18 months

It’s been awhile since I have done an update on my little Miss Millie, and I thought her 18 month milestone would be the perfect opportunity to check in. So much has changed since she turned one, it’s hard to keep track of it all. Every day, she does something or learns something new and it is so awesome to see. She really never ceases to amaze me with how much she changes and evolves into this tiny little person with seriously the best personality.

From the second she was born, Millie has always been an awesome sleeper. We have been down to one 2-3 hour nap a day for a few months now and she still sleeps around 13-14 hours a night. I’m not even kidding. She goes to bed around 7:30 every night and wakes up around 8:30-9:30 every day. It is the most amazing thing ever. I mean, I don’t want to brag, but I don’t feel like I have been sleep deprived because of her since she started sleeping through the night at 2 months. She definitely gets that from her dad’s side of the family, and I’m not even mad about it.

Millie is still eating like a champ, and is only picky about a few things. She’s really not a huge fan of meat, unless it is covered in ketchup or barbeque sauce or if it is from a restaurant. I don’t know what it is, but she will always eat meat when we are out and about. She loves fruit (mostly bananas and grapes) pretty much all kinds of veggies (especially tomatoes, avocados and green beans), eggs, pancakes, goldfish and spices. Holy cannoli is she her daddy’s daughter. Some of the things she will eat amazes me because it is so spicy! We haven’t really come across anything she really hates, but she will have days where she won’t eat something that she used to love. I can’t say I blame her, I am the same way sometimes. She is weighing in at a whopping 28 lbs, which isn’t far off from where she was at her 12 month appointment and I adore every single one of her baby rolls. Some people just love to pipe up and tell me how chunky she is, and I can’t help but laugh. To me, she is absolute perfection.

Amelia is babbling all.the.time. now. It’s still hard to make out what she is saying most of the time, but she does have her own words or signs for certain things that we have figured out. She says “ma” for milk and more, “baba” for water, “ouigi” for Luigi the Frog and “ha” with her hand to her mouth for hot. She knows the sign for more, please and thank you. She does this thing where she walks into the kitchen on her tippie toes to look on the counter while dramatically rubbing her belly like “mama, I am soooo hungry!!”. Girl after my own heart! She has just recently started carrying on full conversations with us using the same words over and over again with huge hand gestures and facial expressions. We have absolutely no idea what she is saying, but I have a feeling that we’ll figure it out before too long. All I know is, it is absolutely adorable.

She loves, loves, loves dancing and music of all kinds. She can reach the radio and turns it on all the time. She loves Motown, Social Distortion, The Muppet station on Pandora and Flogging Molly. Seriously, she is the coolest kid ever. If it’s a song that she really like or that she dances with her Daddy to, she will walk up to us with her arms up so we pick her up and swing with her around the kitchen. Our kitchen is most definitely made for dancing. I wish I was able to link some videos because she does this awesome slow head bob when it’s a song that she is really into. Makes me laugh so much!

Millie loves to help with anything she can. She likes to “help” unload the dishwasher (as in, play with the soap dispenser while I unload), clean up water and milk spills, pick up her toys (and then dump them back out again), feed Bailey and take her outside, and fold laundry. Such a sweet little girl. I just can’t get over how fast she has grown from a tiny little baby to this beautiful girl. She has her moments of temper tantrums, hitting and what I like to call the “gimmie gimmies”, but it isn’t very often. I adore her with all of my heart and am so excited to see how she continues to grow!

Also, I’m realizing while writing this post that I use Instagram a lot. Like a lot. I need to get better about using my actual camera!

dressed in her holiday finest

Even though my little Diva didn’t have a chance to wear her Christmas dress this year, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put it on her for a few Christmas pictures. Yes, this is way late, but I have been caught up playing with Millie in her new tent that time just passed by. It finally dawned on me yesterday as I was taking down decorations, and since she was in an extra silly mood I figured that was as good of a time as any. Keeping with last years theme, I put her in the same basket that she was in a year ago. My, how she has changed. I mean. Holy. Buckets. Of adorableness.

I know that I’m biased, but come on. Stop it with those cheeks! Total heartbreaker already. Luigi the Frog made an appearance into a few of the pictures, which I think is perfect. She loves that little frog and I love that I will have pictures to show her later in life.

This sweet little thing continues to amaze me everyday. She is the funniest, most headstrong, smart and opinionated little girl and I couldn’t be more happy about any of those. I love that she has her own sweet personality with a fiery temper that we all know came from her mama. I love that she has her own style and way of doing things, and gets upset if it doesn’t go as planned. I love that she will pull me into her tent and make me sit down so she can either tackle me or curl up in my lap to read a book. She has changed so very much this past year, I can’t wait to see what 2014 has in store for us!