She is still a huge mama's girl. And I eat it up. She loves to be held and carried and she's so cuddly. She is definitely still very reserved with strangers and doesn't give smiles away to just anyone. But with us, she's so funny and sweet and playful.
Audrey is still a peanut. She was 31" and weighed 20lbs 11oz at 19 1/2 months. That's the approximate 18% for height (yay!!!) and 3% for weight (boo!!) I am thrilled about the height growth. I think she had a growth spurt over the last few weeks and I noticed she was seeming taller. The weight, while still low, is at least a bit of an improvement on the growth curve from the last few months, where I'm not sure she was even at 0.1%, She's inching closer to actually being on the curve again, so I guess that's good? I obviously still have concerns with her small size, but I am giving it one more doctor's appointment, now that the palate repair surgery and all the repercussions from that are well behind us, to see if she can improve. It's frustrating because I don't understand it - she eats pretty well so I just don't understand why she isn't catching up.
She likes reading books (her favorite is Goodnight Gorilla), she loves following her brother around doing whatever he's doing. Like if he were to lift his arms in the air and laugh, you better believe Audrey's doing the exact same thing. She and Barrett have also started fighting. And fighting. And fighting. So frustrating. Each wants the toy the other has. Of course. And they push each other's buttons. Audrey even more so than Barrett. In the last couple months, Barrett, who previously ignored her for the most part, has now started to realize she can be a friend but also a competitor. He wants her to come play with him and she wants to play with him always, but the two go at it. A few months ago she started to slyly sneak up behind him and snatch his toys and run away, laughing. We got a chuckle out of the fact that each loves to sit at the top of the slide, leaving the other waiting behind impatiently and growing increasingly frustrated. Apparently it's more fun to tease the sibling than to actually slide.
She's still our little daredevil. Early on, I started to joke that she would be our rock climber or skydiver and I still see that. She loves to be thrown up in the air. We took her to the beach at my parents' lakehouse and at first she was tentative with the water and sand. An hour later, she was trying to squirm out of my arms and swim to the middle of the lake on her own. Crazy girl! She thinks she can do it all!
Words: mama, Mimi, daddy (ah-ee), Papa (na-na), water (wawa), hi (eye), bye (eye. yes, sounds similar to hi, but we know the context), more (muh), elmo (eh-mo), yes (yeah), no (nuh), please (ease). And her latest? Audrey! (ahh-nee) She is babbling a lot more. Mimi and mama are her all-purpose words. I think she may be trying to say a lot more and we just can't tell what she's saying. We aren't hearing any Bs or Ds, which is disappointing to me. We are continuing to meet with a speech therapist once a week. Even though I don't always understand what she's trying to say verbally, she always makes her point known, through pointing or gestures. She is really starting to have opinions. She will vehemently shake her head no and push away anything she doesn't want or squeal for what she does. She does the signs for more and please pretty consistently, but that's it.
She understands EVERYTHING. It's crazy to me that she understands everything that we ask or tell her. That's reassuring to me, that even though she's not saying a lot, at least she understands everything. She's pretty good at following instructions, although sometimes she'll get the twinkle in her eye and defy.
She's still incredibly sweet and caring. She gives great hugs and kisses and cares about others. When Barrett is in time out, even if it's for hitting her, she'll see he's upset and get his blanket and brings it to him and sometimes sit with him. She takes care of dolls like a tiny mama.
She has so many opinions these days, and lets us know. If I try to set her down when she wants to be carried, she gives me limp legs so I can't set her down. If I try to put her in her high chair when she doesn't want to be in there, she'll give me straight legs so I can't set her down. If I try to hand her to another person, she'll cling to me and whine in protest. At my parents lakehouse, she was quite outraged when we left the beach before she was ready so she tried to push the door shut so I couldn't put her in her seat, leaving a little handprint firmly on the window. Little Miss Opinions!
As fun as this age can be, I'll confirm my statement with Barrett at this age, that this isn't my favorite age. Oh it can be so fun. Their personality is really coming out at this age. They're starting to express themselves, communicate, play, interact, show their likes and dislikes. But it's also really tough because there's so much they WANT to do but they don't have the sense to know the danger. And they struggle with communication and there's no reasoning. Audrey's a lot easier than he was, but it's just a tough age. A struggle and desire for independence, but they're still such babies so it's hard to tame.
But I am seeing so much personality that I just love and I am having so much fun watching the kids play together, seeing the sibling relationship form, and seeing Audrey growing and discovering. Week over week I keep seeing changes, fears diminishing, language development, and learning. It is so much fun to be this little girl's mom!
