From this to that

Sophie was 18 months old on Sunday. It is hard to believe that this little tiny baby who cried all. day. long is now 18 months old. She no longer cries all day but she sure does do my head in. How would I describe Sophie? Smart, defiant, adorable, naughty, loving, funny, sassy, tempermental.







I know you aren't supposed to compare children but she is just so incredibly different from Saoirse. Whereas Saoirse is very shy and reserved Sophie is right out there. She has no fear of strangers at all and will walk right up to someone and start talking. Saoirse has never had a time out but Sophie is no stranger to the "time out stair". Saoirse cries when she gets in trouble, Sophie looks at you with a frown and continues to defy. She is much more affectionate than Saoirse was and said words like hug, kiss and I love you much earlier than her sister. While Saoirse has always slept with us and won't fall asleep on her own, Sophie has no such issues. At about 8 months old we would say "Are you ready for bed?" and she would crawl over to the stairs. Now she will say no if she is not quite ready, but within about 15 minutes she is going around for hugs and kisses and saying "nigh nigh". None of my kids were as great about sleeping as she is.

And because I don't keep a baby journal...

She still babbles a lot, but she also says a lot of sentences. "I want that" is her newest. She has just started counting, and is trying to sing along to the ABCs. She won't go to sleep unless she is holding her puppy or a doll. She can do the chicken dance. She calls me Emma more often than she calls me Mummy. She likes to put on her own socks. She is obsessed with shoes. She knows where all her body parts are. She stopped using a bottle on her 15 month birthday and given the choice she will use a regular cup over a sippy cup. She will not turn away a piece of fruit, but is not so keen on vegetables. She steals her dad's coke when he is not looking. She likes to drink tea out of a big mug. She loves animal crackers and rice krispie squares. She gets mad if you try and throw away her dirty nappy- she wants to do it herself. When it is thrown away she claps her hands and stamps her feet (the newest way for her to say "Yea me!") She likes to stand on the back of the sofa and jump down to the seat. She has broken one of the fake drawers under the kitchen sink because she opens up the cupboard door, holds onto the false front of the drawer and starts climbing. I had noticed it was loose and the day it finally came off she went flying down to the floor and banged her head. She cried for about 3 seconds, got up and tried climbing back up. She loves to be read to and knows if you skip a page. She insists that her name is Saoirse, not Sophie. "Who are you?" we say. "I Saoirse" she says. "No, you're Sophie." And she yells "NO!! I SAOIRSE!"

Today she had her 18 months shots. She weighs 26lbs 6oz and is 32 3/4", putting her in the 75th percentile for both. (Saoirse was 23 15 and 31" at the same age.) Her head is in the 90th percentile. She did not cry when she got her shots, she started to whimper with the second one, the one that stings, but stopped as soon as the needle was out. The nurse was very impressed. She was given a sticker and when we did the 15 minute wait she walked up to some woman who was breastfeeding her baby and started talking away. This is the jist of the conversation: "Blah, blah, blah, baby, blah blah, look what I got (shows the sticker on her hand), blah, see baby!, blah." The mum stops feeding the baby and shows her to Sophie who oohs and aahs, but thankfully does not do what she did to the last baby she saw, which was the old choke and hug manouvere.

I`m pretty sure that one day I will let Sophie read this blog, or print off the posts about her and I want that adult Sophie to know how very much she was adored as a toddler, how she made us laugh every single day, how sweet and loving she was. I hope that these are traits that last her the rest of the life.

Let`s just hope that the temper tantrums don`t last past this side of toddlerhood.