This might be one of the braggiest braggy monthday updates ever. Just warning you. I don’t feel bad or anything.

Caroline is 19 months and she can name pictures in books (kitty, mommy, milk, cow) which is listed as an Advanced Skill for 21 month olds. She already sleeps in a big girl bed, which is an Advanced Skill for 22 month olds. She can walk down stairs – an Emerging Skill at 24 months – by herself if it’s only 3 or 4 stairs or with a handrail, if she’s tall enough to reach it (mostly, she’s not, so she holds my hand). She can jump with both feet off the ground, which isn’t even ON this chart – it’s listed on the 25-30 months chart. And if yelling “JUMP!” as she throws herself off the couch and “WALK!” when I’m carrying her and she wants to get down (“DOWN!”) counts, she can “Name two actions (e.g., skipping, jumping)”, a skill not listed until 36 months.

She’s really freaking smart, is what I’m saying. And it’s not all good. Her new favorite word is “no”, which she says even when she means yes. I started counting with her (“Caroline! Stop running away from me. I’m going to count to three!”) and instead of listening she yells “THREE!” and runs faster. I’m just lucky she’s still too short to reach the doorknobs so I can trap contain keep her in her room for naps. Toddlers are like velociraptors – they’re only REALLY dangerous once they can open doors.

I forgot to bring her record book to her 18 month appointment so I don’t remember the exact numbers, but she was about 21 pounds which still puts her in the 25th percentile. She fell to the 15th percentile in height, but instead of freaking out the way the doctor did when Evan dropped to a lower curve, the doc just said “Meh, put peanut butter on her apples.” Which is good, since “AP-PULL!” is her new favorite food (again). She also loves every other kind of fruit, carrots, peas picked from our garden, anything she can dip in hummus and Wheat Thins. She pretty much loves food in general, which makes me a happy mama – no fighting to get calories into her and worrying the doctor is going to order more weight checks.

Her favorite place is the aquarium (although the zoo is a close second) where she presses her entire body up against the glass and screams “FIIIIIIIIIIIIISH! FISH! FISH!” She will sit through the entire sea lion show and is happy to touch the sharks and stingrays and crabs in the touch tanks. I cannot even tell you how much I love that she loves the aquarium. It feels like I somehow passes a piece of my heart and brain to her as well as my genetic code.

Other likes include dogs, kitties, books, turtles, climbing, slides, water of all kinds, nudity, juice, cheese, apples, talking, shouting, screeching, running, stairs, the potty, beds, fruit snacks, fist bumps, boats, fire trucks, her dolly, dancing, music, babies and hugs.

Dislikes include falling down, being hungry, letting me look in her mouth, missing out on fun things, when her brother puts a pillow over her face and sits on it.

Baby pool? I don’t need no stinkin’ baby pool.

Oh hai, is this a problem?

NOW is it a problem?

Man I love testing limits! So fun!

I’m too cute for you to stay mad.

LACE. ROMPER.

She’s thinking about jumping

Accessorizing!

Heartbreaker

Posing for her Senior Portrait

The many faces of Caroline

19 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Uses a spoon and fork – Prefers forks, but can use both.
Runs – SO FAST.
Throws a ball underhand – She got E RIGHT in the face with a ball the other day. I laughed because I’m a bad person, but I should probably be signing her up for softball.
Enjoys helping around the house – You guys, I think she does more chores than I do. She loves helping and I am not adverse to letting her.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Understands as many as 200 words – Understands ALL THE WORDS. She even understands sarcasm. Obviously she’s my daughter. She also SAYS at least 75 words – her newest skill is words with more than one syllable.
Recognizes when something is wrong (e.g., calling a dog a cat) – I’m sure she WOULD but that seems like kind of a mean game.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Washes and dries own hands with help – Washes hands all freaking day if I’d let her,
Points to picture or object when you call it by name – We just played a game of this in while hanging out in front of the open fridge. She got: yogurt, milk, juice, cheese, grapes and beer.
May know when she needs to pee – Can pee and poop in the potty but also just thinks using the bathroom is REALLY COOL so she wants to do it all the time. I’m not going to work on actual potty training for a couple more months, unless she does it entirely on her own.

One and a half! Tomorrow she’ll be closer to 2 than to 1 which is obviously blowing my mind, just like every other monthday. But this one feels even more surprising: No matter how happy I am about her grown-up, independent spirit, I’m not ready for her to be 2.

