A couple weeks ago (5.8.18) Rylie turned 18 months old 😀 Since 18 months is considered a milestone, I thought I’d bring back the “monthly update” style and catch you up on 18 month old Rylie 😉
Likes:
- Cheese Sticks
- Fruit
- Talking
- Kissing her family (especially Emmaline ❤)
- Playing with Daddy
- Going to Papa & Grammy’s house
- Animals (especially dogs)
- Helping us do whatever we’re doing
- Running around
- Doing activities (like the park, zoo, McWane Center, Etc.)
Dislikes:
- Veggies
- Not getting her way
- Being set down in her crib
- Being in her carseat for any amount of time longer than 30 minutes (this is due to our trip to Florida where she was in her carseat for 4 hours)
Food:
Eating has never been a problem for Rylie. I say “food is Rylie’s love-language” often, and if you give her anything off your own plate, you’re her new BFF. 😝
She tends to eat a medium amount for breakfast (usually an egg, muffin or dry cereal or toast with some fruit), a snack for lunch (she’ll get half a sandwich and she just nibbles it and doesn’t get through it…) and a feast for dinner (this is the meal where we can’t seem to feed her enough haha). She eats pretty much anything we do, which makes meal planning easier. But she refuses to eat veggies! We’ve tried sneaking them into her meals but once it’s in her mouth she immediately sticks her tongue out and lets the food fall off – an evident sign that she is displeased with the taste. If she was allowed to constantly eat a cheese stick, I’m pretty sure she’d be in heaven. She will go up to the fridge and fuss while reaching her arms up at the door.
We do have to remind her multiple times throughout the day to chew her food! She eats like if she doesn’t shove it all in immediately, it is going to disappear.
Sleep:
Her bedtime has been moved from 7pm to 8pm and she’ll wake up the next morning between 7-9am. Although she is an amazing sleeper, there have been a couple occasions where the devil has messed with her and given her nightmares. At least, I assume they were nightmares by the way she was crying – we’ve never heard her cry like that before and it was heartbreaking.
She mainly sleeps on her belly with her butt in the air, and it’s so adorable! If we look on the baby monitor and her butt is in the air, that’s when we know she’s passed out.
We are still working on developing a bedtime routine, but she is drawn to looking at books or playing quietly before we lay her down.
Life:
Rylie loves life! Her joy radiates from her body and it’s evident more than ever that she has such a call on her life to bring joy and laughter to others. She covers her mouth when she’s giggling and slaps her leg in excitement. When she’s laughing really hard, she’ll snort, and it’s by far one of my favorite sounds ❤
We’re working diligently on growing her vocabulary, which right now consists of:
- Ryyyyy (Rylie)
- Dada
- Mama
- Em-me-my (Emmaline)
- Popo (Papa)
- Me-me (Grammy)
- Poppy (puppy)
- A-llllll-essss (Alex – Rick & Michelle’s dog)
- Peeees (please)
- Cheese (picture being taken)
- Heyyy
- Mi-mi (amen) – followed by a major hand-clap 🙂
Her hair is getting longer, which makes me excited because I can start doing things with it! Right now we rock the “pebbles ponytail” and pigtails. She is not a fan of getting her hair done though. I have to pin her down and she fights me by fussing and turning her head back and forth which makes it harder for me to tie those tiny, clear headbands around her hair, but once I’m not messing with her head, she’s back to her happy self.
Rylie has always been curious, but her curiosity has made it to top of her favorite activities list. She is constantly getting into something and “NO Rylie!” has become a very common sentence in our house. She definitely has selective listening, and she likes to run away when we approach her to take her new treasure out of her hand (this has included makeup, sharpies, Emmaline’s pacifier, a cigarette butt found at the park, and numerous other items).
Rylie’s attention span has lengthened too, so when we want to give her a treat and let her watch a movie she actually sits and watches a good bit of it. She also sat on Aaron’s lap and watched an entire baseball game and was very interactive with cheering. It was hilarious!
It’s humorous to me to think that less than 4 months ago we were anxiously waiting Rylie to take her first solo steps, because now she is running and cannot be contained 😝 She is a very active little one, and she knows no fear, which is awesome but keeps us on our toes as well. We’ve definitely had our share of scraped knees, and I know it’s only the beginning.
She loves books, which is wonderful! She’ll grab them off her shelf, sit and turn the pages and point at the pictures. She also loves playing with her toys, and I love watching her play by herself. I wish I could know what she was thinking while she played – I’d love to know what fantasy she’s created.
Ever since Emmaline entered our lives, Rylie has been infatuated with her little sister. This includes wanting to help with everything, rubbing her head, helping burp her, aggressively patting her belly (we’re working on “gentle hands!”) and sitting next to her any chance she can. Friends and family often comment on the unique relationship the girls already have with each other, and I quickly say, “yes – we love it! But Rylie is definitely anxious for Emmaline to be more interactive.” Which always sparks some laughter.
Rylie is crazy smart! Example – she has really enjoyed twisting things lately (like water bottle tops), and she also found that the bottom drawer in our bathroom has mommy’s makeup, hair stuff and cold medicine in it. Well, Rylie got past the child-proof top on the cold medicine and dumped a good portion of it onto our bathroom floor. Ha. She also has unscrewed the toothpaste cap and rubbed it against her cheek. She also decided playing with my makeup brushes was no longer good enough and grabbed my eyeliner one morning while I was getting ready and decided she wanted to have a go at it. Please notice the black dot on her cheek 😝 she had black dots all over her hand too and was thoughtful enough to share with Emmaline who was on our bed (she had 3 dots on her leg) hahaha.
We’ve since reconsidered where we put things and make an effort to close our bedroom door regularly so Rylie doesn’t get in.
Me:
One afternoon I took a good look at Rylie and realized I blinked and she had grown up. And I know I am going to blink again and she’ll be starting school. I always strive to be intentional in everything I do when it comes to parenting and spending time with my girl, but I find myself wanting to be even more intentional about documenting life with her! I want to remember the little things – like how she rubs her eyes when she’s tired, and “please” has no “L” and a really long “S.” I want to take pictures of the mess, because I don’t ever want to think I always had a clean house haha. I want to take pictures of everyday things, like how she hid in the closet and then got up to specifically grab her favorite stuffed animal to join her.
I was so worried that my relationship with Rylie would change once Emmaline came, but that hasn’t been the case at all! Rylie and I are still best friends and Aaron often says, “she loves her mama!” I melt every time she reaches for my hand and leads me to what has caught her interest, and I make sure I intentionally take time to see the world through her eyes and not be in a hurry to move on.
Anyone who interacts with Rylie knows that she leaves you with a smile, and every day I thank God that I get to be her mama. Any time I get to spend with her is so sweet and precious to me.
All that to say, every age is fun to us, but 18 month old Rylie is so amusing and enjoyable. We love our little monkey more than anything!