19 Months Old

Dear me.  I've missed many monthly updates!

Our little girl is now 19 months old!  We've always affectionately called her "little one," but as John said recently, "We're going to have to start calling you big one!"  She's now about 32 inches tall and 23.5 pounds, making her around the 75th percentile for height and a little below 50th for weight.  She has graduated to size 5 shoes, too!

One of the biggest things to happen at 19 months is that Gemma is now practically weaned.  I keep saying that she's officially weaned, but then a week goes by and I end up nursing her again . . . still, I doubt she's getting any milk and it is a very rare occasion.

Gemma has started sleeping better and better as she's gotten older.   She usually sleeps about 11 hours at night and 2+ hours in the afternoon, often sleeping for 3 if she was up late or missed a nap the day before.  We are very thankful for this!

She did need a little help with the dress up clothes, but it was her idea to dress up!

Gemma's four canines popped through within the last week or two, bringing her tooth count to 16!  So, she has fangs now, which is much more fun to say!  She's also getting better at using a fork and spoon when she eats!  She loves stabbing food with her fork and recently had her first bowl of Cheerios with milk, since she was scooping up her dry Cheerios with a spoon, anyway.  They were delicious!

In communication, it seems like Gemma doesn't say as many words as her peers do, and she certainly doesn't enunciate well yet.  But the pediatrician wasn't concerned yet, and it's clear that she understands everything.  She recently learned two more parts of her anatomy:  neck and knees.  When she has a stinky diaper, she usually comes up to me tapping it, which is helpful!  Hopefully she'll be getting ready to potty-train soon!

Playing in the sand during a recent trip to Concord, MA

In the past few months, Gemma has started imitating many of the things we do, like brushing her hair, sweeping the floor, wiping her face or furniture with a cloth, and dressing up.  We very much have a girly girl as a daughter--not only does she like dressing up and housework, but she loves pretending to cook, playing with her baby dolls, and already seems to gravitate toward the color pink!

Enjoying an ice cream cone!

Gemma LOVES her babies.  She wraps them in "blankets" (usually her old burp cloths!), feeds them, gives them drinks, and just carries them everywhere!  This makes me profoundly glad, because I think it's very important for little girls to play with baby dolls.  It also makes me excited about her new brother or sister coming around Christmastime.  I'm looking forward to making her some accessories for her dollies, like a diaper bag and a carrier.

A common sight . . . she needed a litle help with the tray!

A couple of Gemma's other favorite things are playing the keyboard and bringing us our shoes.  She has figured out how to turn on background drums and prefers to pound her keys to a beat.  She also knows which shoes are Mommy's and which are Daddy's.  When Grammy and Grandpa were visiting recently, it was interesting to see her bring John's shoes to Grandpa, and to wonder about all the little connections forming in her brain.  

Before we know it, she'll be turning 2 . . . !!