18 Month Update

On 10/10/10, Virginia officially hit the 18 month mark! Hard to believe we have a 1 1/2 year old. The last few months have just been an explosion of development, and it has been so fun to watch. Here are a few random highlights of Virginia's life at 18 months:

• Virginia likes to "sing" along to songs. She knows only a couple of words to each, so she just makes noise until we get to the word she knows. Her favorite is still Twinkle, Twinkle. She knows the following words in the song "how," "up above," "hi", "di" (diamond). She ends each song with vigorous clapping and celebration.
• Virginia officially has an Elmo obsession. Somewhere along the way, she began to conflate Elmo with another Sesame Street character, Abby, and she refers to both of them as "Abba." Its strange because she can definitely tell them apart, but she just pronounces their names the same way. She begs for "Abba" and points to the TV a lot, so we have to keep her out of the family room and keep the entertainment center doors closed a lot.

• Virginia can identify almost all of the major Sesame Street characters: In addition to Elmo and Abby, "Cook, Cook" is Cookie Monster, "Osga" is Oscar the Grouch, "Bur" is Bert, and "Go" is Grover.
• Virginia loves pillow forts. We keep all the extra pillows from our bed in corner in our room and she loves burying herself in them. After getting out of the bath, her favorite thing to do is to run into our room stark naked and collapse in the pillows. Luckily she hasn't had an accident on them!
• Virginia has graduated from the toddler tub to the regular tub. Bath time is full of lots of exploration in the big bath now.
• Virginia is definitely showing the early signs of interest in potty training. When we change her diaper or she sees a toilet, she proudly exclaims "poo, poo." She even will help wipe her bottom during a diaper change, which is hilarious.
• Thomas's best efforts at turning Virginia into a little tomboy appear to be succeeding. I'm sure we'll have our princess stage in the coming months, but for now, Virginia is interested in planes, trains, and cars! We live near Oakland airport, so when the fog is bad, the airplane flight paths will sometimes be changed to pass over our area. Virginia loves looking up in the sky and seeing a plane fly overhead. Her airplane noise is "shoooo," and she accompanies it with a cute little hand gesture that looks like a plane soaring. Trains are probably her favorite, though. She has a Thomas the Tank Engine toothbrush, so the evening bedtime routine is filled with lots of "chugachuga" and "TomTom."
• Animals are still a major obsession as well. Virginia's nanny Kim has a cat, Funston, and also recently got a bulldog named Charlie. Since the weather was so hot earlier this month, Kim has taken Virginia out to her condo complex to go swimming in the pool and to visit Charlie and Funston. Virginia comes home raving about the "kitty, kitty" and the "daw." And she loves "hops" as well (bunnies):

• Virginia likes to talk and Skype with her Mimi and Papa in Alabama. She remembers their names from their visits last month and now associates all computers and telephones with them. She will hold up a telephone to her ear, and when I ask who she is talking to, she responds with gusto: "Mimi!" I will ask "who else," and she'll say "Papa!"

We had our 18 month appointment with Dr. Oken recently, and our little V isn't so little anymore. She is 80% for height and 60% for weight (33 1/4 inches and 24 lbs, 10 ounces).