I had planned to celebrate Caroline’s half-birthdays, since her near-Christmas birthday means she’ll never have the party turnout Evan gets but this one snuck up on me so we’re not having the adorable little strawberry-themed party I had imagined. But I’m pretty sure the freeze pop she had after nap and the homemade strawberry ice cream she had after dinner are MORE than enough celebration for one tiny child. What can I say, she’s hard to say no to. One day she’s going to ask for a car and I’m going to last barely 24 hours before I cave and get her one. Full of ice cream and cheese.

Last weekend I bought a toddler bed at a church yard sale. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have it around for when we eventually wanted to move Caroline (because, y’know, we might need the crib again for someone else)(NO THAT WASN’T A HINT HOLD YOUR HORSES)(ask me again in October). It’s just a teeny tiny thing, but that’s perfect for my teeny tiny girl. I dragged it upstairs and put a sheet on it and I figured we’d sloooowly work towards a gradual transition. Nope. That night E tucked her into the bed and left. She went to sleep. And she’s slept in it for every nap and bedtime since. It’s working out great, especially since she’s still way too short to reach the doorknob and get out of the room when she wakes up. The only terrible, horrible, no good, very bad moment so far involved walking in to find a diaperless baby…and that’s as much as I’m going to say about that.

We’ve also started potty training. It’s ridiculous. She wants to be like her brother SO MUCH she’s started peeing on the potty just so she can hang out in the bathroom when he does. I’m sort of hoping she loses interest again, since I’m tired of sitting on the bathroom floor doing the potty cheer every hour, but it’s not like I WANT to change diapers longer than I have to.

Her vocabulary is amazing and she understands pretty much every word I say, including stuff like “Go get that orange thing, the one in the other room”. She says Mommy, Daddy, dog, kitty, hi, bye, hug, cheese, downstairs, yes, Brutus, up, dolly, Bee (what she calls her blankie), swing, pool, beach, brother, snack, bed, baby, book, llama, and at least 20 other words.

Likes include cheese, eating,  ice cream, hot dogs, strawberries, hugs, books, running, the water, hockey, cuddles, drinking from a straw, dancing, sleeping, swinging, being upside down, animals, friends, climbing, somersaults, elevators, purses, necklaces, accessorizing, stairs and giving me heart attacks.

Dislikes include milk, being buckled in, not having enough cheese and strangers who get too close to her face.

Apologies in advance for the ridiculous number of photos:

Future fashion blogger

All her favorite things: blankie, dolly, purse, necklace

peek a boo!

Outfit change courtesy of Wittlebee – I’ll have a review soon but holy cow is this dress CUTE

Cheeeeeeese!

Girl knows how to relax

I bought her a pony. It was only a buck.

And she LOOOOVES it

EYEBALLS

18 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Will “read” board books on his own – Yep! She read actual books too. Her favorites are the Llama Llama books and the How Do Dinosaurs books.
Scribbles well – Yes, although she still wants to EAT the crayons and markers more than she cares about coloring.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Strings two words together in phrases – She’s starting to. She says “Hi Daddy! Hi Mommy! Hi Dog! Hi kitty!” every day. She can add “please” to almost anything she wants because she knows I can’t resist.
Brushes teeth with help – Refuses help. Brushes own teeth.
Stacks four blocks – Next time I find some blocks, I’ll ask her.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Throws a ball overhand – She has frighteningly good aim, since most of the time she’s chucking empty yogurt containers at my head.
Takes toys apart and puts them back together – Yes. She also knows how to turn on ALL the toys that make sound.
Shows signs of toilet training readiness – Yes, as discussed previously.

I think it’s insane that Caroline is only 17 months old but I give her almost as much independence as her 3 year old brother. She’s allowed to sit in full sized chairs, climb the stairs, walk next to the cart at the store, help with chores, play in the other room by herself, eat grown up food and take a book to bed without my worrying she’ll rip it up. I’d say it’s about 75% thanks to my second-child-fend-for-yourself attitude and 25% thanks to her really-smart-and-capable attitude. No matter what the cause it makes doing stuff with her a zillion times easier than they were with Evan at this age. Not that Evan was BAD, but he was still my BABY. Caroline wants to know if she can borrow the car this weekend.

Her favorite games are Dinosaur Attack Baby, Tickle Tickle Your Face With Her Razor Sharp Nails, Push Me On The Swing Until Your Arm Falls Off, Terrorize The Cat, Hug The Cat, Terrorize The Cat Again, Try On All The Hats, Eat $12 Worth Of Fruit, and Get Naked.

