18 Months

Our sweet girl is 18 months. 18 months! A year and a half! 6 months from 2! What is happening in the world!?

She's pretty wild and destroys everything she comes in contact with, but she is so. dang. cute. We can't get enough of her.

She is super in to brushing her teeth and her hair. She walks around all the time with either the hair brush or a tooth brush in her hand. She can make some pretty wild hair-dos for herself...

 Is it just me or does she look huge in this picture?! 98%ile in height is screaming at me right here. At her last appointment I was told that her weight to height ratio has her at being over two years old. 

Terrible Two Tantrums have already begun. She slowly works herself down to the ground until she is flat, face down on the ground. Not gonna lie, it's kind of cute (for like 5 seconds).

I really just love this "my life is over," -overly-dramatic position.

She loves wearing things. Anything she can wear, she will...glasses, hats, necklaces, Shae's undies. You name it.

What she is most obsessed with wearing are back packs and boots. Obsessed. While at grandma's house last week she wore boots out in the garden with my mom and dad and thus began her obsession. Every day she goes searching through the house for Ba Pa and Boos (the other day I was taking her back to my room to put her down for a nap and we passed the boots on the floor and she yelled out, "Mah boos!!" haha! So cute!) 

She is also super in to her hat, of course, something else to wear. She has really taken a liking for coloring/drawing lately too. She always wants the markers over anything else. Her face and arms are usually covered in marker when she is done.

Cooking with the Ba Pa too!

Belén has some great facial expressions that she throws at us. My favorite is when she is excited, surprised, or she drops something. Like an "uh-oh" big eyed, O-shaped mouth. I wish I could catch a picture of her doing it. When Eye of the Tiger comes on or we roll down her window in the car she throws it at us and it is the best.

This girl knows how to push Shae's buttons. She will grab his brown blankie and then look up at him and walk around him to get his attention. Same with his favorite blue sippy cup or toys. It's so funny how she knows what his "special" items are and how she wants to see how he will react. He does the same thing to her.

Her favorite animal noises (well, the ones she can vocalize) are "quack" "woof" "moo" "elephant noise with the arm swing" and "roar."

She loves showing off her belly button. Darin recently came out of the bedroom after showering to grab something, he only had shorts on. Apparently seeing his belly button reminded her of her own because she immediately pulled up her shirt and tried to show daddy that she had one too.

She has not been as quick to say words as other kids her age, but in the past week has been picking things up quickly and copying things we say. She's really good with the B sound. She says Ball (Baw), Back Pack (Ba Pa), Boots (Boos), Bubbles (Bo-Bls) and Bee Bee (Baby). Ball was her first word (other than Uh-Oh and mama which I don't really consider the "first" word since every kid starts there. Not that ball is far from that...)

Dressing up a girl really is so fun. I was so excited to pull out this BYU dress that my girl Molly gave us.

And a few more of her in her daily garb because this is literally what she looks like every day. This time with an O's lanyard around her neck and some sneakers that grandma got for Shae, but Belén claimed them first.

Shae loves having her wear this backpack too. He runs around putting stuff in it and then saying, "Come on Belén! Let's go to school!" (aka: a huge pile of pillows and toys in their room. They both sit in it looking at books and it is adorbs). 

I know Darin is making a weird face in this picture, but this girl LOVES her daddy, as in, she chooses him over me! What!?  Knew thing for me since Shae is a mama's boy through and through. The other day she couldn't fall asleep so I went in and picked her up and she started shaking her head at me and adamantly saying "da-da..da-da!" Daddy came in, took her and she immediately stopped crying and put her head down on his shoulder. Still flabbergasted. Here is a glimpse at her excitement when he comes home from school:

She has this awesome strut that she does when she walks, kind of like a little bounce with her arms dangling and bouncing at her side. She also has some killer dance moves and a ridiculously high squeely laugh.

Sleeps like a champ. Two hour nap from about 1-3p.m. is the norm and usually 7p.m. to 7:30 or 8 a.m. No sign of climbing out of the crib, thank our lucky stars.

She eats just about everything we give her, but will nonstop eat hummus and fruit snacks if we let her (not together). She does not drink milk. Seriously though, I give her a cup every. single. day and she takes like, two sips, and that is all. Thankfully she loves yogurt and cottage cheese (it's just so much messier!)

So happy we get to call her ours!