21 months

I've said it before, but at 21 months, I still have to remind myself that Abby isn't 2 yet. She seems so very much a toddler now, that I forget that she's still only 1. She's growing faster than ever and is constantly amazing us. I'll try to record some of what she's like here at 21 months old.

Physically:

- I haven't measured Abby's height or weight in a while, but if I had to guess, I'd say she's probably about 26 lbs and around 33inches. I could be way off on that, but it's a guess.

- She wears mostly size 18 month clothes, although we're starting to introduce more 24 month/2T things in. They're big, but mostly wearable. She also still wears some of her 12 month stuff. Her most recent shoes are a size 6. Geez.

- Still in size 4 diapers.

- her hair is longer than ever. When it's wet, I can comb it down to her shoulders. But, most of the time, the ends curl so that it stays shorter than that. We can now put it into a pretty good ponytail.

- She's trying to learn to jump. It's still more of a skip, but she likes to bounce in her crib and on the couch. She's always trying to walk across and jump on/off the couch.

Foods:

- Abby has a lot of favorite foods, and they change relatively often. But, at the moment, some of her favorites are: tomatoes, black olives, pickles, cheese, any kind of cookie/candy, and tomato sauce, watermelon (and most fruits really). Of course Milk is still better than anything. And, she still calls it "Doh"

- Foods she doesn't like: ice cream (too cold for her). I can't think of any other right now, although there a many vegetables that are hit or miss. Sometimes she'll eat broccoli, sometimes not. Same goes for peas, green beans, etc. She likes corn, but only on the cob.

- She has a hard time eating things with tough skins, tomato skins I have to peel. She loves to eat chips, but she has never had more than a few without gagging and choking on them. The little pieces get caught in her throat and she gags - she won't drink to wash it down so she just ends up throwing up. Every time. I know I know - that's not the glamorous detail you were hoping for, but one day when she's 15 and wanting to get something weird pierced and wants to know why I said no, I want to be able to say "Because I used to catch handfuls of your vomit every time you tried to eat chips and you owe it to me"

Abby's first chips & salsa

(she ate several and almost had us convinced she was going to be ok...but, nope, not so much)

Vocabulary:

- I don't know how many words Abby has, I've never tried to sit down and count them. She has a lot. She communicates well and we can nearly always understand what she's trying to tell us. Most of the time, her words are still mixed with babble, but we get ever 3rd word or so and it makes it intelligible.

- She can sing her entire alphabet. On occasion she gets in a hurry and leaves out a letter or two, but most of the time, she can sing the whole thing.

- She can recognize most of the letters. If I write them down she can tell me what they are. Sometimes she mixes things up. She likes to call Q's - O's. And if she can't remember the name of a letter, she usually defaults to "A" She loves to point out letter though - on your shirt, on the computer, on random signs. It's common for her to suddenly say "Oh, a T! Oh, a W!"

- She likes to sing and she likes us to sing to her. She often requests songs and bops her head as we go through them. If we pause during a verse, she'll often fill in the blank with whatever word

- I suppose, technically, she has said a sentence, although they're very simple. Most of the time, she speaks in 2 or 3 word phrases, like "Mama, up please" or "Book? Read? Chair?" Typical for this age I believe.

- She counts to 15, although things after 12 still sound kinda the same. She's pretty good up to 12. She's really starting to like to count and counts random things all day.

She wanted to see the letters "right side up"

Other Stuff:

- She can climb up stairs and down stairs as long as she is holding on to a rail, wall, or hand. She'll step off small ledges without help.

- Every time we get home in the car she says "We're Hoooome!"

- She's a great helper. I've mentioned it before - but she is great at unloading the dishwasher, and cleaning up her toys. She'll even make sure she cleans up her room in the morning if she's thrown all her toys out of her crib.

- Kyle taught her how to use the CD player so that she can play her Sesame Street CD whenever she wants - which is all the time. She loves it. She sings along and dances. She LOVES it. Kyle and I are kinda looking to expand her horizons.

- She loves animals, all of them and has quite the arsenal of animal sounds. Some of our favorites are: iguana, beaver, squirrel, quietbug, and she does a really good horse.

- She's still very social when we go out to the store. She says Hi, enthusiastically, to everyone she sees. She's always making people laugh. Of course, if I try to introduce her to somebody specifically, she'll turn to little miss shy in a millisecond.

Abby's first pony ride today. She had a great time!

We are loving watching Abby continue to grow and develop. We're so proud of her for a million different reasons. I think I speak for Kyle too when I say - we feel pretty lucky to be her parents.