Sarah is 18 months old!

Sarah turned 18 months on Tuesday.  I can't believe how fast the time is flying by!

She had a checkup with Dr. Judy that day and did a great job being cooperative for her exam. She was fussy about getting weighed and measured, but was fine with Dr. Judy.  She then had to have blood drawn for a blood test for shrimp allergy because she has had 3 episodes of throwing up half the night after eating shrimp (at least we know it was shrimp the last 2 times).  Surprisingly, the tests for seafood allergy were negative.  Yay!  We're still not going to feed her shrimp any time soon, though.  She was such a trooper for the blood draw, but cried and fussed and called out for Austin (too cute!).  At her checkup, she was 28 pounds 2 ounces (91st percentile), 34.5 inches tall (99th percentile and the height of an average 27 month old!) and had a head circumference of 19.3 inches (97th percentile).  My big girl!

At 18 months, Sarah:
- Is talking a LOT.  She has well over 50 words in her vocabulary and is picking up new words every day.
- She is also very sassy!  She has quite the little personality and has a multitude of cute faces she makes when she is trying to charm her way into what she wants.
- She is starting to fight back a bit when Austin bothers her or takes toys away.  She now protests with "Hey! Hey! Hey!" or fusses dejectedly.
- She runs, climbs, loves chasing Austin around the kitchen, climbs the stairs, scoots on her bottom down the stairs, climbs up on the couch or chairs, and runs around the yard and driveway while playing with her cozy coupe, chasing bubbles, or drawing with sidewalk chalk.
- She adores her baby doll and pushes her around in her little doll stroller. She loves real babies even more and loves to point to their toes, eyes, nose, etc. and give them kisses.
- She loves to carry around a bag on her shoulder like it's her purse.
- She is a bit obsessed with shoes.
- She is getting long hair and may soon be able to sport a pony tail.
- She sleeps really well and is still taking 2 naps each day.
- She loves it when Austin goes into her room to "keep her company" when she wakes up in the morning or wakes up from her nap before Mommy or Daddy come in her room to get her.
- She tells me when she has pooped in her diaper.  Potty training, here we come!
- She recently went through a stage in which she would pull my arm down and kiss my elbow while I changed her diaper.  Odd, but really cute.
- She gives great hugs and kisses and is a good little snuggler when she slows down long enough.
- She loves to "help".  She wants to help cook, do laundry, unload the groceries, etc. and squeals, "Help! Help! Help!" when she really wants to do something with you.
- She is an absolutely precious gift in our lives and we are so happy to be her Mommy and Daddy!

Sarah just waking up from her nap, snuggling her Pooh bear.  She only gets her Nuk when she is napping or sleeping, but she is really good about throwing it back in her crib when she gets up.

 Sarah looking adoringly at her big brother.  She loves him so much that when he is upset, she tries to comfort him - even when he is time out for hitting her.

Here is a video of Sarah to show how much more she is talking now.  We got a few words on video, but she has many many more...


Sarah carting around her little cupcake bag.  She throws this over her shoulder like a purse and holds her arm up in the air to keep it on her shoulder.  Too cute!

Austin and Sarah pretending the playroom closet is a hotel elevator and going up and down the floors then emerging on a new floor every time they come out into the playroom.  They then load their bags on the back of their little car and train toys and scoot around the playroom with their bag of Pooh animals in tow.

I ordered some wall decals to decorate Austin's room (since I really like the one I got for Sarah's room a while back).  Sarah wanted to "help" me put it up, so Nanny gave her pieces of tape that she carefully applied on the decal.

I'm proud of how cute it turned out!

He's now got a monogram letter and cars/trucks/scooters/airplanes that match his bedspread.

And the extra cars and trucks went on his dresser.  All but the "A" are peel and stick, so I can change the around whenever we want. 

I also got some wall decals to put up in the playroom. Sarah had lots of fun "helping" Mommy put these on the wall.

We also had fun making some chocolate pudding for a treat the other day.  Austin and Sarah wanted to help stir the pudding, so Austin pulled his chair over to the counter and I plopped Sarah right on top of the counter (a rare treat for her).  They had fun and got messy!

Check out the little video of my helpers making pudding.
(Click twice to open in YouTube if the side of the video is cut off on the blog)

Enjoying the pudding treat after dinner.

Messy girl!

And last but not least, I just about fell over laughing when I saw Sarah do this the first time.  Apparently, she recently discovered the iPhone app that Brian introduced us to that consists of a big red button that makes 4 different sounds depending on the setting.  It can make cricket noises, golf claps, a rimshot, or trombone "waawaa" noises.  When Sarah pushes the button on the trombone noise, she says the "wawawawaaaaa" along with it.  Too cute!  Check it out.