18 Month Update
Evelyn is 18 months now! What!? When this year started, she couldn’t even walk, and now she is a full-blown toddler.
We are back for another update post and this will include all of the fun stuff like her vibrant personality and her favorite foods. But it will also include the helpful stuff like her development, milestones, routine, and our favorites. Then I think I will start including a segment at the end on how I am feeling with this developmental stage.
Related post: Evelyn’s 15 Month Update
GROWTH
We had her 18 month check-up just a few days ago. Her growth curve is still pretty much the same. She’s tall, at 33.75” (77th Percentile), about 23 lbs 6 oz (59th percentile), and her head has stayed the same at 18.5” (70th percentile) in circumference.
MEALS
Evelyn is very independent, and always hungry (she gets that from her mama). So we typically eat 3 small meals a day with a snack in between each. We are still beating the typical picky toddler appetite! She will eat just about anything, except for some raw veggies. I plan to experiment with that in these next months to see if I can get her to eat them without having to steam them.
As far as meals go, she has what we have at every meal. Our go-to breakfast is fruit and granola cereal, or fruit with oatmeal.
I like to rotate our first snack between a few things. As I mentioned earlier, she will only eat cooked veggies so I will try to sneak in some extra veggies into smoothies for the both of us. I love to include kale, spinach, celery, avocados, beets, and carrots (not all in the same smoothie!) I’m always experimenting with fruit and veggie combinations, so our drinks are never exactly the same. We also like to have some peanut butter thinly spread on graham crackers with fruit and cheese (this has always been one of my favorite snacks). Lastly, I am going to introduce some thinly sliced veggies on a hummus plate. She loves hummus and garlic dip, so I will include a few bits of pita for her to default back to until she starts to like her veggies raw.
Right now, I only breastfeed if she asks for it, which is usually first thing in the morning, but some days she doesn’t ask at all. We always make sure she gets at least 16oz of milk a day, whether it’s breastmilk, almond milk, or whole milk. She also drinks everything out of a Munchkin 360 cup or a cup with a straw.
Also thanks to Baby Led Weaning, she uses her utensils almost exclusively now because she hates to have messy fingers!
Shop some of our favorite mealtime items:
1|2|3|4|5|6
ROUTINE
If you read my 15 month update, then you know Evelyn is constantly on the go. She loves to run, jump, dance, explore, and play. She is trying really hard to cut her last nap and sometimes I have to sneak it in by taking her for a drive. Our routine stays the same as it did at 15 months, except for a few days when I visit my parents.
OUR ROUTINE IS AS FOLLOWS:
7:30am: Wake up, sometimes nurse, we cuddle in our bed until she asks for breakfast.
8:00am: We have breakfast. After breakfast, we will do our morning routine of brushing our teeth, showering, and begin potty training together.
9:00am: We will sit and play, read books, explore with sensory time, and learn for a little.
9:30am: Snack, independent play, and some educational TV while I do a few chores. If she would rather help with the chores, I encourage her to help by providing materials that she can easily use and acquire.
11:30pm: Lunch. After lunch, I try to calm her down and see if I can get her to take a nap.
12:00pm: Nap or continued independent play while I work.
2:00pm: Snack
3:00pm: Go for a walk, if we haven’t been able to go outside yet then we will walk her to the neighborhood park and let her run around for a bit.
5:30pm: Dinner
6:00pm: Begin night routine and wind down for bed. Usually she isn’t officially in bed and asleep until closer to 7:30pm.
SLEEP
Evelyn has always been a great sleeper and has been sleeping through the night since she was 2 months old! For the most part, she goes to bed without a fuss. We recently took the siding off of her bed and she acclimated to that very quickly. She just joins us in bed first thing in the morning now and we all get a little bit of family time before Charlie has to hide away in the office for work.
If I can get her to lay down for a nap, it usually lasts for 2-2.5 hours or so.
SPEECH + DEVELOPMENT/ACCOMLISHMENTS
As a Linguist and TESOL professional, I love to keep a record of her language development.
We are continuing to work as a family to learn American Sign Language, Japanese, and I’ve been teaching Evelyn Spanish while Charlie has been teaching her French. With the sheer amount of lexical items coming in Evelyn’s direction, I am astounded by how vocal she is and how quickly she can reproduce items.
Her word list (to date since October):
“oo-oo-ahh-ahh” for a monkey - verbal
“tweet” for a bird - verbal
“bahh” for a sheep - verbal
Snow - verbal
Ki/tree - verbal
Twinkle twinkle - verbal
“Pee-u” for smelly - verbal
“dip dip” for condiments (ketchup) - verbal
Thank you - verbal
Two - verbal
Strawberry - ASL
Orange - ASL
Banana - ASL
Potty - ASL
Cookie - ASL
Items she can identify:
She can recognize almost every body part & point to communicate her needs (potty)
She can recognize and point at various animals, make the animal noise, and identify them if said in one of the other languages she is learning
She can recognize when something is upside down or does not usually belong.
Evelyn has been learning how to jump and we have been encouraging that by jumping on the bed, into pillows, or on soft surfaces. She also loves to doodle/draw (scribble) and we are encouraging that with no-mess markers and bath crayons.
PERSONALITY
Evelyn is quite boisterous. She is also incredibly good at critical thinking, she’s creative, and independent. She knows exactly what she wants, when she wants it, and the communication barrier sometimes causes a tantrum. But we have both learned how to work around this barrier! I recently started saying “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. But, can you show me?” and she will grab my hand and take me to what she was trying to communicate. She also likes to pick on you and push the boundaries of rules.
That being said, she is also the sweetest toddler. She loves to give hugs, kisses, and to share her snacks or toys with you! She loves to pick on you until she is belly laughing, and by then, so are you! She is such a hilarious toddler and watching her grow is my absolute favorite thing!
PLAY + TOYS
We still very much love our subscription to KiwiCo! We get the Panda crate, which come every other month. And each crate comes with notes for the parents to help you understand how to help your child develop and what they are able to do at this age. It has been so nice to have those milestones written out and explained! It really helps reassure you as a parent. And if you use my link, you can get $10 off your first crate!
Other than that, she loves to read her books, play with puzzles, play in her kitchen at my parents, anything that has to do with outdoors, and we love to make her some sensory activities for educational time!
I will link all her favorite toys below:
1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10
Related post: Baby Liggett Newborn
MAMA UPDATE: This age has been the most overwhelming because we are both working from home now, making it very difficult to separate the parent life and work life. Evelyn constantly wants us to participate in activities with her so it is hard to encourage her to have independent time and get my own work done. Evelyn also tends to choose me to participate with her in all her activities, so if I don’t explicitly ask or schedule in time for work/self-care, then I just won’t get it. Being stuck inside is definitely taking its toll on me as well. But, I am going to write myself up a distinct plan/schedule so I can actually get some deep work done, work less, and spend more time with Evelyn.