Carlie's 18 month update

Carlie is officially a year and a half old & she is most definitely in full-fledged toddler mode!  Carlie loves to walk, run, climb, and DO just about everything!  She has really become Little Miss Independence & if you try to help her with something that she wants to do on her own, she'll shriek, "ME!" until you let her continue on her own.  This includes climbing up and down the stairs (she will say "rail!" as she climbs up and "ba-ba-ba" as she climbs down to say, 'bummy-bummy' or 'belly-belly') and eating everything all by herself including yogurt or cereal with milk.  In short, Carlie just loves to do everything just like her big sister does!

At Carlie's well-visit today, she measured at the 50th percentiles for both height and weight at 31.25" and 24lb, respectively and she is just under the 75th percentile for head circumference at 18.25".  She wasn't really a happy camper at the appointment, but she checked out to be very healthy & got her flu shot for good measure, so hopefully that's the END of illnesses at our house for a while.  Carlie has gone from an ear infection, to hand, foot, & mouth disease, to the stomach bug all within a few weeks!  We're all ready to be healthy here!

Carlie now says about 100 words, phrases, & sounds (some of which may only be understood by Mama who is fluent in Carlie!).  Some of her favorites are "no!," "me!," "optapa" (octopus), "appo" (apple), "Oh-mo" (Elmo), and most of the characters from Finding Nemo (thanks to Hadley!)!  Carlie also loves to have Haddy be her own personal DJ by asking her to sing "RawrRawr" (Soft Kitty), "Dee-Dee-Dee" (the alphabet), and "Round n Round" (The Wheels on the Bus).  Carlie knows a few colors (pink & black), and then all the others are "geen!".  She also appropriately answers "how many?" by 'counting' but her answer is always two!

Car-Car is wearing mostly 18-24 month clothing now, size 3 diapers & size 4 shoes.  She really doesn't care what she wears, but does love when she can be "nu-nu" before bath!  Carlie still has no interest in watching tv, but has taken an interest in using the ipad or our phones for playing games and watching videos.

Since our last update, Carlie took her first trip to Disney World in October (she loved It's a Small World & the Nemo ride, but wasn't so sure about the characters)!

Carlie's first plane ride - she did great!

Haddy and Carlie Mouse in Disney

Carlie thought drinking out of a water fountain was pretty exciting!

Carlie LOVED Nemo and the 'Mine-Mines'

Carlie and Hadley in Downtown Disney

Carlie loves:
to climb & slide on her climber
to play in the corn table
to spin 'round'
to sing or listen to the Wheels on the Bus
to dance to (or spin to) the Belly of the Whale by the Newsboys
brushing her teeth
eating pretty much everything!
to play the airplane game & "We are Penn State" with Daddy
taking baths
napping & sleeping (she still sleeps 12-13 hrs at night & a 1.5-2hr nap each day)!

Carlie loved playing at the pumpkin patch!

The corn pit at the Savidge Farm pumpkin patch was fun!

These two love each other so much!

Hadley and Carlie both dressed up as Minnie Mouse for Halloween and had so much fun trick or treating at the homes of our family and neighbors - I think they may have had just as much fun sitting out on the porch (in the gorgeous weather), giving candy to the trick or treaters, though!

Carlie loved her Mem-mem-mems from Aunt Mel and Uncle Pat

Giving out candy to the trick-or-treaters from the front porch

Carlie at 15 months

 

Carlie just turned 15 months last week and she is now in full-on toddler mode!  She loves to walk, run, crawl, climb, and generally just get into anything and everything that she can!  Carlie is a very happy girl (unless she doesn't get her way - yikes!) who still loves to eat and sleep like a champ!   She usually goes to bed around 8pm & at times doesn't get up until 10 the next morning!  She'll take a shorter nap in the afternoon if she has slept in that morning, but when she gets up early (or is forced to get up early!), she'll often sleep for 2 or more hours for her nap!

 

Right now, Carlie's been up to:

• Talking up a storm about anything and everything (in her own language)
• Mimicking animal sounds & Haddy singing songs (she loves to sing 'dee-dee-dee-dee' when Haddy sings the ABCs)
• Cleaning and organizing - she loves putting shoes away, especially
• Books - Carlie loves to pick out a book and plop herself down on your lap, but she'll usually just turn the book back to her favorite page over and over before you realize that there's no use in trying to finish the book!
• Attempting to eat her food with a fork (and sometimes a spoon) - she knows what to do and gets lucky about half the time!
• Climbing stairs & playground equipment - she loves the big-girl swings, too
• Putting EVERYTHING into her mouth!
• Eating anything and everything, especially broccoli & mango!
• the Old MacDonald Poke-A-Dot book

 

So far this summer, Carlie's gone camping (her first camping trip to Parker Dam), to the Cape May Zoo, to the beach house (where she went on her first surrey ride), to a farm, to a family picnic & to the Frenchville Picnic (where she went on her first hay ride!).  She also met some of Mommy's friends from high school (and their kids) at a playground!

 

Carlie now weighs about 22 pounds, 13 ounces (50th percentile) is about 29.5" tall (25th percentile) & her head is about 18.5 inches (70th percentile).  She has 12 teeth (all 8 in the front & her first four molars all around!).  She is wearing mostly 18 month clothing now, but still fits into some 12 month items now, depending on what they are.  Carlie wears size 3 diapers & is easing her way into size 3 shoes.  She still uses her paci when she sleeps & plays with her hair while she's falling asleep.  She does a great job of finding things to do & will play independently very well.

