18 Months

The day after Skigh's birthday, Bailey turned 18 months. She weighs 24 pounds, 12 ounces (58th%) and is 33.5 inches (93rd%). She's getting thinner but is still pretty tall.

If you ask Bailey how old she is, she'll hold up one finger and say, "one."

One day we let Bailey hold two ice cream cones (she really wanted Skigh's). She looked down and said, "two!" We couldn't believe it. After that, anytime I gave Bailey two of something, she'd say, "two." I couldn't believe she understood what two meant and thought we had a genius child, but then we started asking her different things.... How many books are there? How many trees? And her answer was always two. So, I guess she doesn't quite understand what it means yet, but it sure is cute when she says it.

The other day I was changing Bailey’s diaper, and she wanted me to hand her something. After I gave it to her, she said, “Thank you, Mama.” I looked at her and said, “What did you just say?” Then she repeated, “Thank you, Mama.” I couldn't believe it. Somehow she had just picked up that phrase and knew exactly how to use it. She’s started to put little phrases together a lot lately. It surprises me what she picks up on her own. We've now realized that we need to be careful what we say because she's at that age where she repeats everything. The other day I spilled some juice and said, "shoot." Then Bailey immediately said, "shoot." And later I was telling Skigh how something was so stupid and Bailey said, "stupid." Oops. She's also started saying, "no," quite a bit. Not my favorite thing.

Bailey goes to nursery now. She loves being there but hates it when Skigh or I leave. It'll take a little time for her to get used to being there by herself. There have been a few Sundays where she's done pretty good and been happy through most of it on her own, but she always cries a few tears. I hate it. She loves music time. On her first Sunday, after every song they would sing, Bailey would do her "more" sign and look at me.

One of Bailey's favorite things to do is unload the dishwasher. Anytime I start to unload it, she rushes over and starts handing me things. And she'll hand me big, heavy plates. I always try to make sure I grab those before she can, but sometimes she catches me off guard. I'm just waiting for something to break one of these days.

Dancing is still one of Bailey's favorite things to do. She asks for me to turn on music on a daily basis.

Bailey is one of the most affectionate toddlers I have ever met. She is constantly kissing and hugging people or things. She'll say hi to her fork, then kiss it. Yesterday, she said hi to a little flag in somebody's yard, then had to give it a kiss. When we were in the airport on our last trip, she tried to kiss anybody we were sitting next to. (She'll only try to kiss women or children though, not men.) As we were leaving the plane, she gave all the ladies we were sitting next to a kiss. She gives hugs and kisses to the kids in nursery. You get the idea.... It's a little out of control. Our girl is very loving. Oh, and she's also very fair. If Skigh asks for a kiss, she'll give him one then immediately come give me one, too. It always has to be even.

Bailey has also started saying prayers. She squints her eyes, folds her arms, and whispers (for some reason, it always has to be said in a whisper), and then she says amen. Whenever she says a prayer, it's immediately followed by several others. So, we usually have to distract her to get her to stop praying (because we always have to stop what we're doing when she starts praying). She also says amen very confidently and loudly. In church, people will turn around and laugh when they hear her. She also knows exactly when to say amen and usually says it before anyone else. She also tends to sing loudly during the hymns. We can be distracting to sit by.


She also can somehow pick out Jesus in any picture. It's amazing. I showed her a picture of Jesus one time and ever since then, she always recognizes Him in any picture. It's pretty amazing. She also calls Him, "Jeez." It's kind of cute. When we were visiting my family, we were telling everyone good night before Bailey went to bed. We were walking downstairs to our room and passed a picture of Jesus. Bailey looked up and said, "Night, Jeez." It was so funny. I hadn't even noticed that picture was there.

I tried to get a good picture, but Bailey was not in the mood.