18 Months!

18 months already, where or where has time gone? Ashley Renee is an absolute riot and a little pistol... at least around those she gets warmed up to! She is in the happy one second and fussy and whinny the next phase. Sooo fun! Brian and I have an ongoing conversation on the best way to handle this, but it can be really hard some times when nothing makes her happy and she continues to be fussy. Those are the days where she goes to bed EARLY! A tired little girl does not help the situation. Brian is on his ER rotation this month and working a lot of nights, so they have gotten a lot of Daddy/Daughter time in during the day while I'm at work. She has her days, but overall he's loving this time with her! Besides those certain days, she has been a joy to be around and we love watching her pick up on EVERYTHING. She is repeating everything we say, some understandable, some not but gives us a laugh every time. "Bidy" is Brody and she calls (or sings) for him whenever he's not by her side. She treats him like a brother and yanks on his neck and says "out" to make him move out of her way. She loves to give him treats and tells him to "sit" and "stay" She claps her hands for him to come when we're at the park and will pick up sticks to give to him. Every morning she calls for him and he gets up on his hind legs to give her a morning kiss, she laughs every time. She likes to carry around her coat, hat, scarf, milk, and hippo all at the same time! She says "button" which means belly button and likes to pull up her shirt to find her's and everyone else's. She LOVES to dance and does the head, shoulders, knees and toes with all the motions(not exactly in the right order, but who cares right?), ring around the Rosie's is another favorite, but she falls down as soon as we start singing... well before the part that tells you to "all fall down". She gets so excited about seeing buses, "burds" and planes kicking her legs, pointing, and yelling whatever she sees. Her toes are her "piggies". We started saying prayers with her every night and as soon as we lay her down she puts her hand up to her forehead and does a circling motion saying "Amen" She likes to pick up the rocks at the end of the driveway when we come home and would keep them in her hand through dinner, bath, story time, and bed if she got her way. She likes to stand on the couch and look into our neighbors window calling for their "Kitty" Her hair has gotten so curly, especially after her hair gets wet. I've cut a little bit off the top and saved it, but she hasn't gotten a professional haircut yet. It takes her a while to get warmed up to new situations and I'm not sure if she's ready for the "first haircut" yet. The good thing with curly hair is it hides most of the imperfections because I can tell you I did not do a good job when I cut her hair. She looked up at the scissors as soon as I started cutting. She has a few spots of dry skin on her arms and back that we've been putting lotion on. Ashley calls it "soap" and wants some on her hand to rub in while we're putting it on her back. She says "eyes" when she wants another butterfly kiss from Papa. She plays with her ears when she's tired just like her Papa used to when he was little. This is usually a sure sign that she's ready for bed and almost always goes to bed really well and doesn't make a fuss when she goes down or wakes up. Good thing we have the video monitor because we would never know when she's awake. She likes to sleep with her butt in the the air and moves a lot in her sleep. She's still taking 1 nap for about 1 1/2-2 hours, but lately she's been asking to go "night, night" in the morning so she gets two naps on those days when Papa's home with her. Maybe she's going through a growth spurt and that's why she's so fussy!? We can always speculate, but never have answers. Wouldn't that be nice if we did!?