Carlie's first trip to the Penn State Creamery

Words & phrases Carlie says now:

• Mama
• Dada
• Hadda
• All Done
• Ta-Da!
• Uh-oh!
• Animal noises: cat, dog, bird, duck, snake, elephant, pig, cow

She also signs:

• More
• Please
• Milk
• Thank You/You're Welcome
• All Done

Hadley at 2.75

 

It almost seems impossible that my next entry for Hadley will be for her THIRD birthday!  She continues to amaze us each day with the things that she knows and understands!  It's really remarkable to watch her learn, overcome obstacles, & play the big sister role.  We still struggle with getting her to play independently, but she has grown leaps and bounds in this area just in the past few weeks, so we're hopeful that she will continue improving in this area more and more!

Here's what Haddy's up to these days:

• She graduated from the high chair to a booster seat at the table
• We enrolled her in dance class for the fall (mostly because there were no 2-yr-old preschool programs in the area)
• Haddy can sing the ABCs (she finally added in the L yesterday!) and count to 13 (she counts on after this, but as is the case with many kids, gets a bit mixed up on the tricky teens!)
• She loves the VeggieTales characters and will sing the songs over and over again (particularly "Oh Where is my Hairbrush?", "The BellyButton Song", and the theme song.
• She loves playing with her cousins (she got to see ALL of them for the family beach pictures)
• Haddy would love to give up naps, but still needs them & generally doesn't put up much fuss about going down for them.  We will skip them from time to time if we have lots going on, though
• She knows all of her upper and lower-case letters & almost all of their sounds
• Haddy loves the computer & is learning to use the mouse & keyboard a couple of times a week
• She still has no interest in the potty, but did tell us that she would "use the potty on Tuesday" Haha
• Hadley loves to swim and play in the water.  She will jump in by herself (wearing her Puddle Jumper) & doesn't need help to paddle herself around
• She really wants to learn to ride a bike, but it seems that she's still just a bit too short
• She still loves the color purple & now calls Daddy's favorite color orange (instead of orn-jin, as it was previously known) 
• Haddy has taken an interest in coloring and drawing
• She knows how to write an H and a T - we're working on her "a" next, so she can start learning to write her name 

So far this summer, Haddy's gone camping (her first camping trip to Parker Dam & her first fishing experience where she mostly wanted to just pick blueberries off the bank), to the Cape May Zoo, to the beach house (where she went mini-golfing & on a boat for the first times, & also went on a surrey ride), to a farm, to a family picnic & to the Frenchville Picnic.  She also met some of Mommy's friends from high school (and their kids) at a playground & she went to see her first movie on a date with Daddy!

 

 

 

Hadley is now over 3 feet tall & weighs about 28 pounds.  She wears mostly 2T-3T clothing, however she still does have a few 24m skirts & shirts thrown into the mix.  She is still in size 4 diapers, however I hope we can proudly tell you that she's in "big girl underpants" by the next update!  Haddy is a great breakfast and lunch eater (she loves any kind of "salad" sandwich - egg salad, tuna salad, etc.), but definitely continues to fight us at dinner time, especially over her vegetables.

 

Haddy's first trip to the Penn State Creamery

Haddy's fish (Nemo) that she won at the Frenchville Picnic & keeps at MumMum & Pops' house (please don't tell her that Pops had to buy a replacement Nemo already!)

Haddy's first boating experience

Hadley is 2 and a half!

Earlier this week, our big 2-year-old celebrated her half birthday! Hadley continues to amaze us as we watch her grow, learn, and change on a daily basis! It is such a joy to watch her little mind make sense of the world and piece together what everything around her means! She is really beginning to do more pretend play and use her imagination. Hadley also has (slowly) started to appreciate messy sensory play activities that she was once afraid of (Carlie has never seemed to have this same fear), such as finger painting or shaving cream. Hadley is definitely becoming a little word-nerd like her Mama, too! She knows all of her capital letters and is starting to learn the lower-case letters now (thank you, Super Why!). She can even proudly tell you the sounds of half of the letters in the alphabet.

Hadley now weighs about 27 pounds and is *almost* three feet tall. She is hovering between 2T and 3T clothes, she wears a size 6-7 shoe (depending on the brand) and she's still in a size 4 diaper (with no apparent interest in ditching the diapers anytime soon! Boo!).

Right now, Hadley's favorite things are:

• Doc McStuffins
• Super Why
• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
• anything purple
• singing
• playing on the playground
• giving check-ups (usually to Carlie, who may or may not be a willing patient)
• writing her letter H on everything ("down, down, across!" Look! I made a H!")
• peanut butter and jelly or tuna fish sandwiches
• piggyback rides
• stickers
• the alphabet
• ice pops (which she calls lollipops)
• playing with Carlie (though at times, she acts like she could take her or leave her, but we know she'd be lost with out her!)
• playing at the water & sand tables

Haddy-isms:

• Orn-gin (Daddy's favorite color)
• I'm Dr. Scholl & these are my friends, I'm going to give you a checkup (as she puts on her doctor's coat and stethoscope)
• Do you want to watch Carlie pick her nose? And I pick my nose, too! (to Miss Erin and the other moms at library story time)
• Good Morning, Carlie! What a good nappy-doo, Honey Bunchy! (When we go in when Carlie wakes up from her nap)
• Carlie, do you want to play 'boochy-boochy'? (as she squeezes Carlie's cheeks)