I'm finally getting around to writing about what things are like for e-baby and the rest of us at 18 months old.
* What is she, a shark? E-baby is sprouting her incisors (the pointy canines, in case you don't know which the incisors are), which brings the tally up to 14 teeth. That's FOURTEEN! Each and every single one of them came with a set of sleepless nights, drooling, and general grumpiness. The latest two are no different, except that now she knows that chewing on ice can be soothing. So all day long she says ICE? ICE? ICE? But really, I thought incisors came much later. We were due for a break. Where's that teething break? All I can say is we better not get any more until next calendar year.
* And speaking of things we won't have any more for a long time-- SHOTS! At her 18 month doctor's visit, she got one shot, which was the last one until she goes off to Kindergarten. E-baby, I, SNG, daycare, the three nurses required to restrain her for a shot and everyone with an office nearby there are looking forward to the next 3 years and a few months needle-free.
* By 18 months, especially because she's an early talker, it's becoming very clear that she's been soaking up EVERYTHING for the past 8-10 months, and now has ways of getting it all out there to share with the world. Here are some examples:
* She knows her colors quite well now and, except when she's tired, loves to tell you what color everything is. She's usually right, as long as it's pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown or white. She'll have to work on pewter, magenta, chartreuse, turquoise... But seriously, I really didn't spend much time teaching her colors until after I realized that she already knew several of them. I asked the day care, and they said that she had probably been practicing them in her mind for a long time but is just now figuring out how to map the word-labels to the colors of objects.
* Size is fascinating. Or, Small is Tremendous to quote Zoe Lewis. E-baby loves to compare things that are big and small. Only, she doesn't just say big and small. She says BIG (slowly, with a deep voice) and tiny! (with a teensy little high-pitched voice, and a remarkable southern accent, so it's like taaaahnee!). She'll compare anything. For instance, daddy's nose? BIG. Her nose? tiny! My nose is either BIG or tiny! depending on whether she's comparing it to her nose or SNG's.
* Role playing like crazy. She has her dolls read books to each other, she moves their hands/paws so that they can use sign language, she pretends to be the neighbor's cat and lies down on her belly in the yard like she's stalking birds, she imitates me cooking with her own little set of pots and pans (from IKEA-- they are SO CUTE and you can actually cook with them if you want to). There's a lot more going on in e-babyworld than in mine or yours.
* a few shapes, a few numbers... she has circle, oval, and diamond nailed and is working on others, and she knows the difference between One thing, Two things, and more than two things. Beyond that, she can count numbers up to 10 with some help, but I don't think she knows the difference between the meanings of 3, 4, 5 etc.
Her daycare's 18-month conference was last week, and her teacher remarked on a couple of things that were interesting. One is that she's very good at playing independently, which will prbably translate well to school someday. Another thing she told us is that e-baby while affectionate and sweet, and not at all mischevious, is also really good at sticking up for herself against other kids. No one steps on her and gets away with it.
Which is just one of those things that you never really think about until you realize how glad you are to have a daughter like that.
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