Alivia Pearl: 18 months, the novel

Holy Smokes!  When did I become a mother of a one and a half year old?!  Well, it was on 12-28-12 to be exact.  But still, holy beepin' smokes!  Luckily, I have a petite little thing who doesn't really talk so I get to enjoy the baby stage a bit longer. 

Sleeping: Livy will take a second nap about 60% of days and only one nap 40% of the time.  She has gotten worse at sleeping through the night.  She'll wake up every now and then in the middle of the night and want her pacifier or to have us hold her.  You see, she was weaned from the pacifier and sleeping through the night so this is a huge bummer for us!  But we now live in a hotel with common walls where people might complain (resulting in us being kicked out).  We hit a low point the other night that ended in Mommy tears, Livy tears, and Daddy frustration.  Our hope is that these new bad night time sleep habits are due to the fact that we share a hotel room, her pac-n-play is about a foot from our bed, and we rush to her every little cry to eliminate the possible complaints.  We'll see if she improves once we move back into our condo.

Eating:  She's improving!  She will now have ground beef, chicken, pulled pork, tri-tip, and many more meats!  She still loves all the same stuff as before, and still has some pureed fruits and vegetables, but she's experimenting more.  The other night she loved a Thai soup with bamboo, chicken, carrots! 

Growth: Alivia weighs 22 lbs. and is still just a little thing.  Some of her clothes don't fit her in the waist and strangers point out how little she is all the time.  Clothes - 12 months and 12-18 months.

Language Skills:  She can say, "hi" in the highest, wispy, soft voice.  She says, "Bop."  And that's about it folks!  She is starting to babble a ton more though and I sense more words on the horizon.  Update: she learned "no" and "ouch" recently.  She can say "mama" and "dada" when prompted, but won't say it to get our attention or to reference us.  As her doctor said, "well, she is definitely at the low end of the speaking spectrum."  Well, I just have to respond to that by saying, "no duh."

Social Skills:  She still loves people, and loves to be in social situations.  She has never been afraid of gender, age, race, grooming habits, or any other difference and varieties found in society at large, but is afraid of good old Santa Claus (well, she's actually afraid of Christmas: tall trees, blow up figures on front yards, Santa). 

Fears:  She is afraid of Uncle Tanner right now because he has stitches on his chin.  I told her Uncle Tanner has owees and to tell Uncle Tanner that she is sorry that he has owees, and she turned to him, nodded her head yes (which means please, thank you, sorry) and then promptly looked away.  When she is afraid of something (the moon, airplanes, etc.), she won't really cry, she'll just have you hold her and then she'll lay her head down on your shoulder.  And if you can't hold her and she's in her car seat or stroller, she'll close her eyes and turn her head into the side of the seat after shaking her head no.  The most fearful thing we've encountered, besides Santa, is the car wash.  But she tries to be brave and doesn't cry as long as I hold her hand and talk about the car needing a bath and describe the loud sounds and machines.  Her being scared is annoying, but her cuddling us a ton is awesome.  So, I guess it's a wash.  The only real frustration was her fear of the bath (she's now cured).  Cody ran the water a bit too hot one time (not hot enough to burn her or anything, just uncomfortable) and then ensued weeks of "I hate the bath, will resist going in, and then just stand-up in the bath" behavior.  I'm hoping all these fears are just a phase.

Nicknames: Livy Pearl, Liv, Baby Biz, Siwy, Sil (short for Silly), Sis, Livy Dish (compliments of Uncle Redge), Dish.  I call her Baby Girl too often.  I'll sing, "Liiiivy Pearrrrl is my baaaaaby girrrrrl in the world today - oh yeah, yeah, yeah." and other such nonsense all. day. long.  I'm pretty stupid about 89% of the time.  And couple my singing voice with these impressive lyrics and it's Cody's living nightmare come true.  Many times though, Cody will ask me where I learned this song or what the title of that song is and I feel so incredibly awesome knowing that I just made up this or that song to help Alivia enjoy a required task, like getting dressed. 

Behavior Problems: Livy has started to tantrum.  She doesn't do it often, definitely not daily, but she will throw her body in a fit, and if we're really lucky she'll do her tantrum dance.  Really, she does a cute little twist and prance when she's tantruming.  I personally think it's kinda cute.  The other new thing Alivia does, which is our parental kryptonite, is a sly smile while closing her eyes (so that they are basically shut with the smallest sliver for sight remaining open) and doing a Steve Wonder head figure eight pattern when we are stern and tell her not to do something.  It is so cute and funny and both Cody and I have to turn away from her so she won't see us laugh.  It's fairly obvious we think it's hilarious though.  And sometimes we can't conceal our laughter.  And our baby Livy girl wins again, not that she is able to do that thing we told her not to do, but she wins in that our stern, self-important, sense of seriousness has been replaced with giggles.

Loves: Her bunny, dancing, the park, people, music, small spaces, chairs just her size, independence (especially when climbing stairs), dogs, horses, books, being in Mom and Dad's bed, her tongue, and sugar (obviously).

That's entirely enough writing.  Bottom line is: she's older.  She's stinkin' adorable.  And she's our big baby girl who's not a baby but I call her one anyway.