Live. Laugh. Love.: Sophia is 18 Months!

A year and a half???

What???

That means just six more months until she turns two!!!

Quick funny side note about these first three pictures:

they are unusual in that Sophie almost always gets her entire bath done while standing up.
For some reason, she just prefers to stand and, after trying many times unsuccessfully to get her to sit, I've resorted to just letting her stand and getting the whole bath done very quickly. :)

So this was a rarity.

Okay. Onto updates.
One of the biggest changes that I've (finally) noticed is that Sophie's eyes have turned brown! Remember she always used to have that rather large fleck of brown in her right eye? And I always wondered if they'd change. Well, they'd probably been changing for quite awhile. But seeing her every day, it just wasn't obvious to me. Then one day in the last month, I realized that her eyes are definitely brown! Weird, because now when I look back at pictures, they appear to be brown for awhile. But I'm certain that it's been more of a transition that could have been mistaken (in person) for either color until recently.

Sophie also got another tooth this month that broke through around the first week of October. She handled it pretty well. It was her bottom left lateral incisor (just left of the middle two) and it was a little late coming, as these normally erupt between 10-16 months. She's had the bottom right one and both uppers for quite awhile. So, in all, she has 12 teeth: four incisors on top and bottom and four first molars. Those terrible cuspids will likely be next as they come in between 16-23 months, followed by the second molars sometime in her third year.

Sophie has really turned a corner with being SO MUCH MORE interested in learning lately. I think it's just been an increased maturity that she will actually sit still and pay attention long enough to learn something. Until recently, she's just been too busy to listen. LOL So now she's carrying around books and browsing them independently. She likes "reading" aloud and bringing me books to read to her. Books are what she plays with most lately.

But she's still very much on-the-go and especially loves hide and seek these days.

Hmm... Should I tell you she's all peaches 'n cream?

Or should I be honest and say I have a very strong-willed child on my hands some days? :)

Actually, in the above picture, she was grinding her teeth. Eew! Gross! She just started doing it this day and, though I tried to tell her to stop and distract her with a snack or something to do, she just seemed to want to do it more following my request. (See? Strong willed.) She hasn't done it regularly since then so hopefully that was a weird teething thing.

But one of Sophie's biggest battles lately is getting her clothes and sometimes diaper changed. She has become very possessive of her things and apparel. And she frequently throws a fit when you try to take off her jacket (which she calls "jack-o") or shoes ("shoe-shoe") or get her changed into or out of her jammies. The other day she even called me "bad girl" as I was struggling to get her dressed one morning. I asked her "did you just call mommy a bad girl?" She nodded! And she proceeded to say it again when I tried to put on her shoes! (I know that's something that the kids at our babysitter's love to say back and forth to each other. They're very concerned with who's "good" and "bad" and they frequently tell each other.) Anyway, distraction is key and I've had to keep random things of interest (stickers, hair clips, random small toys) near the changing table just to take her mind away from the task at hand. Or sometimes I'll just try to strip her down while she's playing in the living room so she doesn't think about it as much. LOL

I have a feeling we've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the tantrums this child will throw. ;)

But she is also very sweet and loving and happy.

Just this weekend, Craig and I were sitting together on the couch while Sophie was playing near us and Will was still sleeping from his nap. She kept running up to Craig and pursing her lips for a kiss. She'd say "daddy" and run over for a smooch about every minute. Then she started kissing us both. It was so very cute and sweet. She really is very loving.

She's "chatting" a lot more lately and has learned some more new words.

One of our favorites is "Go Bucks!" Sounds like "go-buck-go-buck-go-buck", all run together. She also frequently asks for a "cack-o" (cracker) and has said "puh-pu" for pumpkin this fall.

Hmm. Still a lot of "nnnnnnnoooo!" with some finger pointing and wagging.

And she still calls herself "Doe-dee" and Will "O". She says "Sty-ya" for Stella and Mya usually just sounds like "mommy".

And I really am just so pleased with her increased interest in reading. I hope that continues as Will's has. Reading is such a wonderful, lifelong hobby that I want our children to have. I wish Craig enjoyed it more (he does read to the kids, but not for his own pleasure) and I wish I made more personal time for it as well. That's a big goal for me: to make myself just chill out and read a book for ME.

Anyway, in the next six months, I'm really looking forward to hearing Sophie's language skills progressing and to seeing her learn so many new things like shapes and colors, etc.