Jade grows up- 17 months

Wednesday, Jade was 17 months old. I still can't quite believe it. For some reason, 18 months seems like a huge milestone age and I'm in disbelief that my baby girl is so close to that age.

Sadly, the main things I can remember about this month right now are the last couple weeks and those have been pretty rough with all the teething. At 9 months, she had 4 teeth. At 16 months, she had 4 teeth. She now has 8 and many more on the way.

On a playdate with a new friend

Every now and then I look at her and realize that she's starting to be more toddler and less baby. The last time I dropped her off at MMO, she no kidding ran down the hallway to the room. I almost cried. I mean, where did my baby go?

She's talking more and more. Some of her new words are "bible" (very exciting), "book", "bubble", "more", "papa", "down", and I'm sure many more that I'm just forgetting right now. She's slowly figuring out what the sign "all done" means and doing it in the right context, which is helpful at meal times.

Up until teething hit, her sleep was the same as it had been, but it's a bit rockier now. Some morning she wakes up freakishly early (5 am) and then needs a morning nap but won't really sleep in the afternoon and needs to go to bed early (which I try to discourage because of the 5 am wake ups). So it's been a balancing act lately and we're just doing the best we can to help her get the sleep she needs.

She loves storytime at the library. It's mainly a "lap sit" program. We just sit in a circle and the leader reads a book and we sing little songs in-between the stories. Jade has started to try to do some of the motions, but mostly just sits and smiles and watches everyone else do it. Her fascination with other kids is adorable.

Wants to be like daddy

She's getting to wear she wants to walk most places, which I have been encouraging due to baby sister coming soon. But it's nice to have my arms free, although it might take us 10 minutes to walk inside a store :) She's also finally going up and down the stairs inside the house with no assistance. I make sure to be there beside her, but she does it by herself no problem and it's great not to have to carry her up and down the stairs 5,000 times a day.

Playing with mama's old backpack

She's not quite as picky with her eating as she used to be, so that's nice. There are still days that she doesn't eat much, but most of the time I feel like she's putting away a "normal" amount of food so I don't worry about her "fasting" days.

She's just getting more and more independent every day (not counting the clingy teething days!) and it's such a joy to watch her grow up, although it's a bit bittersweet as well.

She does love tight places...

*There will probably be one more "Jade grows up" post and then I'll do them yearly. I thought 18 months was a good "cut off" but I still reserve the right to change my mind :)