18 Months

Maren is 18 months old. I'm not sure how this has happened because I swear she was an infant last week. Suddenly she's a toddler. First, her stats: 34 inches tall (95th percentile) and 24 pounds (25th percentile). She has met all of her milestones including running, imaginative play, identifying objects by pointing, knowing body parts, etc. She has also started eating much better lately and we are nearly off of baby food altogether. She has always liked meat, cheese, carbs, and more carbs ... but lately she will eat broccoli and asparagus like crazy. Anything mixed with mashed potatoes is a hit too. And although she isn't fond of a ton of raw fruit, I've been making smoothies with bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and homemade plain yogurt that she devours. So, I'm pleased with the eating progress we've made.

And technically she is up to speed on her speech ... but I'm a bit concerned about it. She rarely uses words. Don't get me wrong, she communicates very well: pointing, making noises repeatedly, etc. And she understands words spoken to her frighteningly well. It just doesn't come out of her mouth in words.

So, the pediatrician has referred us to audiology for a hearing test. Since she has had 5 ear infections since last spring her hearing might be impaired. This is what I'm hoping, in all honesty, and that they'll recommend tubes in her ears. She has suffered from allergies, asthma, and ear infections most of her life and I can't help but think tubes would help. So, we'll see where the audiology thing goes.

Other than that, Maren is a happy, healthy little girl. With a lot of spunk. Unfortunately she's taken to biting and/or hitting Warner on occasion to get her point across - perhaps because she doesn't have the words to express her feelings. Or perhaps it's just because that's what she wants to do. At any rate, it's concerning and frustrating as I begin disciplining this behavior. She also pushed some poor unsuspecting girl down at the mall play area last week and pulled a girl's hair at the YMCA. Whew.

Warner has been kind enough to "help" me with parenting Maren in this area and tells me whenever she misbehaves. So nice of him, right? Well as we left the Y after the hair-pulling incident, I hear Warner say: "Maren, it's not nice to pull someone's hair. We really mispointed in you". Mispointed, indeed. Ah, the joys of parenting.