I'm finally catching up on blog posts! Yay! Clearly, I procrastinated on Giuliana's 18 month update, as that happened in July. Now, she's approaching 22 months. So, we'll call this her 18-21 month update!
So far, this is and has been my favorite age range with all of my babies. When they hit 18 months, their personalities really start shining through. They're still snuggly and cuddly (although Rocco didn't GET cuddly or snuggly until about 21 months!), and they're busy and showing you what they like and want to do. They start to learn about independence and they're not really 'naughty' yet. Well, not on purpose, anyway. And anything that they DO do wrong... well, it's still kind of cute. And funny.
GIULIANA'S 18 MONTH GROWTH STATS:She continues to be very long and lean. She's one inch shorter than the boys were at 18 months. And, a lighter than Gabby was at 18 months. My girls seem to create their own growth curve, as the doctors tell me. And the boys fell at the top of the growth curve.
HEIGHT: 32 inches (75%ile)
WEIGHT: 18lbs 13oz (5%ile)
HEAD: 18.5
FUNNY THINGS SHE'LL SAY: - Omay = Open
- Batba on = B.atman on
- Pwess pway = press play
- Cocco = Rocco
- Gobby = Gabby
- Daggy or daddy = daddy
- Mon, momma, mommy = mommy
- Tweet or teet = treat
- Popkle = popsicle
- Buk = bug
- Wa wa = water
- Cook cook = cookie
- Chipies = chips
- Miw-kee = milky
- Deego = D.iego
GIULIANA's SLEEP PATTERN:
Giuliana naps once daily, usually from 12 noon – 2pm. Sometimes as late as 3pm. Giuliana is sleep trained so before her nap and bedtime, we look out the window, say good night to about 15 animals and say the sounds they make. Then, we sing “T.winkle, T.winkle Little S.tar”. Then, we say good night to her and put her in her crib with her purple blankey, her twin babies and sometimes a few extra babies, a book, or a specific stuffed kitty. It all depends on what her requests are on the way to bed.
She goes to bed beautifully. Sometimes she’ll sing or talk for a little bit, but then she just falls asleep. And, then sometime between 11pm and 2am, we hear her say “Momma? Momma?” or “Daddy, hold me?” And then, I go over and pick her up out of her crib and bring her into bed with us. She sleeps like a rock. Sometimes she’ll snuggle me…sometimes Dan, and sometimes she sleeps soundly just enjoying her own space between us. I completely and freely admit to loving this. As long as she can put herself to sleep at night without any drama - I’ll totally take a baby visitor in our bed. I wish I would have let Matteo sleep with me. But, at the time…who would have thought I’d only have 18 months of life to enjoy and share with him. I deeply regret not ever sleeping and cuddling him throughout the night once.
GIULIANA'ISM'S... THE FUNNY THINGS THAT STICK OUT IN MY MIND ABOUT HER:- If she hears anyone say the word “GO”, then Giuliana wants to go somewhere… she’ll run from adult to adult saying “Go? Go?” and then she’ll go and get her coat and shoes. This tends to be a bit of a problem if we’re trying to sneak out of the house to take one of the big kids somewhere!
- She constantly pretends to be a kitty cat. She’ll drop on all fours and start saying “Mew, mew, mew…” and then she’ll rub her head up against your leg. Sometimes, when you pick her up out of bed in the morning to hold her, she’ll start mewing… really loud… which makes us laugh. Not sure where the cat interest came from since Dan & I are both dog people. But, it’s cute.
- Giuliana has a po oping place. We have noticed that in the past month, whenever she has to poop, she’ll go over to her little kitchen area in our TV room… pretend like she’s cooking… and then she’ll run out and say “mommy poo poo!” or “daddy poo poo!”. She’s always very proud to announce this and I LOVE that she’s already so aware of the fact that she’s pooping! Hoping for early/eager potty training with this one!
- She’s been known on several occasions to wake up in the middle of the night asking for cook cook (cookie)or chipies (chips).
- She’s discovered the word “mine”. She likes to declare things mine and is always sure to get the last “mine” in when there is a “mine” war between her and Rocco, or her and Gabby.
- Gabby LOVES to snuggle Giuliana and wrap her like a baby, holding her in her lap. Giuliana has warmed to this in recent months and now lets Gabby baby her. It's pretty darn cute!
- She often likes to blame Rocco for things. I’m noticing this is happening less and less as we move away from 18 months. But, for example, if she falls by her own doing and Rocco is standing by her, she’ll walk over to me or Dan and say “Cocco made me fall”. We also often hear “Cocco took my blankey or book”, etc.
- It's impossible to take pictures of her... or artistic/fun ones of her because she moves so fast and has no patience for a mommy who likes to try and take cool photos!
- Giuliana loves to take her pants off and run around the house in her diaper. And, then sometimes she'll even pull her diaper down so her butt crack is showing and then she runs and runs, and laughs while Rocco or Gabby chase after her laughing, and calling her the little naked girl.