She still takes one long afternoon nap and sleeps about 12 hours a night. She will take a nap even if she falls asleep in the car on the way home, which means I don’t have to sing VERY LOUDLY to keep her awake – although sometimes I just like to sing very loudly. It’s better than another round of Who Can Scream Loudest because NO ONE WINS. She eats almost any fruit, about half the vegetables, and ALL the carbs. She’s still in 12 or 18 month clothes, size 4 shoes and size 4 diapers. Her hair is still more of an auburn than her brother’s strawberry blond and it’s getting a little curly in the back. I am THRILLED.

Likes include hats, animals, swinging, ducks, running, cheese, fruit snacks, slides, brushing her teeth, playing in the garden, her dolly, shoes, anything that looks like a cell phone, her new car seat, water, jumping, somersaults, books, The Fresh Beat Band, sleeping, taking off her clothes, and Daddy.

Dislikes include raspberries, diaper rash, being hungry, loud trucks, and people who don’t share.

I am super jealous of her eyelashes.

WTF is this nonsense? Cinderella was a CHUMP.

I refuse to stop eating long enough for you to take this picture.

Ginger

ROAR!

Happy 17th birthday I mean MONTHDAY Caroline

17 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Uses six words regularly – Mommy, Daddy, hi, kitty, doggy, quack-quack, roar, hat, fish, yes, cheese and shoes are all clear enough to be understood by other people. Then she has an entire babble-sign-arm-waving language for me.
Enjoys pretend games – Pretend cooks, pretend takes care of her baby and pretends to listen to me.
Likes riding toys – She’ll straight up tricycle-jack your kid at the playground.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Feeds doll – She rubbed an entire squeeze pouch of baby food onto her doll’s face.
Speaks more clearly – Do I need to speak more clearly? I think I answered that one BABY CENTER.
Throws a ball underhand – Sure, but she’s much better at hockey.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Dances to music – Sometimes, unless it’s the Fresh Beat Band and then it’s ALWAYS.
Sorts toys by color, shape, or size – I know she knows “blue”, does that count?
Kicks ball forward – Like I said, she’s better with a stick.

For possibly the first time ever, I feel like Caroline ISN’T getting too old too fast. She’s been doing all the BIG milestones – walking and climbing and communicating well – since she was 10 months old (braggy mom blogger is braggy!) and the little ones don’t change much about our day to day lives. It helps that she’s still approximately the same size and weight as she was 4 months ago too, so it’s easy to pretend she’s still a baby. It also helps that we still call her “the baby” – the other day I was trying to teach Evan our full names and he keeps insisting her’s is “Baby Sister Davis”.

It’s totally cool though, because 16 months is a good age to stall out. She thinks she is a big kid but isn’t actually a big kid. She can tell me when she needs something but she can’t sass me (I don’t know how I am going to survive sass from TWO children). She sleeps through the night AND takes a nice long nap. Although there are other ages I realy like (eight months is a huge one, and honestly 3 isn’t so bad most of the time) this is our sweet spot. The perfect balance of independence and neediness that makes me feel important but not trapped in a constant cycle of baby demands.

It doesn’t hurt that she’s so adorable. At the store the other day she wandered over to a group of teenage boys with sideways baseball caps and wallet chains (basically kids that make me scowl and think “PULL UP YOUR PANTS, JERKS”) I had been trying to avoid and within seconds they were all crouched down to her level talking in baby voices. It was AMAZING. I suppose it would be possible to ignore her when she walks right up and tries to be your friend, but if you can you’re probably dead inside.

She is still wearing mostly 12 month clothes (although I am buying 18 month stuff now) but wears a size 4 shoe (which is big for someone so tiny). She loves wearing a different pair of shoes every day, which is possible thanks to a zillion hand-me-downs. She also wants to wear hats all the time, which is Very Exciting for me, since I love babies in hats but never fought a battle for them with Evan. Bring on the adorable sun bonnets!

Likes include hats (HATS!!), tickles, gymnastics, jumping, shoes, being naked, her brother, phones, yarn, hugs, talking, chocolate, cereal, juice, her baby doll, water, sand, messes, swinging, going fast, danger, sleeping, books, Daddy, being upside down and The Fresh Beat Band.

Dislikes include her seat belts, posing for photos, being hungry and being told no.

I love them together

Hold up, bro. I got this.

LOOK at those lashes!

