18 months old.....

our "baby" turned 18 months old a few weeks ago (ive been writing this post since she turned 18 months on feb 7....uggg!)....
"baby", "danka",  "danika", "sister"....she has many names around here....
i cant believe she is 18 months old! seems like yesterday finley was 18 months old and i was coming home with a NEWBORN!
so...lets dive right in....
some pictures i took on her 18 month birthday...

~danika's stats:
21 lbs 12 oz (15%)
32 1/4 inches long (75%)....and officially now too long for her pumpkin seat shes been in since BIRTH! she graduated to a "BIG GIRL" car seat and has been turned forward! this happened on 2/11/13.
her head is 19 inches around.
~she is in size 4 diapers, some size 12 month clothes (mostly pants) but mostly 18 months clothes.
~she sleeps in her crib from about 8-830 pm till about 7ish am...i go in and breastfeed her and then lay her back down and she will sleep till about 9 (if finley wakes up then, she now climbs out of her crib...and will come into danikas room to find me, then i am screwed and we all are up at 730!). she takes one nap now (at the same time as finley) in the afternoon for 2-3 hours. i dont really think she was ready to go to one nap, but it is very difficult to get her to take a morning nap when finley is up running around, or i am needing to run errands...she doesnt sleep "great"....she wakes easily and is hard to get back down...so at night when we go to bed, i TIP TOE into her room to check on her and to kiss her (matt jokes that we could tap dance in finleys room while she slept and she wouldnt wake...and that is true!)
~ the body parts she knows are: nose/ "no", eye/ "iiii", hand/ "and", toes/ "toooes", belly/ "belly"(then she will squeeze it!), head/ "ead", hair, "air", ear/"ear", teeth/ "teeeeeeth"
~she has 12 teeth...missing the 4 "pointy" teeth

~she EATS everything! i dont think we have found anything that this girl wont eat! i always say that danika is my eater (and finley is my sleeper).
~ i still breastfeed her 2-3 times a day depending on my work schedule. i will breastfeed her in the morning when she wakes up and at night before she goes to bed, and when i am not working i also breastfeed her in the afternoon before her nap. (or at dinner time if i am working and didnt feed her before nap).
~up until now, we were still giving her a bottle of breast milk at day care and when i wasnt home she was drinking her milk out of bottles (because she wouldnt drink it out of a sippy cup)...we kind of got scolded for that! at her 18 month well baby visit, our pediatrician strongly suggested to get rid of the bottle ASAP because it was doing her (ears and teeth) more harm than good....so......the last bottle she got was sunday night. feb 10th...she is doing ok with the sippy cup. she WILL drink out of it, if she HAS to, but i know she definitely prefers her bottle! she has no problem drinking water out of a sippy, she just really doesnt drink milk out of a sippy....i guess that will change when she realizes that the bottles have been put away!
~she LOVES to feed herself! and actually does pretty well! she uses a fork for lunch and dinner and will use a spoon for her yogurt...now that is a little messy...but she really has impressed me with her spoon skills! (i guess i should give her a little more rope and let her grow up rather than me always wanting to feed her! so she could "practice" more!)
~some of her favorite foods are apples (a whole one! dont cut it up for her!), cheese (string cheese or shredded cheese), yogurt, broccoli, strawberries (any fruit really) and mashed potatoes and french fries!!!!!

~she still has the greatest dimple on her right cheek
~her hair is still pretty thin, but getting long in the back! she rocks the mullet!
~she is super ticklish
and does EVERYTHING finley does! she IDOLIZES her big sister and it is so cute to watch their relations grow and them bond as sisters and best friends! she mocks finley all the time (monkey see, monkey do!). if finley is jumping, danika jumps (or tries!), if finley has a bow in her hair, danika will put her hands on her head and demand "bow!"
~she loves holding hands with me and finley...we have to hold hands walking down the hall, in the car, while eating dinner....just about always!
~she is always is up for a good game of ring around the rosie! she will grab your hand and say "ah-si ah-si?" (ashes, ashes)
~she is still a mamas girl to her core! 

 

~she is a climber
~she loves to "brush" her teeth (really she just chews on her toothbrush and gets highly upset if you take it away from her!) and wash her hands
~if she wants something, she will come to you, reach for your hand and say "gooo!", then will take your hand and take you where she wants to go...usually to the kitchen to get a cookie or to the fridge to get something else to eat!
~talking....she is starting to talk more...not very clear (although i can understand her), but she is getting there!
a small sample of danika language:
dadadada
mama!
dada (danika)
she has a word for finley too, i just have no idea how to type it!
duhduh (dora)
boooo (boots)
moe (milk)
cheeeeeeeeeze (cheese)
eeeeeeeeeeeat (when she want to breastfeed)
key key (kitty)
baa (ball)
boo (book)
baaaaa (bath)
fruuuuu (fruit)
miiiinnnneeeee (mine)
memo (elmo)
gaggie (doggie)
dada (santa)
be (bird)
shoooooo (shoe)
sak (sock)
bow
NO!
puppy (her stuffed puppy she sleeps with)
B (her stuffed bear she sleeps with)
ugg (hug)
GO! (when she wants you to go with her)
at (hat)
desh (fish)
mimow (pillow)
duck, wack wack! (duck, quack quack)
 mm hmmm and nods her head yes (yes)
RAAAH (every time i open the car door to get her out of her seat!)
key key (cookie)
wa! (walk)
wa wa (water)

she has such a sweet personality on her....
her smiles are infectious...