ALL THE BABY INFO YOU COULD EVERY NEED LEADING UP TO 18MONTHS CAN BE FOUND HERE!! This includes sleep training, breastfeeding, must have items for the first year, and so much more.
Wow, this one was only a day late (compared to her one year post which was about 6-7 months delayed!!)
I cannot believe our baby is 18 months old. She seriously looks like she’s three already (so tall and independent!) Every day I tell Troy that she looks even older than the day before. I try not to be too sad because I know that’s just how life works, but what I would give for those sweet newborn/crawling/cuddling with mommy stages. These days she’s OFF like a rocket and we can hardly keep up. Seriously though, if we accidentally leave a door open to a room she can’t go in, she beats us to it! She is so fast now.
Miller
Miller’s height is constantly off the charts at the dr office. It is always >99% on the growth chart. Her weight it always in the 80th percentile (probably because of her height) and her head is always around 90& – which we are hoping she grows into haha!
She has SO MUCH SASS. I call it an attitude but she just knows exactly how to press our buttons and tries to always see what she can get away with.
She also whines, A LOT. So much whining. It doesn’t help that she has had a pretty bad diaper rash for about a week now that we are having a tough time shaking. The dr now has her on some oral medication for it, poor thing!
She likes to throw fits when she hears the word know. A fit usually includes crying, or head butting something (right now it is usually the floor or the nearest wall), or she will just hit herself!
NO is also her favorite word now. We held off using it for as long as we could (we mostly used uh-oh unless she was putting herself in danger), and finally now at 18 months she is saying no right back to us. At first we couldn’t help laughing because we thought it was cute but we quickly learned that was a mistake.
She does love sitting in Mommy’s lap. When I am around she has to have my constant attention and usually she is crawling all over me or asking to be held by me. When it is just her or her dad she can self play all day long. What is that all about?
She loves stuffed animals, puppies, and giving lots of kisses.
She is very vocal and likes to talk a lot. I cannot wait for the words to become coherent haha.
She has quite a few words in her vocabulary now. She can say most things back (she has trouble with l’s), but cannot say a complete sentence yet. We read a lot to her and have her say words back to us. We point out things on our walks, we tell her all about colors, we are constantly talking to her and trying to get her to talk back. They say they should have a few words at 18 months and those include mama and dada. If your baby isn’t saying much more than that IT’S OK! They are still on track! All babies take their own time at things and and once they start school they will all be on the same level! Just work with them by constantly talking to them, but don’t force it. Their words will come <3.
Miller’s Schedule
She is down to one nap now (to our dismay). This happened around 17 months. We LOVED the two naps and recommend keeping that for as long as you can. We knew it was time because she stopped taking either her morning or afternoon nap. She would either roll around for an hour when we put her down at 9:30 or she would flat out refuse to take her afternoon nap. She would just play in the crib the entire time she was in there. That is when we knew she was ready. We went cold turkey on her and just started putting her down between 12-12:30. around 11 we would go outside and keep her busy for an hour and then feed her lunch and then boom it was time for her one nap. The goal is to keep them super busy when they start showing tired signs if you are switching to one nap!
7:30-8am wake. We actually sneak a book in her crib in the middle of the night so we don’t get her out of her crib in the morning until around 8:30. She plays in her crib until then and loves it.
8:30 get her from crib with a bottle of milk.
9:15/9:30am breakfast. eggs (we have to put cheese on them for her to eat them and some parents have to put salsa on the eggs), turkey sausage, turkey bacon, pancakes, eggos, We ALWAYS ADD either FRUIT or YOGURT. Toast with organic jam (only because you can usually find some with less sugar!) Breakfast is the easiest for us! If we are in a bind we can just give her cheerios and she is fine.
playtime
11:45 lunch. Lunch is easy because it is usually leftovers. She gets a meat, a veggie, and then we just try to add something sweet like cherries or another fruit she loves. She can’t get enough fruit. We do lunch meat, turkey burgers, leftovers, kids fresh meals like their spaghetti or their mac n cheese, and so much more!
12:30 nap (we sometimes give her a bottle before the nap and sometimes after it depends on how much lunch she ate or how long ago it was when she ate it!)
3:30 get from crib- she usually wakes around 3 but we leave her in there til 3:30 for self play in her crib.
snack time right away! She loves veggie sticks, veggie goldfish (they now have carrot or tomato), puffs of any kind, yogurt bites, or of course FRUIT! My sis has nutrigrain bars she gives her kids for snacks sometimes.
