18 Months

Mother's Day 2014

We are really loving Myelle at this age. She is funny, ornery, and (most of the time) has the cutest personality! The worst part of the day is usually right when she wakes up from her nap. She wakes up from nap time really grumpy and it takes her a while to get out of her funk.

Dada is very happy that Myelle will finally let him rock her and hold her before bed. She loves to have us rock her and sing to her as she is cuddling up with her blanket before nap and bedtime. And she is quite the singer herself. When we lie her down to fall asleep, she usually sings to herself and does the same thing when she wakes up in the morning. She sings parts of "Wheels on the Bus," "Row Row Row Your Boat," "ABCs," "It's Raining, It's Pouring," "Baa Baa Black Sheep," "Under my Umbrella" by Rihanna, and she makes up some of her own songs using the tunes of popular songs.

Myelle's signature dance move at 17 months. (Great Great Uncle Gene calls this "the catfish.")

Myelle repeats EVERYTHING. She also copies behavior all the time. It's crazy how much attention she pays to people around her, especially her big brother. She tries to stand in doorways exactly the way her dada does. She picks out the same foods from her plate that Kyler eats. It's funny catching her trying to imitate when you least expect it. She will also ask questions and when you answer she says, "yeah" in agreement. It melts my heart to hear her little voice saying such a grown up thing. The funny thing is that when you ask her yes/no questions the answer is always no, regardless of whether she means yes.

She is talking all the time now. She asks to "go outside with" someone, asks for her drink (everything is "milk"), asks to "go for a ride in the bike trailer" or "go for a truck ride" or "go for ride in the car seat." A lot of times she tells me "I wanna take" when she wants something that Kyler has. She knows it's not okay to take things. So she also tattles on Kyler when he takes. This is much improved from what she used to do - take something and then tell me "I take." :) When someone coughs or Kyler falls she always asks, "You okay, Ky Ky?" And one of her favorite things to say to him is "Whatcha think, Ky Ky?" A couple nights ago as Kyler was reading a book on the couch, she got up and walked down the hallway to get herself a book. As she started down the hallway she said, "I be right back." When eating she will say, "I don't like that" and when I sang her a song at nap time today she told me, "I like that song." Adorable? I think so. Basically, she says everything and knows the names of almost everything. She's not quite speaking in correct sentences but definitely phrases. And she is fairly clear in her speech. Even people not around kids could probably pick up a decent amount of what she says.

She brought Mama and Dada breakfast in bed

This girl knows when she's being funny. If she notices people laughing at her she will ramp it up and try to get some more laughs. A lot of time it's her running around moving her feet as fast as she can (we call it happy feet) and squealing. Yesterday she was chattering away to me and being goofy when she said to me, "Okay Grandma Rita." I said, "I'm not Grandma Rita" to which she responded, "I'm Bob." Other times she will tell people (especially Papa), "You're Bob." She will tell me it's night night time just to hear me say, "Noooo, it's not night night time!!" She thinks it's so funny to tease.

Mmmm... cake!

Another funny thing she recently did was after she took a fall and bumped her head. I didn't see exactly what she hit so I was asking her if she hit her head on this or that. She pointed to the first thing and said, "bumped my head on there" and then a few minutes later she pointed to the second thing and repeated, "bumped my head on there." I commented, "oh wow, you bumped your head a lot!" Kyler was laughing and saying that Myelle was so funny. When I went back to making dinner she was pointing at everything and saying, "bumped my head on there." Kyler was laughing and laughing, which she just loved. At one point she even pointed to the ceiling. I guess it's safe to say that this girl loves getting attention, especially from Kyler. She has started doing some imaginative play too, and some of it is pretty funny. She pretends to pick something up in her hands and feed it to you, then tells you it's a spider so that you will respond with "ew, yuck!" She also pretends to open and shut doors she sees in books and does a lot of imaginative things while playing with her dishes and kitchen set and with her dolls and stuffed animals. I think she has learned a lot of this from Kyler as he is constantly pretending objects are animals, dinosaurs, people, or talking vehicles.

She also knows whens she is being naughty. As she's doing something bad we will hear her saying something like, "No no no" or "shame shame" or "MyELLE!!" or "be nice." She is pretty difficult to discipline. Telling her to stop doing something never works, slapping her hand doesn't phase her as she throws her food across the room, spanking just makes her more angry and difficult, time out is a game of chase to her, and positive reinforcement is basically a joke. Usually it's a combination of these things or just removing her from the situation. That doesn't seem to curb the behavior from happening again later but at least it stops it at the time.

She absolutely loves animals. To the point that I actually feel bad for the animals. She wants to cuddle them like stuffed animals. "Kitty cats" are her favorite, probably because of her stuffed animal that she loves so much. Since she's not around them often, she can't stop trying to hug them she she sees one. She also loves my parents' dog, Frazier. My mom told me that she will go out on the deck while he is lying down and sit right in the crook of his belly between his legs and lean back on him (he's a black lab). She tries to do this to our smaller dog, Baxter, but he's just not big enough. Instead, she follows him around trying to hug and kiss him and use him as a pillow. I have even caught her rubbing the very end of his tail on her face. I try to make sure he gets a treat from her when he puts up with her so well.

Myelle is a bit of a tomboy when it comes to the way she plays. She tries to throw everything, challenges herself to do something new physically (usually climbing or jumping from something), and loves playing ball. But she definitely has a girly side. She gets a little upset when she notices her fingers are dirty. I have been trying to tell her it's okay to have dirty fingers outside in the summertime. She also loves clothes. She is constantly pulling things out of all of our drawers and wanting to try things on. She is already getting pretty good about putting a shirt on. She can easily get it over her head but can't usually get her arms in the holes. She tries really hard to put socks and shoes on but hasn't quite figured it out yet.

I think she has finally reached a point where I would be okay with freezing time. The tantrums are not as frequent (still daily at a minimum, but let me tell you that is a huge improvement). And she is getting to the point where you can explain what we're doing and it might stop or at least reduce the fit. She is cuddly and will let you hold and rock her at bedtime which is a first. And she is doing a lot of cute things - talking, playing, imagining, etc.