16 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Turns the pages of a book – Yes, and is much gentler with books than Evan was at this age.
Has temper tantrums when frustrated – AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I mean yes.
Becomes attached to a soft toy or other object – Her baby. She LOVES that hideous thing. LOVES. IT.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Discovers the joy of climbing
Stacks three blocks – YES. I saw her do it today. BOOM.
Uses spoon or fork – “Tries” is a better word than “uses” but sometimes some of the food does end up in her mouth.
Learns the correct way to use common objects (e.g., the telephone) – Loves to “talk” on the phone, throw things away, help with the dishes and feed other people.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Takes off one piece of clothing by himself – Caroline can get herself entire naked in less than 30 seconds.
Gets finicky about food – She has preferences but still eats almost anything.
Switches from two naps to one – Wait, I was still supposed to getting 2 naps out of her? Crap! She’s been on a one nap schedule since she was about 9 months (because of our Stroller Strides schedule).

Even though I have been telling people my kids are “three and one” for weeks now I don’t actually BELIEVE it. Three?! How can Evan be three?! Three so many years! Three is huge! Three is preschool and backpacks. Three is inside jokes and friends and opinions and ideas and favorites and independence. Three is clothes in size ginormous and shoes with huge rubber soles. Three is sitting in a chair at the dinner table. Three is repeating everything that comes out of my mouth.

Three is a kid who INSISTS he is too big for naps but falls asleep on the couch at 3 pm clutching his favorite blankie.

If you asked me RIGHT AT THIS SECOND how I like this age, I’d be very enthusiastic. It’s so great! He’s like a real human! He is kind and helpful and polite and is capable of understanding what I say and following directions. He was good for the babysitter. He’s super excited to see his grandparents next week. He is the best big brother ever. If he’s bored and whiny it’s easy to distract him with a game on my iPhone (BabyCenter needs to add “can unlock and correctly use a smart phone” to their list of milestones because it is HUGE) and I can finish Stroller Strides or shopping or whatever. It’s nice to have a kid I actually LIKE as well as love. Because other days – the ones where he hits me in the head with his sippy and throws himself on the floor at the mall and screams at me and I have to drag him out kicking and screaming – I still want to sell him to the circus. He is a wild beast who refuses to use his words or tell me what’s wrong or calm down. He will cry until he’s out of tears and then fake-cry until he can’t breathe. Oi, the fake crying is the WORST.

But really, there are more good days than bad and even the bad days are more like bad HOURS instead of days. He might stall at bedtime for a few minutes but he sleep all night. He isn’t the most adventurous eater but I’m not worried he’s going to starve to death. He likes to play trains with me but can also play by himself while I fold laundry or clean the kitchen. He still agrees to cuddles and kisses and tells me I’m pretty – even if his favorite game is telling me to make a sad face and then laughing at me. Three year olds are like walking, talking contradictions and life is never, ever boring.

Likes include his blankie, milk, cereal, bagels, cream cheese, running, slides, the mall, Target, friends, the dog, the cat, the iPad, bubbles, watching TV, trains, dinosaurs, snow, lollipops, Daddy, reading books, baby sister, and being carried when he is tired.

Dislikes include being woken up, watching “Mommy’s shows”, sharing, sticky hands, wiping his own butt, and being carried when he is NOT tired.

Having my picture taken is LAME.

Not even in a booster seat!

Plotting things

Obsessed with cereal

On the look out for cereal thieves

35 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
• Describes how two objects are used – Yes, he can talk about trains and Legos all day.
• Uses three to four words in a sentence – His sentences have gotten SO much longer and more complicated (but also way more understandable) in the past week or two. Almost every day E and I look at each other in amazement and how much Evan understands and repeats.
• Names two actions (e.g., skipping, jumping) – Yes, but his favorite is “Be quite guys, I’m SLEEPING” when he is pretending to sleep.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
• Hops and skips – He can hop hop hop but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him skip (or asked him to skip)
• Follows a two- or three-part command – Yes, and I am ABUSING THE CRAP out of this milestone when I need something thrown in the hamper or the trash or when Caroline needs something. He’s a great helper.
• Separates fairly easily from parents – I would have said no until last Saturday, but the morning after the babysitter put him to bed he woke up asking for her and told me to go away. So YEAH WHO NEEDS PARENTS?
• Rides a tricycle – He hasn’t tried since last summer, but I’m betting he’s going to be a cycling machine once the weather warms up.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
• Balances on each foot for three seconds – I just asked him if he could do this and he picked up his foot and looked at me like I was a crazy person. DUH MOM, THIS IS FOR BABIES.
• Gets dressed without help. – He can take OFF his clothes, especially his pants and underwear when he goes potty by himself (by himself!!!!!) but he has a little trouble getting them back on.