Eighteen months!

It seems change and travel have grown up our girl a lot this month. She is so chatty, curious, and independent.

At one and a half, here's a bit about Charlotte Adeline. 

She weighs 23 pounds and is 33.5 inches tall. Those stats put her in the 57th percentile for weight and the 93rd for height. She wears mostly 24 month or 2T clothing. Her shoes are a size five. 

Charlotte loves: playing in water, dumping water all over herself at the dinner table, books, animals, taking a bath, riding in the stroller, being outside, using the iPad, stuffed animal friends, her "new" toys that have been packed away for the last month, playgrounds (especially slides and swings), watching other kids play, looking out the window, balls, balloons, her baby (in momma's belly).

Charlotte does NOT like: sitting in her car seat, going to bed without reading at least four (and preferably many more!) books, and receiving help when she wants to do something herself. 

Charlotte is good at: waving to people, climbing, going down slides, cleaning up her spilled water, putting things away and taking them out, recovering from minor injuries (she makes a face that shows she is in pain, then kind of grunts, then usually moves on). 

Words: same as last month, but also: yaya (slide), yogurt, hummus, helmet, airplane, mommy (and still momma, used kind of interchangeably), daddy, bee-ba (blueberries), Cutie, hola (said while holding a cell phone- or remote control- to her ear and pretending to call someone), Bitta Bitta (book), turtle, rhino, moon, boat. [Wow-- that's a LOT of new words this month!!]

Favorite foods: fruit (especially berries), hummus, chicken sausage, yogurt, cucumbers, ranch dressing, hamburger pieces (with ketchup, of course!), pasta, and scrambled eggs (praise the Lord that she is eating eggs again!!). 

Big things this month: our cross country move, of course. But also-- transitioning to one nap... While we were driving, Charlotte consistently took a short nap in the morning and in the afternoon. Once we arrived, though, we realized that she definitely was ready to just take one nap. There were a few crazy days where we were all overtired and confused about the schedule, but I think we have a pretty good rhythm now. Charlotte gets up between 6:30 and 7 am. She naps around 12:30 can sleep until about 3pm. If the nap goes well, we will do bedtime between 7 and 7:30pm. Sometimes she plays in her crib for a while before falling asleep, but she isn't crying so I don't mind :)

Parenting challenges: how we discipline this beautiful child in a way that shows her love, yet teaches her to be respectful, kind, patient, and gentle?! This is a constant challenge; one at which we regularly fail and occasionally succeed (we think!). 


Charlotte girl-- we are so proud of you. We love you! You make us laugh and cry and shake our heads in bewilderment. We pray that you will grow in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Happy half birthday, sweet love!