Eighteen months

I used to think it was funny how parents said their children were 21 months old. Why not just say nearly two? But now I see that there can be a world of difference between, say, fifteen and eighteen months in terms of development. More than that though, I suspect parents prefer to count in months to keep their children small, at least in their minds. Because it does indeed go by so fast!

Last week Juliette marked the eighteen-month milestone. She’s a walking, babbling little creature. I sometimes squat down to her size, tucking my knees under my chin, to see the world from her perspective. It would be fun to keep her at this mini-me size, but of course she must grow up and become a big girl.

She’s starting to understand us and if we say, “bring me my shoes”, she’ll go and get them happily (by this I’m not advocating child slavery). At Tata’s, she’ll do the same when she asks her in French to fetch the smaller baby’s shoes. If I ask her for a hug or kiss, she’ll (usually) do it.

All those toys she got at Christmas seem to keep her occupied only two seconds before she switches to another activity. And after the Ikea and toy catalogs, now it’s the Oprah magazines (thanks, Crystal) which really captivate her. The desperate cry for “baby, baby” means she wants us to sit with her and find the few ads with babies and animals in America’s favorite talk show host’s magazine. I’ve been able to read bits and pieces of articles in between the constant page turning. Her first crush may be on Dr. Phil at this rate.

Her vocabulary is growing fast these days, and I’m still tickled when she catches on to the English words. Since I last charted her progress, there are lots of new additions, including: ducky, doggy, stuck (well, it’s more like "tuck"), diaper, key, chee(se). She startled an old man at the grocery store by shouting at “chee” when were in that very aisle. There’s something resembling shopping, all done (all dumb), flower, up (which also means down for her), dirty, "la la" for light and probably a few others I’ve forgotten. You’ll hear a few on this video. Just yesterday she said her first “oh, la la” while the sitter and I were saying this famous French expression for some reason or another. Milk, however, is always the French baby word “lo-lo”. I guess there are some things I can’t change, at least not now.



So happy year and a half, little one. We’re so proud of you and we love you to pieces.