Look Whooo Is 21 Months Old!

I have done a horrible job at keeping up with my blog. It's just kind of fallen to the bottom of my priority list. Also, I can't upload photos from my phone. It shows the last pictures that I took to be on July 4, 2014! I don't know why new ones won't pop up. I've gotten a new phone and a new computer since then, so I'm not sure what's going on there...

Anyways, I really can't believe that Audrey is 21 months old! I seriously feel like she should still be a baby, but she is such a big girl! She's my super social butterfly, loves to wave/say hi/bye as we're entering/exiting the grocery store, loves being the center of attention, loves making people laugh at her, loves her family (could seriously care less if Mommy and Daddy are around if she has grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins around!), and loves sleeping really long hours at night in order to avoid taking a nap at any and all costs. Sometimes it's nice that she can suffice on such little day sleep (Six Flags, for example), but most of the time it's a bit frustrating (like today when she played in her crib for 30 minutes only to lay down for a 45 minute nap). I'm already thinking that she'll just stop taking naps altogether by age 2 (nooooo!!!)....but her night sleep remains at 11 1/2-12 hours (12 1/2-13 hours if she needs to catch up on sleep), so should I really be complaining????

We had a speech evaluation done on her. I expressed some concerns to her pediatrician around 18 months old that, though she has a lot of words (or at least a lot of sounds for words), nobody can understand her. Also, she knows/can say most of her letter sounds. Yet when she puts those sounds together in a word, it's completely jibberish. Example: if you ask her what a snake says, or what the letter "S" says, she'll say "sssss", but when she tries to say the word "shoe", it's "ga." She says the word "mama" very clearly, but the word "milk" is also "ga." So I don't totally understand why "milk" doesn't at least start with an "m" when she says it because I know she can make that sound. Anyways, she didn't qualify for speech therapy. She had to have a 25% delay across all areas (cognition, expressive communication, receptive communication - how she understands the language, gross motor, fine motor, and social-emotional) OR a 33% delay in one specific area. Everything but receptive and expressive communication measured as a 20-21 month-old (no delay); her expressive communication skills were measured as an 18-month-old (14% delay), but her receptive communication skills measured as a 29-month-old!!! I knew that she understood a LOT, but I didn't know that she understood around the level of a 2 1/2 year-old! I was pretty impressed with that. I got lots of compliments on how personable she is (no surprise there), how well she attends to, and engages with adults, and how she separates from me easily. OK, now this turned into a shameless Mommy brag, but still, I was very proud of how well she did for the evaluation! I was told that we need to focus on her using more 2-word phrases (which was one of my concerns about her speech going into the eval), and not using her middle finger to point, but making her use her index finger more.

Anyways....

Weight: I really don't know. I'm guessing around 25 pounds. She usually gains about a pound per month.

Length/Head circ.: ??? If I remember correctly, they don't measure head circumference after 18 months. We don't go back for a well-check until age 2.

Clothes: Still fits comfortably in 18m clothes. Some are getting a bit snug, but they should last all summer. We'll probably have to find 24m/2T (not sure which one we'll go to) this fall...around her 2nd birthday

Sleep: Goes to bed at 8pm and wakes up between 7:30 and 8 (8:30 if she's really tired) the next morning. Naps....ha! What 21-month-old needs a nap (this seems to be Audrey's mindset as of lately)

Eating: This girl is such a great eater! She just discovered a new food that she loves: Veggie Straws! I've tried them; they really are pretty good. The one food I've seen her reject over and over is a hamburger/cheeseburger. How can you not love a cheeseburger? I made some last night, and I heated up some macaroni for her, but I broke off pieces of a hamburger patty in her macaroni to make it kind of like a goulash. I noticed she wasn't eating the meat, so I asked her to eat some meat. She put it in her mouth, chewed it, shook her head "no", and gave it back to me. :-/ I guess I can't ask for more than that...she did try it! :)

New Achievements of the Month: 
1. Can say "help" really clearly
2. Has learned a few colors: blue, red, and green. She knows blue receptively (can you find me a blue Lego?) and expressively (What color is that? Blue) and says blue like "boooooo!" with a really long ending.
3. We had lunch with my parents on Wednesday for my dad's birthday and something happened and I said, "Oh, Nana," to my mom. She copied me saying that (very clearly, too) and now she says it all the time, only names will change (Oh, Nana; Oh, Mama; Oh, Dada; Oh, Karys)
4. She loves copying me when I say, "Oh, bummer!"
5. She says "thank you" very clearly, with the exact same inflection in her voice that I use when I say it to her, and uses it spontaneously/without me having to prompt her when I give her something. I love her sweet manners!
6. When I tell her we're going bye-bye, she'll say bye to everything we pass: Bye Ninja, bye floor, bye chair....not all the time, but quite a bit!

Likes:
1. Tickling everyone/everything - Mama, Dada, Ninja (we don't let her, but she always asks to), ants, the floor....apparently she doesn't quite "get" who/what can be tickled :)
2. Pushing her baby stroller around that Karys gave her
3. Ducks! She has suddenly developed a love for ducks. I made the mistake of finding a duck video on Youtube, and now she wants to watch it all. the. time. It has a weird song that plays in the background that gets stuck in my head, but she loves it!
4. Singing - put anything to music for her and she'll love it!
5. Dancing
6. Clapping for herself for a job well-done

Dislikes:
1. NAPS!!!
2. Not getting her way - I fear we're approaching the "terrible 2's"!

In all seriousness, though, she really has a sweet, easy-going disposition about 95% of the time. I think we'll keep her around for a bit longer!