19 months

Happy 19 Months, Shelby-girl!

I think I learned my lesson this month and from now on we will have to put your monthly sticker on your onesie before we put the onesie on you. All you wanted to do during our photo shoot was mess with the sticker, so at least half of the pictures we took ended up looking like this:

Oh, well! ;)  But we did manage to get a few where she wasn't touching and/or looking at the sticker! Here are a few more of Miss Shelby's 19 month pictures....

This picture was taken as Shelby was making animal sounds :)

Here is what Miss Shelby is up to these days....

 --The biggest development this month is that you are TALKING! You went from zero words, zilch, nothing, nada to about 20 words in literally two weeks! It was truly unbelievable! Your Early Intervention therapists/teachers told us time and time again that late walkers are almost always late talkers and that as soon as you got the walking down pat, the talking would soon follow. And boy were they right!!!
--Here are a few of the words you were saying as of your 19 month birthday: hi, bye, ball, eye, cat, bubble, Dada (you pronounce it "Gaga"), Mommy (pronounced "Mummy"), baby, apple, carrot, animal sounds (dog, cow, horse, duck, cat, monkey, & sheep), hat, book, beads, oval
--You have been able to identify a few letters in the alphabet for a while now, but you are now starting to be able to say some of the letter names which is really exciting! You can say the following letter names: A, B, C, D, E, G, H, I, O, P, T, Y, and Z. It's so cute to hear your little voice say the letters in the alphabet! :)
--You will give us a hug and a kiss now when we ask for it, and you are starting to give hugs/kisses voluntarily/spontaneiously too, which just melts our hearts!
--You are still loving to throw things, but thankfully you are mostly throwing balls these days! Most of your food is staying on your tray instead of being thrown on the floor, and you are starting to realize that it's not such a good idea to throw everything out of your crib when you wake up.
--You stayed at Grammy & Grampy's house without Mommy & Daddy with you for the first time. You had so much fun!
--Whenever we go grocery shopping or to run an errand, you say "hi" or "bye" or sometimes both to everyone we pass in the store! Most people think you're cute as pie and will wave back to you or talk to you for a minute, but there are a few people who just ignore you and you can't seem to understand why..ha! When people ignore you, sometimes you start waving more vigorously to try to get their attention..it's so funny!
--You have figured out that you can walk up the stairs in our house if you use one of your hands to balance yourself on the wall. (You can't quite reach the hand rail yet.) But if you want to get up the stairs quickly, you will still crawl.
--Since you can walk up the stairs in our house, you can now also get up the stairs on the playground behind our house to go down the slide BY YOURSELF! This is such a huge source of pride & independence for you, and it makes playing on the playground more fun for you...and for Mommy & Daddy too b/c we don't have to help you up to the slide every time. Yay!
--The last month or so, it has been a little difficult to leave you at Kid Swap b/c you would cry for the first couple of minutes after I left you. But I am pleased to say you are getting MUCH better with this!
--You stayed in the church nursery for the first time this month. The first time was hard, but now you are an old pro at it! When I picked you up from the nursery last week, there was a bit of a line so I had to wait to get you. I watched you from the window (you couldn't see me), and as soon as parents started picking up their kids you walked straight over to the door and starting saying "bye" and waving to every kid as they left....it was the sweetest thing! When it was finally my turn to get you, the ladies working the nursery told me that you were happy the whole time and just talking their ears off! I was so proud of you!!
--You are really starting to notice animals and want to get up close to them to touch them whenever you see them...but so far, all of the kitties & dogs we have run into always run away from you! ;)
--You are still a GREAT sleeper! You usually go to bed every night around 7:30 or 8, and wake up anywhere from 8-9am. You usually nap from 1-4ish. When you wake up in the mornings and from your nap, you will play and talk to yourself for quite a while.
--You love identifying your body parts. You know: eye, ear, nose, cheek, teeth, tongue, head, hair, fingers, toes, and belly.
--Mealtime continues to be our biggest struggle with you.
--You are still wearing size 5 diapers and you were mostly 2T or 3T clothes...although you do have a few 18 or 24 month shirts that still fit, and you have a couple of 4T hand-me-down outfits that we can already put you in. 

And a few more pictures just for good measure :)