18 months!

Our little baby isn't so much a little baby anymore. She's such a little girl. I joked around the other day that she's 18 months going on 18 years. The girl definitely has a personality. She must not take after her mother :)
It seems like every month, she just continues to amaze us with how much she is learning and picking up on the things that we do. One morning, I was putting her hair in pigtails and I had her up on the counter in the bathroom. She loves to play with the water while I try and comb her hair and get it in the rubber bands, so I let her play for a bit. After putting her hands in the water, she moved them over to the soap dispenser and tried to push soap out, and then put her hands under the water again and rubbed them together. The simple act of washing her hands amazed me. I have been in the habit of just grabbing a wet wipe and washing her hands that way. So to see her do something that Phil and I do multiple times a day just shows us how much she watches us. Other things that she mimics us: blowing on her food (she does it no matter if it's hot or cold), brushing her teeth (well, she likes to suck on her toothbrush and not so much brush her teeth... which she has 9 now!), clinking glasses (Phil was saying 'cheers' and clinking her glass one night and how she will hold her glass out every so often) and then of course the adorable little kid gestures of waving bye and blowing kisses.
Another thing that I am super impressed with is that she almost leads us in her bedtime routine some nights. After she gets done with her bath, she will come into the kitchen and point to her bottle or to the fridge and try to do the sign for milk. She will either wait while we warm up her milk or some nights, she will go into her room and grab her blanket. Then we go into her room and she points to the chair we sit in to read books to her. Of course, some nights, she doesn't like any aspect of the bedtime routine and just wants to run around the house. But then again, some nights I am like that when it is time to go to bed!
She can say about 8 words and sign about the same number of words. I feel like this is a frustrating part of her life and ours because she can communicate some things, but not others. So I'm sure she feels like she is telling us exactly what she wants, even though we can't understand exactly what she's asking for.
At her 18 month check up, she weighed in at 22 pounds 8 ounces, which is a gain of over 2 pounds since her 15 month check up! Her favorite foods (for this week at least) are bananas, corn dogs, freeze-dried pears, pizza, graham crackers, fruit snacks and mandarin oranges. She loves going for walks and riding in her car. And she has definitely entered the 'I want to do it' stage and will push her stroller or her car around the driveway. We haven't noticed her favoring some toys over the others, but she continues to enjoy playing with balls, kitchen items, bubbles and chalk. Although we do know her absolute favorite thing right now is shoes (such a girl)! The child loves putting on shoes about every 15 minutes- whether they are her shoes or one of our shoes.

Her teachers at daycare say she is an absolute joy to have in the classroom and she rarely gets upset when she is there. We are glad that she is so easy going while she is there, but we are truly grateful for the wonderful teachers and loving environment. When I drop her off, she is full of smiles as soon as we walk through the doors and it makes us feel so much better to know how happy she is when we are at work.
I know the next few months are going to pass by in a blur. To think about what she will be doing by the next update makes me sad and happy at the same time. She continues to make us laugh with her giggles and funny actions. And we will continue to keep you posted on her wonderful adventures in Olivia land!