- Books: She LOVES, LOVES looking at books. She isn’t very good at letting you actually read to her… she prefers to flip the pages at her pace and look at all the pictures. But, she is most interested in books with animals and whenever she sees and animal she yells out the animal name with a “Awwww… kitty!” or “Awwwwww… doggy!”. And, sometimes that is followed by the sound that animal makes.
- Favorite TV shows are “B.atman” and “D.iego”. I think the love of Batman is so odd… I mean, have you ever watched it? So boring! But, I think this has just become a thing with her and Rocco… and she knows how much Rocco loves Batman, so I think that’s partly why she loves it so much. She’ll say “Batba ON!” Or “Deego on”.
- “Momma… pwess pway!” = Mommy, press play! Yes, she learned this from the big kids and knows when she should tell me to press play for the DVR or DVD player in the car.
- The first words out of her mouth in the morning are either:
1. “Mew, mew” and her rubbing her face up against my or Dan’s face
2. “Batba On!”
3. Humming “twinkle, twinkle little star” or “silent night”
4. “Mommy, cookie!”
- She often wears her purple blanket on her back like a cape. Dan calls this Giuliana’s “darth vader look”.
- When she puts her purple blanket on her back like a cap, it is quite the process… she doesn’t just pick it up and put it behind her and grab with the other hand to pull up around her shoulders. Instead, she grabs two ends of it, puts it over her head, and then slowly works the blanket over her head until one side is sitting on her shoulder tops.
- She is a GREAT eater… eats almost anything! Best eater of any of my kids… and my tiniest, go figure! Some of her loves include: hot dogs, corn dogs, K.raft m.ac & cheese, salmon, steak, avocado, peas, pizza, strawberries, bananas, blueberries, soup of any kind… even chili, potatoes done any way (mashed, baked, fries, potato salad).
- Favorite snacks/treats include: chocolate kisses M.&M’s, popsicles and ice cream. They all put smiles on her face!
- Favorite toys: baby dolls, baby stroller, and playing with Gabby’s dollhouse stuff
- At bedtime, she likes to turn on Gabby and Rocco’s sound machines and help us tuck them in before she goes to bed. She’ll run back & forth between their rooms saying “night, night!”, giving out her bedtime love.
- For Rocco being such a rough & tumble boy, he sure shows his sweet, sensitive side around Giuliana. Always looking out for her, getting her what she needs and sharing toys that he would fight with Gabby over. Or, yelling at us "MOM, GIULIANA NEEDS THIS (whatever that might be)!"
- She likes to pick out her own pajamas and clothes and is VERY opinionated about what she will wear. Try putting something on this girl that she didn’t want to wear and it is MELTDOWN city! I have never been able to dress either of my girls as I wanted to from the time they are 18 months old! Jeesh! Oh well… glad we’re raising little ladies with independence!
- She knows exactly where the treats and her treat basket are kept in our house. Thanks again to the big kids!
- She likes to dig in drawers and cabinets.
- She loves playing with all the goodies in mommy’s makeup bag. She actually plays in their more than mommy does! And, she loves putting lip gloss on.
- She loves putting mommies shoes on, and also trying on any adult shoes that sit by the front door.
- She loves playing with water, going down slides, swinging, and looking for bugs outside.
- She loves long walks and wagon and stroller rides.
- She loves picking and eating blackberries off the many blackberry bushes that live on our property. Not sure who eats more… my kids or the deer.
- She LOVES when the deer visit our yard and will sit at the window screaming with excitement and pointing at the deer. I swear they hear her and always get a little scared.
- She loves taking baths with her older siblings.
Giuliana is seriously just a GREAT kid! We love her SO MUCH! She’s so darn cute… and so funny. I think Dan and I really, truly just enjoy and love taking in all her funny little quirks and personality traits. Gabby and Rocco love her so much… which is completely evident every day as they constantly give in to her “mine” and share with her in ways that make me such a proud mommy. Giuilana is beautiful and a fun little handful… and we completely and absolutely ADORE her to bits!
We had the birthday party a week and a half before her birthday since her daddy was going to be on a trip with his pals in Colorado the weekend before her birthday. Gabby of course had no issue with the early party since it basically extended the span of her birthday celebration to two weeks.
The kids all LOVED choosing and building their own bears at B.A.B! After the bears were built and put into their own personal boxes to bring home, we found an area outside B.A.B to light the candles on Gabby's Hello Kitty cake and sang Happy Birthday to Gabby. It's fun to watch Gabby grow-up and how she reacts differently each year as people sing Happy Birthday to her. She enjoyed her friends singing Happy Birthday to her, but seemed to be very embarrassed whenever WE would sing to her outside of a party setting.
I think the party was a total success... Gabby had a great time and from what I hear & see... her friends & siblings all continue to LOVE their bears! Gabby also got a neat B.A.B. party souvenir... a bear that was signed by everyone who attended the party. Very cute idea!
And... the next day, Gabby and Rocco attended ANOTHER party at B.A.B! So, we now have LOTS of bears in this house with some very cute outfits. Rocco's bears have S.piderman and B.uzz L.ightyear costumes. He also has a B.A.B. from Maria, our last au pair, that has a darling C.ars pajama outfit. And, Gabby's bears are all glammed up with super cute outfits...think lots of sparkles and pink!
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