Wow. 18 months. A full year and a half since our lives changed forever with the birth of our precious little Branigan. Although, I suppose she's not so little! At our Dr's appointment last week she checked in at the following:
Height: 33 3/4 inches - the 97th percentile
Weight: 27 lbs, 7 oz - the 80th percentile
This puts her squarely in 2T clothing. Gone are the baby sizes, which we really have been transitioning out of for about the past two months.
Branigan's hair is growing quickly now as well. I could probably put some of it into a ponytail now, if she would let me. She barely lets me comb her hair at all. :) She has 8 front teeth, as well as two molars that have poked through on the bottom for a total of 10 teeth at the moment. It does feel like she's got at least one more trying to poke through on top, and there are definitely a couple of molars trying to come through on top. It seems like teething just goes on forever, but we are starting to make some progress.
Branigan starts her day around 7:30am (and a big thanks to her from Mommy and Daddy for sleeping in just a little!). We have breakfast right away, which usually consists of a banana and a bowl of rice krispies. Then we feed the dogs, which Branigan does most of by herself. We just have to make sure she doesn't stick her full face in the water bowl or sample any of the kibble herself. ;) Next we usually try to play for an hour or so, either with blocks or some of her other many toys. Around 10am, we put on Sesame Street and have a snack. This is by far Branigan's favorite show, and I'm fairly sure she would watch it nonstop if we let her. We have lunch around noon, and then Branigan goes down for a nap right after that, and generally sleeps anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half.
Once Branigan gets up from her nap, we have some juice and possibly a small snack. Branigan usually helps me clean for a couple of hours in the afternoon, and then we walk down to get the mail. When we get back home, we let the dogs out of their kennels where they've been napping, and play with them and feed them again. Its usually getting close to dinner time at this point, so we'll get that started and hopefully have Branigan sitting down to eat anywhere between 5 and 5:30 pm. Most of the time I let her go ahead and watch an episode of Curious George (her second favorite) while she eats. Bathtime is between 6:30 and 7pm, and then we get ready for bed. We generally read four or five books together, and then she snuggles with one of us while we sing to her for a few minutes. Then its off to bed for the night. The last week though, Branigan has been wanting to skip snuggle time and go straight to bed after books. Although we are proud of her and so glad that she's ready to really go to sleep on her own, it has broken Jamie's and my hearts a bit to miss out on that precious time. She's just really growing up! But hopefully it means that she will be ready to move into her toddler bed this week.
Branigan is still a picky eater, but things are getting better. She still loves pretty much all fruits, with a real preference for bananas and grapes and a passion for anything with berries. She absolutely LOVES berries. I've never seen anything like it. She also likes about any cereal that you put in front of her, but rice krispies are her favorite. She loves cheese, yogurt, puffed corn (sort of like popcorn?), chex mix, pretzels, puffs, crackers, graham crackers, gold fish, and has recently discovered sweets. Now she'll beg for for cookies and twizzlers, but really loves hershey kisses the best. Branigan will still not touch vegetables and continues to be picky about meat. Her main entrees are grilled cheese, quesadillas, mini corn dogs, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, fish sticks, and peanut butter/jelly sandwiches; so basically nothing that is actually very good for her :). She doesn't seem to like spaghetti much, although she'll eat if from time to time. She will eat mac and cheese, and will try most things on my plate unless its a veggie. She also loves pancakes or anything she can soak in syrup or ranch dressing. She even dipped a chocolate chip cookie in ranch dressing last week. I am to the point that I cannot stand to smell ranch dressing or ketchup, so this seemed particularly sacrilege to me.
Branigan is really a fun little girl, and loves to play and explore. She loves other kids, and we've been going to open gyms and other indoor play yards so that she can get to be around other kids and play more over the past two weeks. We are also looking into joining a gym for her to play and swim at while mom gets some time to walk. I think she will really enjoy that! At home, she loves to play with her Mega Blocks the best. She also loves to play with her Ms. Potato Head, put together puzzles, and dump everything on the floor out of her new play kitchen. She still loves books, and we read together two to three times every day. She is enjoying watching me cook in the kitchen more and more, and will frequently drag a chair over and climb up to watch.
Some of Branigan's other favorite things right now are dancing and jumping. Ok, so she doesn't really jump. But she is trying, and it is adorable. When she dances she swings her hips from side to side with the biggest grin on her face! These are the kinds of things that make you so proud as a parent, and really give you an idea of what a miracle looks like. Bran still loves the bathtub, and we have moved up to having bubble baths most nights. Its amazing to watch her progress in the water as well. For example, she loves to lay down on her belly in the bath tub and "swim" with her face fully under the water. She totally holds her breath and closes her eyes now when she goes under. I don't know if most 18 month olds are holding their breath under water or not, but we are sure that this makes her a genius. :)
One of Branigan's other favorite things to do is to eat like she's a dog. This is not one of the things that makes us think she is a genius...basically she will dump her food on the floor so that she can get down and try to eat it like a dog. Maybe we need to think about getting her around other kids more? LOL.
Branigan is progressing verbally, but really doesn't have much interest in talking. She still says Dad, Mom, nana for banana, and ba ba for bottle. She has also added "do" for dog (dog without the g) and this morning she said baby for the first time. It was really neat. She was refusing to eat her breakfast, but I think it was just because she really wanted us to hear her say baby. All of a sudden she said "baaaabeeee". It was awesome and I could tell that she was really proud of herself. She also is learning some baby sign language, mainly being able to tell us more and please. She is close on thank you, and can let us know up or down by pointing. She can also show you the number one on her fingers.
Branigan likes to be around people as much as possible. She can be very shy, even with people she knows, but once she's comfortable she likes to show off her toys and things around the house. If we are out she gets really excited about playing with other kids. For example this morning we went to the mall so that she could get a little play time on the play ground there. She had so much fun, and there were three other kids there that she made fast friends with, and they ran up and down the ramps together for almost an hour. The look of glee on her face literally had me in tears.
In some ways having a toddler is the biggest challenge of my life, and not always in the best ways. There is probably at least once a day that I think to myself, holy crap, I'm having another of these? But most of the time I feel like getting to watch Branigan grow and progress is the greatest pleasure of my life. She is a wonderful and expressive little girl, and we are very fortunate to get to be a part of her life.
