A Letter to Elise at 18 Months

I had the battery to our fancy camera charging and Elise at some point ran off with the battery and charger pack without me noticing so we can't find it anywhere. Unfortunately that means all her 18 months pictures were taken with my phone. Good thing she's cute...

My sweet little Leesey, you are now a year and a half old! At your 18 month well check we scheduled your next visit for your 2 year well check. I had to stop for a moment and process the fact the my baby is now a year and a half old. In 6 months you will be 2. You are such a big girl. I swear you grow and change a little bit more each day. I try to keep up with documenting all the words you are saying but you say something new each day! Sometimes by the time I get the chance to write it down, I've forgotten what you said. By far my favorite development this month has been that you now gives kisses! Uncie J was over at our house and I was telling him how you wouldn't give kisses and it made me sad because Carter was always the sweetest little kisser. It was like you heard me and knew I really needed a kiss because the very next day you gave me my first kiss! I was helping Carter put his shoes on before we left the house and when I was done, he gave me a kiss. I heard you making a noise so I looked over and saw your lips were puckered as you leaned toward me. It was the sweetest moment! I got my first kiss on September 14th and then Daddy and Carter each got one the next day. You gave Carter kiss after kiss and he ate it up, he loves kisses! You still won't give kisses if asked, you only do it when you feel like it. Although I love getting kisses all the time, it does make it more special since you're selective about it. One day I was wearing you in the carrier and you kept making kissy sounds at me. Every time I looked down you were puckered up and wanting a kiss. You probably kissed me 10 times in a row. It was a perfect moment. Of all the milestones at the beginning of life, I'd say a baby giving their first real kiss is my favorite. It's just such a pure and sweet showing of love coming from a little one.

You have said so many new things and are the funniest, little girl. You like to say "ta da" when you show us something or when you do something special. When we cheer for you, you'll do jazz hands which makes me bust up every time. When you see Carter on the potty chair you like to run over and check to see what's in it, then you'll clap for him. If he's pooped you often times say, "ewww." You also say "ewww," when I change your poopy diaper. You've started going over and sitting on the potty. You'll stand up and look into the potty to see if there's anything if it. If there isn't, you sit back down. If I take your diaper off, you'll reach down and feel yourself to see if you are going potty. When you see animals you get very excited and wave at them. You especially love our cat, Skippy. You figured out where his hiding place is in the closet and will climb in to pet/torment him at random times throughout the day. It is a testament to his character that he has not scratched you yet. You really love Jeremy's new dog, Moneypenny, as well as Zuma, Thomas' older lab mix, and Fezzik, my parents' giant dog. You call Fezzy, Dezzy and follow him around the house when he's visiting. He is so big, it would be the equivalent to me following a horse around lovingly! You honestly have no fear, well except for swings, haha! You say thank you, sometimes without prompting. You also say "he da do" for here ya go when you hand us something. When you want to walk past you say excuse me and have also said it when you sneeze or burp. Other times when there's a kid in your way, you just shove past or push them. You are pretty rough and tumble in those regards. When you are in your high chair and you're done eating you'll say "I want down." You love to pick my phone up and say "hewo" or "bye bye." One day you were walking around the house yelling "bubby," and I thought you were yelling for Carter. Then I realized you were carrying around a bubble wand. You can very distinctly say bubble but often times just say bubby instead. When I tell you "I love you," you'll respond with "love ya," when I'm lucky. At the doctor's office you said "Bye bye doctor waywee," when the doctor walked out of the room. You've been known to tell me, "I do it," when I try to help you with something you want to do on your own. We had checked the book "1, 2, 3 Zooborns" out at the library. The cover showed baby cheetahs. You pointed at them and said, "baby grrrr," making the noise for a lion or tiger. It was so cute and I was impressed you could tell they were babies!

Your current obsession right now is your shoes. And not just any shoes, your new sparkly pink sneakers from Oma and Opa. When you wake up from a nap oftentimes the first thing you say is, shoooes! If you ever see your shoes, life can't go on until I get them for you and we put them on. You want to wear them all the time, even when you aren't wearing anything else. You've cried for them while lying in bed so one day I just gave up and let you take a nap cuddling one of them. You try to put them on yourself all the time, but are quick to let me help when I am ready. If I try to put a different pair of shoes on you, you'll slap them out of my hands and yell, "shooooe!" It's like you think the only shoes that are shoes are your pink sparkly ones. When you wake up, if you can see your shoes somewhere in your room you don't even tell me hi when I walk in to get you, you just yell shoes at me while pointing out where they are. I figured out a trick to get you to wear other shoes so you can have shoes that match your outfit. I go when you aren't looking and tuck a pair of shoes into my diaper bag that match your outfit. Then I let you walk to the car barefoot. I don't put your shoes on until we arrive at our destination and by then you are too distracted by everything going on to realize I didn't bring your sparkly pink shoes. Plus you just want to go off and play so you don't care. I think the main reason why this works is that you can't see your pink sparkly shoes. If they are there, you want them. Out of sight, out of mind. It's pretty hilarious how much you like them and I will admit I purposely dress you in outfits that will match them most days just so you can wear your beloved pink sparkly shoes.

These are the beloved pink sparkly shoes.

