebra), happo (hippo), cuppy (cupcake, muffin), cookie (can't phonetically write this one), seesee (sissy), Em-a-nee (Emery) and I'm sure a million I'm forgetting.  Her FAVORITE is "no."  That's her answer to most things.  Ohhhh, how I wish I could bottle up how she says it and save it for rainy days down the road.  It's so adamant and so precious.  She can also say yes, but you have to twist her arm.  She signs "please" and I swear I've heard her say it a few times.

She "talks" so much more than her vocabulary allows.  She will just babble away.  She looks you square in the face.  She uses inflection.  She uses facial expressions and pointing.  If anyone were to watch it as a silent film, they would swear she was the ultimate conversationalist.  The only problem is- when she gets going like that, we have zero idea what she is talking about.  I wholeheartedly believe she does, because she will repeat sounds.

Comprehension-wise, she understands so much more than she can communicate.  She can follow most directions you give her.  She can make quite a few animal sounds (snake, cat, dog, mouse, bird, cow, sheep, duck and her go-to: lion).  Basically she's just awesome.  I adore this age and getting a front row seat to watching her learn and see the world.

Ghost of Olan Mills?  Are you there?

The School Stuff
In this time frame (late April), a spot opened up in the class above her and Brynn moved up to the toddler class.  She was heartbroken at first as she was pretty attached to her Infant B teachers.  Thankfully her closest friend at school, John, moved at the same time which lessened the blow.  We definitely noticed a change immediately.  All the fun standard "toddler" things started happening overnight.  Everything became "mine!"  The answer to everything was "nuh!"  Toy hoarding got added to the resume.  Living the dream!

Generally when I get to talk to her teachers they mention how good-natured she is.  One evening when I got to school she was sitting in her teacher's lap with her thumb in her mouth and her teacher made a comment to the effect of how she's either all over the place... or very settled.  That's my Brynn- 2 speeds.  A few evenings later a different teacher mentioned how when she gets mad, she hits the air.  I know these are such small, meaningless details to everyone else - but as a Mom it's so comforting to know that my baby is comfortable enough at school to act just like she does at home.

The Stats

• Height: 33.5" (92nd percentile)
• Weight: 25 lbs 6 oz (81st percentile)
• Head: 18.75" (83rd percentile)
• Diaper Size: 4
• Clothes: 18-24 months & random smaller 2T items Mama could find in our apartment clothes stash
• Feeding: She eats 3 meals and drinks milk like it's her job.  Milk, you need a spokestoddler?  Call me.  She's picky.  Still loves meat and pasta.  She's "eh" on nearly everything else food group wise.
• Sleeping:  She's still a great sleeper.  We got so lucky.  She goes down around 7:30ish each evening and wakes up happy every morning.  Naps are getting more and more challenging.  She's getting old enough now to have a tinge of FOMO.  We still usually get in 2 naps during the weekend though.  The first is from 9:30ish - 11:15ish.  The second varies greatly but we try for 3:00ish - 4:00ish.
• Favorite Songs/Games:  Chase.  I don't know if this will ever change.  Oh, I don't think I mentioned above, but Brynn has gotten very into babies.  So avoid fights, we got her a baby so she wasn't always stealing Bella from Emery.  Emery has named her Twinkle although Brynn still refers to her as "Bebe."  Brynn is pretty attached to Bebe and, of course, her blanket.
• Other Notables:  You know how Brynn used to only suck her thumb when she was tired?  Not anymore.  She is sucking it increasingly more often.  AND she gets pretty feisty/annoyed when we try to take it out.  Le sigh. Her pediatrician tells me not to worry and that she'll eventually grow out of it.  I hope so because I don't want her to get teased!

Me?  You think they'll tease ME, Mom?  No way.  I'll just bring them their doos.