EVERLY 18 MONTHS

Age: 18 months?! Someone pinch me.  Where did the time go?
Stats: 26.7 lbs (89th percentile) and 32.5 inches long (72nd percentile).

Clothes: In between size 18-24 months and 2T's depending on the fit and style.  I haven't noticed a particular piece of clothing or style she loves the most.  She's pretty agreeable with whatever I put on her.  She is also in a size 5 shoe.  But she loves her Hunter rain boots.  She is constantly wearing them.  Even when we are just lounging around the apartment she asks us to put them on her.  I told Chad the other day we have got to get her another pair when she outgrows these.  They are by far her favorite.  She also loves wearing her winter hats.  Or at least pulling them off her head and trying to put it back on again, over and over.  She loves sunglasses, or any kind of glasses.  She also loves bows.  I have a glass jar of them displayed on her dresser and every time she sees them she pats her head saying bow over and over.

Favorite Foods: Waffles, pancakes, strawberries, watermelon, bananas, apples, goldfish and toast.  Carbs and fruit, my kind of diet.  Most of the time I can get her to eat chicken pretty well.  She'll eat broccoli every now and then.  Daycare says she loves burgoo.  But we've never tried it at home.  They also swear she eats carrots.  Some food she eats at daycare I can't get her to eat at home.  She drinks out of a regular cup really well now, as long as I'm the one controlling the cup.  The other day I was washing dishes and suddenly felt something splash down my leg.  Everly had grabbed my full cup of diet coke out of the cup holder in the living room, carried it to the kitchen and dumped it all over her face.  I was at least grateful she made it to the kitchen without spilling it.  When she's hungry or thirsty she'll come to us in the living room, do the sign language for more, and point to the kitchen saying more, "moe."  She's such a scavenger too.  Anytime Chad or I bring a snack or a plate of something different to the living room she eye balls us and always requests a bite, or a "bie."

Favorite Words:  Her vocabulary is really beginning to pick up.  She was a chatter box for months going on and on in her own little language.  But within the last few weeks we've noticed her trying hard to pronounce real words.  Her most common word is "Momma" of course.  She points to her head now and says "bow."  Uh-oh, bye, baby, and what's that? Max, Nana, and Daddy is "da".  She tries to say milk but it usually comes out "muh".  She recently started saying please and thank you and it melts my heart.  We've had so much snow recently that she's begun to pick up on that word as well.

Favorite Activities: Where do I begin? This girl is non-stop.  She loves to color, read books, play with her blocks, and pull everything in and out of the kitchen cabinets.  She loves to dance and jump around while I workout in front of the TV.  She loves to climb the couch and sit in the middle on the arm rest/cup holder.  Bath time is a favorite of hers as well.  It's usually a fight to get her out.

Favorite Things: My purse.  As soon as she swings it across her shoulder she holds her arm up, yells BYE! while she's waving and walks across the room.  She also loves to dig for my lipstick.  So I have to keep a close eye on that.  She loves my make-up.  I've only had to clean the carpet four times since we moved in two months ago.  She sits next to me every morning watching me get ready for work.  Shoes.  Anyone's shoes.  She loves picking shoes up off the floor and trying to put them on everyone's feet.  And her most recent favorite is her baby doll. 

Signature Moves: Dancing, waving and saying "Hi-eeee" to every stranger who walks by.  Pointing to Daddy and telling him to stop it, "top it" and "nnnnnnno" when he aggravates her.  When she's concentrating real hard she always points her big toe up.  I'm always bugging her to put it back down.  She loves to hold my phone up when she gets the camera activated and say "cheese".  She must have learned that from daycare.  I swear I'm not a selfie taker.

Mom's Proudest Moment:  Scrolling through my phone over top of my sleeping toddler sitting in my lap and dropping it right on her face. 

Dad's Proudest Moment: This was a few months ago now, but I have to document this.  Chad left the back door open one morning when he let our dog out.  A few minutes later he realized Max had not come in yet.  When he went out to the back yard to find him he found our baby walking around the side of the house crying and freezing cold.  Ooooooh Momma was pissed.

Other Milestones: We are officially going on two weeks with no paci! We accidentally put her to bed one night without a paci and didn't realize it until I made it back to the living room and saw it sitting on the couch.  She went right to sleep without it.  We decided to give it another shot the next night and she didn't seem to miss it at all.  The third day we sent her to daycare without a paci and they said she napped and acted just fine the entire day.  This is big stuff you guys! I swear this baby has been too easy.  We are in trouble with number two.

We love you Everly Morgan! You have brought more light and happiness into our lives in the last 18 months than we ever knew possible.