A Year & a Half

Aria is a year and a half young already. In 6 months we'll be celebrating her turning 2. It's hard to wrap my head around it. I definitely notice with my kids when they start to reach 18 months, their personality comes out even more and they learn things faster. It's like overnight they go from a 1 year old still looking at the world and taking it in, trying to interact, to 18 months and they're in full swing of copying everything they see, thinking they can do everything everyone else can, and interacting with the world around them rather than sitting on the sidelines. Aria understands a lot more when we talk to her now too and responds. I know soon enough we'll be having actual conversations.

Weight: 23 lbs 4 oz (58%)
Height: 33.5 inches (98%)

Aria has doubled (at least) her vocabulary. I can't even remember and list all the words she says now. She is stringing them together into 2-worded sentences too:
Let's Go!
It's/Ball Mine. (She's become very possessive over things. We hear this out of her mouth the most.)
It's cold.
It's hot.
It's stuck.
Mommy? Where'd go?
There ya'go!
All clean.
What's that?
Bye Bye, Cali/doggie.
No. Don't Want.
No. Stop it.
Sorry.


I just love how excited Aria can get over things. When I'm making the kid's dinner and am ready to bring the dishes to their little table, I say: Ok, let's go eat at the table. Aria will start running to her chair and plop down. -even if she had spent the last 5 minutes crying while trying to get me to hold her.
She's obsessed with the kiddie pool and water table on the deck. She'll bring over her sandals and once they're on, she'll say: Pool! (sounds more like: Pooh) We went to the community pool for a once a month free day, Aria went in with me and was so relaxed. She even tried to put her mouth in the water on her own. But after I totally dunked her head under, she wasn't so fearless.
Though Aria still likes to protest and show her independence with saying No, she has learned to shake her head Yes.
Aria can point to the following body parts when asked, and say a few of them as well:
Nose, Mouth, tongue, feet, toes, fingers, belly, butt, eyes, ears (though she calls her ears eyes because Frederic is teaching her to say ear in french (oreille) and she's getting the sounds mixed up.).

Aria started waking up at 4am like Luc used to do around this age. At first we thought it was teething since her canines came in early and right after the next. But her molars aren't showing anything yet, so I thought it had to be something else. I've adjusted her pjs and air vent in her room since she's so fussy being the right temperature when she sleeps.  That still didn't help. Unlike Luc, she won't go to sleep in her crib if we come in and lay on the floor. She wants to be picked up, and still doesn't fall back asleep most times. Sometimes she was hungry and wanted a fruit/veggie pouch. So Frederic and I thought to push back dinner a half hour to an hour later, eating at 6pm instead. I was also reading on how many hours of sleep at this age Aria should be getting, and how long, realistically, she should be sleeping through the night and also adjusted. We've pushed back bedtime to lights out at 7:30pm and so far it seems to have helped. She's woken at 2am because she lost her pacifier, but when I give her one she goes right back to sleep. Then she's either awake at 5:30 or I have to wake her up just before 6am. I've also added the crocheted blanket my aunt made her to her crib. I think it gives her a little more comfort. Fingers crossed this continues to help...I am one tired Mommy.