18 Months

My girl is 1 1/2 years old! 

Josie is 30 1/4 inches tall and weighs 20lbs 2oz. She is still the smaller sister (by 2 pounds and about 4 inches), but it won't be long before she weighs more than Sophie. Josie is still wearing 12 month clothes, but is starting to outgrow them. It won't be long until she and Sophie are wearing the same clothes.

Josie popped out two teeth this month. Her last molar came in and her bottom right canine came in. Her top right canine looks like it is going to coming soon as well and I know the other two won't be far behind. This poor girl has been teething for so long. I can't wait until she has her full set. 

Josie's hair has been getting so long. Her bangs have been in her face for weeks. I'm not ready to take her for her first haircut yet so I decided to try out a little ponytail. It is so adorable! Whenever we take the rubber band out her hair continues to stay straight up on her head. Hilarious!

Josie is listening so much better. She will stop doing something when we tell her no. She might test her luck and stared us and then try again, but she won't do what we asked her not to. She will also go and get balls if we ask her to. If we ask her to clap her hands or dance she will do that as well.

Josie still isn't walking or even standing on her own. She will stand for a long time while holding onto something, but she isn't brave enough to let go. I've tried tricking her into doing it, but she will lower herself to the floor instead. I can't decide if she is extremely cautious, stubborn or both.

Josie's services with First Steps still haven't started yet. We will see speech for the first time in two days. They still haven't found a physical therapist to work with Josie though, which worries me. I really would like someone to give us ideas to help her with standing and walking. I tried asking our pediatrician about her muscle tone and for tips to help her walk, but he said I should talk to the people about First Steps about that. (I was so frustrated by his lack of help!) Hopefully our service coordinator will find a PT for Josie soon. 

Josie loves sensory play. I've made up a couple different sensory boxes and she really enjoys playing with them. She likes taking beans and throwing them all over the place and running her hands through them. She also likes to take cloud dough and stuff her hands and it. She laughs as she rubs her hands and feet and shaving cream. Her all time favorite sensory activity is playing with water. Nothing makes her happier!

 

The girls love when we get the hose out and make puddles in the driveway. Josie cracks up while she splashes through the puddles and through the stream of the hose. 

Here are some other pictures from this past month:

Josie absolutely loves popcorn!

Josie enjoys flipping through the pages of picture books. She studies the pictures and flips back and forth between the pages and cover. Her favorite books to look through are When Sophie Gets Angry--Really, Really Angry and God Loves You. 

Mornings snuggles with these two are pretty darn wonderful. 

Even though she won't say the names of the people in the photo album, I know that Josie recognizes their faces. She loves looking at it and chews on her favorite pages. 

The girls both love swimming and they get really excited when we fill up the baby pool for them. Josie loves crawling in and out of it and splashing water all over the place. 

Josie wasn't too impressed with the aquarium.

Kaci spent the night with us. It was so great seeing the three of them playing together.

We went to Joe's work to have lunch with him one day. The girls loved getting to see him, and he loved showing them off to his co-workers. 

Josie rode the carousel for the first time. She liked sitting on it before the ride started. She was moving about on it and exclaiming, "Wheeeeee! Yippee!" When the ride started she liked it at first. Then she started to shriek a bit, cry and tried to leap off of the zebra. 

Rachel joined us for one of our zoo trips. We had a lot of fun with her. It is so helpful when we have people go with us, especially when we do things like ride the train. 

Josie's frustrated face. 

My friend Angela was in town and brought her two youngest over for a visit. We tried to get a picture of the 4 together, but Josie and Audrey weren't having it! 

I love that Josie and Sophie are making the exact same face in this picture. 

Josie has become even more interested in Cosmo this month. She gets really excited when she sees her and pats her (when Cosmo allows it, that is).