5:15/5:3o dinnertime. We try to feed her whatever we are having but if it is too spicy or hard for her to eat we give her one of the lunch ideas.
*she doesn’t use utensils yet but we really need to start trying!!!
Bella Tunno is our favorite for bibs and spoons. With every purchase they actually feed children. These bibs sales can feed up to two children a piece!
Miller sits in her high chair for breakfast and lunch and we usually turn the tv on while she is eating. This is usually the only time she gets tv. She eats at her own pace and watches tv and we can get so much done. At dinner we sit her in her bumbo chair at the table with us so she’s at the ‘big girl table’.
7pm down for bed. *she has not yet had a sleep regression! We got extremely lucky with her- she is a GREAT SLEEPER! But, we ALWAYS ALWAYS leave her lovey (her favorite thing in the world) in the crib. She never gets to take it outside the crib. So for nap or bed time we say ‘do you want to go see lamby’ and she gets so excited and tries to run to her room! When we put her in the crib with lamby she just giggles and is so happy to be reconnected.
Also- we used a mix of Moms on Call and Taking Cara babies to sleep train. You can find that blog post HERE.
Miller’s Likes/Dislikes
Miller loves:
baths
swimming
going on walks
picking flowers
puppies
waving at people
her lovey
any and all fruit
popsicles
being chased
being tickled
Mommy’s lap
reading books- we could read books all day long!
Puppy Dog Pals or Sesame Street
Miller’s Favorite Toys
She plays mostly outside with these toys (swipe through to see them):
oops and definitely get a bubble machine!
Indoor toys:
We have a subscription to LOVEVERY, so a lot of her toys come from there. Their kits are ALL WOOD- NO PLASTIC, and are catered to the specific age of your child. This is really how we have been teaching Miller most of what she knows. She can do things on cue like rub her tummy, stand on one foot, flex her muscles, stick out her tongue, etc all by Lovevery toys and books. They are now teaching her colors! It is so helpful as parents to have a head start in her learning just by using this toy subscription! I wouldn’t know where to start otherwise!
Other indoor toys and favorite books:
Where We Buy Her Clothes:
She still fits in the clothes we got her for Hawaii so I haven’t bought her anything new since December! We like shopping at Carter’s, H&M, and Monica & Andy. H&M runs big so always size down. Oh and if I am browsing in Target I always find something for her there too! Make sure to always wash their clothes on delicate and then hang to dry. That is what we do for Miller’s clothes and after 18 months we have never had an issue with quality!
Potty Training:
We bought a couple of books and we bought a potty. Yall- the first two times we took her diaper off and told her to go tee tee in the potty SHE DID!!! It was a miracle we were like omg our baby is a genius. The first time was pee the second was a huge turd haha! Well, we bought the kind of potty that talks and sings and I think it scared the crap out of her both times because she would get up and run to me haha! Now I think she is too scared to sit back down on it and tee tee because she hasn’t since. We even tried turning it off but the damage was done!
We will introduce it again in a couple of weeks and go from there. I need to start bringing her to the bathroom with me every time I potty so she can see mommy do it more.
We love the potty we picked out and I know she will too. It was probably just a shock for her. It is water activated so when it senses water it says YAY YOU DID IT and it plays music. We should have showed her a couple of times before just sitting her on it and then have it start talking to her from behind haha! We love it because we know exactly when or if we went so we can immediately give her praises and a treat for going.
Moving Miller
We are hoping Miller will still get to see her family often. She is just now at a good age to play with her cousins (she was too little and they were a little too rough with her previously), so it will be hard for to her have to leave them now. They DOTE ON HER. She is obsessed with my parents because she gets to see them often so that will probably be the hardest. We are hoping to still be able to see them at least once a month for awhile once we move. Especially once my parents feel more comfortable flying again after we can get a COVID antidote.
We are also hoping since we will be a little closer to Troy’s family they we will actually now get to see a lot more of them than before.
Besides for family, the move shouldn’t rattle Miller too much. She is so young and she will adjust well to the CO life. She absolutely LOVES being outdoors and we are coming up now to a Texas summer where she would either have to be in the pool or indoors most of the time.
Now is a great time to move since she is young enough that she hasn’t started school yet and she can get acclimated to the climate and area for a little while!
We may just have to get her a dog!!!
If I missed anything in this post please let me know! Happy to help and answer an questions I can.
