At nearly 18 months old:

a year ago

1. She woke me up this morning by trying to feed me one of her bottles. Very nice of her. Good sharing.

2. She speaks in two and three word sentences now. At least once I heard a four word sentence.

3. She uses pronouns. “I sit!” “I want more!”

4. She stands at the window on her little stepping stool and says, “Dad-DEE! [syllable emphasis hers] Dad-DEE! Bye-bye.” She misses him all day.

5. She unpacks things — diaper wipes, diaper pails, dresser drawers.

6. She throws things away in the trash and in her diaper pail. Sometimes these things include sippy cups, shoes, and books.

7. She already has opinions on what she should wear.

8. She enjoys draping her clothes all over her body and sometimes wants me to put two or three shirts on her at a time.

9. She loves to have her hair combed in the morning. “Hair! Hair!” she’ll say as she leads me to the rocking chair. “Comb!”two days ago

10. She also likes to spray herself with the water bottle afterwards and soak her clothes so she needs a change.

11. When she hears the phone ring she makes a surprised face and says, “Run!” and then we run for it.

12. She calls Noah “bruh-her,” “No-no,” and “beddy-butt,” which is also her word for bellybutton so that one we don’t really understand.

13. Her favorite toys are her babies. She carries them around, feeds them, checks their “beddy-butts” (she has two cabbage patch preemies with belly buttons and tushies) and puts them in the rocking chair. “Baby sit,” she says. “Rock-rock.”

14. She likes to read, she likes to be read to. “I read!” she says. “Read books!” she orders Noah.

15. Her favorite things are shoes. Especially other people’s shoes. If she could read blogs, her favorite blog would be Manuela’s for the shoes.

and one extra: She is happy all day long. She is happy on her walk. She is happy digging in dirt. She is happy swinging on the gate eating an apple. If she’s sad, it’s because she’s tired or hurt but general cheer is her default emotion. Noah says, “I’m really glad that she’s my sister!” We are, too.

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