She is, in one word, a delight. In two words, she is a terrible teether.
On the delightful side, you can see from the video, she loves to sing. With intensity and purpose. And volume. And let's not leave out length. The girl also loves her some dancing. She's open to most music, but especially loves dancing to the Berenstein Bears theme song at night, on our bed, with her brother. Oh does she get excited. Even if she's nursing, she'll jump up when she hears the opening notes.
It would be hard to deny the delightfulness of Laney reading. This may be her favorite activity right now, sitting next to our big basket of books and "reading". She is a perfect mimic of her brother. The inflection, the page-turning, the enthusiasm, I tell you it's all delightful. I'm so thankful both of my kids love books.
On the not-so-delightful side of my Laney-bug is her resistance to diaper changes, cow's milk and her hair rinsed. Look out. It's such a small part of her personality, but the strong will is there, for sure. And it's magnified when she is teething. I don't recall even knowing when Luke had a new tooth break through, so this clinging/whining/hands-in-the-mouth/not-eating stuff is new for us. She has all 16 teeth now, so I'm hopeful we are done until her 2-year molars. Please?
We had her 18-month appointment today, and she her doc's most proportionate baby. Maybe in history! 50th percentile for weight (24 lbs), height (31.5") and head circumference. She's in size 4 diapers, size 5 shoes and size 18-24 month clothes. I will be so sad when she loses the chubby thighs and tummy. I think Luke will be too, since he is always telling her, "Laney! Your belly is so chubby!" Soon I'll have to talk to him about commenting on girls' figures :)
At her appointment today, she had a toe poke and three vaccines. Not one tear. I attribute this to having a brother four years her senior. She puts up a lot from him and is one tough cookie. I love how lately she's been able to really "play" with him. She would follow him to the moon. Luke is a bit obsessed with ninjas right now and has a collection of ninja weapons. Luke has some serious ninja moves, but Laney can hold her own with the nunchucks. Again, look out.
Laney is such my buddy these days. I am really treasuring having one-on-one time with her in the mornings after we drop Luke off at school. Sometimes we'll go to the Y, sometimes we'll run outside or hit Target, but a lot of times we'll get our Starbucks and just go home to play together. I keep thinking of next year, when Luke is in school full-day. We will have some serious mommy-daughter time then!
Speaking of the Y, Laney is doing fairly well in nursery-type settings. There are tears, but I've been told (at church too) that she stops almost immediately. With Luke's history and difficulty with separation anxiety, it is high priority for Roger and me to help Laney be comfortable in those types of settings.
Did someone mention delightful? Delightful is nursing my daughter in the morning and night. I never expected to still be nursing at 18 months. Everyone said she'll cue you when she's done and she just never did. And I've been okay with that. She's my baby and it's such nice snuggle time. It's a little tricky when she wants to nurse during the day, but that doesn't happen too often. Usually only when she's not feeling like herself.
Delightful is watching her language develop. The girl is talking so much! I'm not sure how many words, but she's even putting two and three together: "Yes Mom!" (usually followed by doing something I've just asked her NOT to do). "Bye Dad!", "I don't know" (all kind of smooshed together), and my personal favorite "Be by back" (Be right back). With this phrase, she'll go to another room or around the corner, just so she can come running "right back!" Another sweet one is "Bye-bye" when you lay her down in her crib at night. But wait, maybe my favorite is her "Thank you". I'm not even sure how to phonetically spell how she says it, but it's pretty amazing.
I didn't count them up, but for this girl, the delightfuls far outnumber the not-so-much's.
Happy 18 months sweetest girl.
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