Charlotte’s 18 months milestones

Charlotte turned 18 months a few days ago and I thought it would be a great time to recap what she has been up to lately. I recently read what Edward was up to at 17 months and it was great to be able to to read about it and know what I was thinking at that time.

You may be surprised to know that despite having thousands and thousands of videos and photos of him, our interpretation or understanding of the situation may have changed after all these years because we have forgotten the details and nuances of what it was like at that age.

Which is why I love relooking my instastories archives, because each story has a caption that guides me to remember what it was all about then.

Language

Charlotte and her favourite brother!

Her spoken vocabulary has really exploded in recent weeks. She was already able to say simple words like Mama and Papa months ago. Recent words she picked up include Elbow, Pasta, Egg, Nice, Bread, Up Down, Socks, More, Go There, Knee, Door, Tap, Purple, Banana, Dog, Meow, Bird, Breast, Bread, Baby, Por Por, Ge Ge, Ear, Nose, Snack, Bye, Milk, Shoe, Drop, Snack.

I believe she would be able to say more if we spent more time trying to get her to repeat after us. But we don’t see the need to push it so we just let her pick up the words as and when she wants too. In fact, her vocabulary at this age is way more than her brother’s!

Understanding

She definitely understands way more than the words she says. Lately, whenever we ask her where a certain thing is, she will either point to it, or go get it, or give the shrugging shoulders and hands signal while saying Oh? So cute!!! One time I asked “Where are my slippers”, and she actually bent down to look under the bed!

Feeding

I like to drink coffee and eat toast bread! 5 more please!

This is an area that has given us a lot of headache. From the time she started solids, she has been extremely fussy. Even after age one, there are more days than not where she’ll just have a couple of tablespoons of the meal and be done.We were worried because she’s on the 3 percentile so ideally, she ought to be eating more and putting on more weight.

It’s only in the last few weeks that she has shown a more substantial intake, partly due to us feeding her more of her favourite foods, and her repertoire of acceptable foods increasing as well.

Her favourite foods include: Bananas, Egg (White or scrambled), Pasta, Prawns, Oats with Fruits or Nut Butter, Bread

Foods she can tolerate but still gets bored relatively easily: Green Veggies, Shredded minuscule Bits of Meat, White Fish, Mushrooms, Capsicums, Corn, Tofu

Detests: Meat, Salmon

Sleep

The bedtime routine is pretty much a nightmare these days. She is now down to 1 nap a day which will happen sometime between 12-2pm depending on what time she wakes. She usually wakes between 8-9am but sometimes it is earlier or later. If we’re lucky, the nap will be a solid 2 hours at least, occasionally even 3 hours.

But at night, she some how has boundless energy. Even though we try to have her in bed by 9, resist it she will and end up falling asleep only after 11pm when she’s thoroughly exhausted herself as well as our patience.

She doesn’t fall asleep on her own. Most of the time she latches to sleep (when willing to sleep). If I am not around, someone will have to walk her or pat her to sleep.

Favourite Activities

What me? No I didn’t wet the floor? And I can be Rudolph even if it’s March!

Listening to YouTube songs. Andre Rieu is a particular favourite. I try to limit her exposure to videos with the person just standing there singing or scenery, as opposed to flashy animation. An exception is when I let her watch German children’s cartoon songs. Unfortunately she’s had far far more screen time (TV and Laptop) as compared to her brother at this age.

She is extremely active. She has no fear climbing up and down the sofa or bed. If she gets bored with her meal, she will unbuckle herself and stand up on her highchair. I am so fearful she will find a way to climb out of her crib that I no longer leave her to cry it out alone in the room.

For the longest time, she hasn’t been receptive to books. She’ll spend 5 seconds listening to me read before running off (yes she can run) or trying to rip the book apart. Lately I’ve noticed that she will take books and flip through them herself. If I suggest to her to take a book, she’ll come with one. But her attention span is still low and half the time I don’t even get to finish the book.

Copies everything……

Loves going out! Similar to her brother at this age, the minute she hears that we are going out, she zooms to fetch her shoes!

Loves pointing out birds, dogs and cats! It is the funniest thing when you ask her what a cat says and she replies “mao”.

Loves playing with water. Insists on holding the water spray during bath time. Insists on taking over the watering can when I am watering the plants.

Other random things she does

Stealing our slippers and wearing them throughout the house
Taking our keys and playing with them and losing them
Fiddling with buckles, knobs, toy keys
Rummaging through the house
Pulling out clothes from drawers, sometimes stuffing them back
Taking wet wipes to wipe the floor (when I am doing so)
Still screams bloody murder when I try to change her diaper
If she’s done a big one, she will keep really silent about it until you find out

Follow Charlotte on my Instagram!