Little miss, you are a spitfire. You are independent and fierce and you like to do things your way. You've started not wanting to get in your car seat and will fight me like crazy some days. I've learned to just wait to give you a snack until we are getting in the car. I show you your snack and tell you if you want it, you have to sit down. You'll immediately stop making noise, drop to your bottom, and wait for me to strap you in. It works like a charm every single time! I'm impressed by how well you follow directions. I can give you a pretty specific task to do and you will do exactly what I asked. One day I found dirty clothes on the floor in the kitchen that you had obviously carried in there, you love getting into the dirty clothes hamper! I handed them to you and told you to put them back where you found them. You walked all the way to my room and dropped them in the dirty clothes. I thought you'd get distracted on your way, but you made it all the way in there. Plus you remembered where you got the clothes from! You cannot stand having dirty hands. You will actually eat foods by leaning your face into them rather than get your hands dirty by picking them up. The first time you ever did it was at Krispy Kreme when you got to make your own chocolate iced doughnut. The icing was still wet so it was getting on your hands. You decided to eat with your face on the doughnut rather than get your hands dirty. I didn't realize at the time what you were doing until you did it again. Then just this week we had corn on the cob and you ate with your face down on the corn to keep your hands from getting dirty. If I haven't gotten you a spoon or fork yet and you have food on your tray, you'll fuss for silverware. If we eat something particularly messy, you'll hold your hands up and fuss for them to be cleaned during the meal. One of your favorite snacks is Halos, Cuties, or mandarin oranges. If I have them in my diaper bag and you get to them, you'll bite into one, peel and all. One time when Oma and Opa were visiting, Opa pulled part of a peel out of your hiney when he was changing your diaper. Most of the time you spit the peel back out. You have fussing down to a science and use it to get what you want, especially with Carter. You have this adorable way of pulling your mouth to the side when you fuss that melts me because I think it's so cute. You also employ the pouty face when necessary.

Water is a favorite for you. You love to play in it, make messes with it, and drink it from inappropriate sources. While I'm washing your hands you like to suck the water off your hands so I have to make sure to keep a hold of your hand until the soap is rinsed off or you'll suck it up too. You are notorious for pulling down cups or water bottles, filling them from the dog water bowl, and drinking from them. It makes me sick. It's only happened a couple times because I normally catch you before you drink it, but man, that's gross! When Carter was your age, he loved to play in the toilet water and I was constantly having to redirect him. You don't have as much interest in playing with the water in the bowl, you prefer climbing on top of the toilet which presents itself with an entirely different set of problems.

You were getting a little big for your car seat so we bought Carter a new one and moved you into his old one. You love it because you sit a little higher so you can now see Carter who is forward facing in the row behind you. You like to play peek a boo with him and make silly faces at him. Carter fills me in on all the cute and funny things you do in your car seat. One day Carter and I went somewhere just the two of us while you were napping because he didn't take a nap. I said, "Isn't this fun? A special mommy/Carter date!" Carter told me, "Yeah, but you know what's even more fun?! A special mommy, Carter, Elise date!" Then he told me it is more fun to ride in the car with you because you are funny and make him laugh. I love that he loves you so much and you two get along so well. You've figured out how to pull your arms out of the straps of the stroller which you do every time we use it now. I have the straps as tight as they'll go so there's not much I can do about it. You like to pull your arms free, lean really far forward, and mess around in the stroller. You are a wild woman! At least you still have a lap belt on.

Something I love about you is that when you want to continue to be held you reach around my arm and grip onto it so I can't put you down. It's so sweet. I also love how much you love babies. When you see a baby you head right over to wave and say hello. When we were at Museum Babies you went over to a 3 month old baby laying on her tummy and kept giving her toys and waving at her. Even though you love babies and have good intentions, you aren't self aware enough to walk around their fingers when they're laying on the ground. You also aren't the most gentle when it comes to touches, so I always keep a close eye on you. You haven't grabbed any kid or baby faces in a while. I've noticed that if I let you do your thing, you might pat or touch a face once and then not again. If I intervene you just do it over and over. Obviously I can't let you do it to babies and have to intervene if you attempt to touch a baby's face which often times turns into you constantly attempting to do so. You are gentle when you do it to where most times the other child doesn't even notice or doesn't react. Every once in a while we run into a very sensitive child who will cry because you touched them. For the most part it isn't a problem anymore, I just worry about you doing it when we are around babies.

You now have your top molars in and your bottom molars are on their way. This round of teething has been shocking in that you have reacted totally differently. Instead of having trouble sleeping, you've been sleeping a lot more. You were sleeping until 8am most days and taking a 3 hour nap. This week you started to get back on your usual schedule. You were a bit fussier than usual, but it wasn't too bad. I was super impressed with how well you handled it this time. You are definitely one tough cookie! I love you so much, little miss Elise! You bring so much happiness into my life every day. I am so glad I get to have you as my daughter and Carter gets to have you as his sister. You are a joy to be around and we all love you so much!

On to Daddy:

1 and a half years old!

Still changing and growing every day. You are such a sweet little girl, but don’t mess with your independence because you will quickly let us know you can do it! You are also so tuff. You brush off some big hits, bumps and scrapes like they are nothing. When you fall and bump your head and we make you put ice on it, that is the worst part to you and you scream and cry until we take the ice off and turn you lose!

You are such a sweet and loving girl and you have really started to pass out kisses quite liberally and it is the sweetest thing! This month your Oma and Opa got you a new pair of shoes and you are obsessed with them, even going so far as to insist that you take a nap while holding them! You have also started wanting to carry your blanket around with you as well and that has been very cute to see!

We cannot keep you from climbing and getting into/onto things. Carter was adventurous at this age, but I feel like you are constantly going higher and farther, always pushing the envelope! You scare us half to death sometimes!

Love you sweet girl!

-Daddy