Ashton @ 18 months

My baby is 18 months! How can this be? I'm pretty sure we had Ashton's first birthday party just last week. One thing is for certain....she is definitely no baby anymore!

Here are a few stats and updates:

Height: 2 ft., 8 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 23.5 lbs (50th percentile) -
So she's perfectly average!

* Her vocabulary is exploding. She is daily adding new words and tries to repeat much of what she hears. The words I'm hearing the most these days are airplane, pleee (please), get dow (get down), all done, where are you?, wow wow (for dog), hi, hello, du (duck) and baby. At this same age, Olivia's vocabulary consisted of only a couple words and those were the same words she had starting staying around her first birthday. So this time around, it's fun to have Ashton talking much sooner.

* She's still a pretty good eater although she can be picky about certain things. Right now, I'm having difficulty getting her to eat vegetables unless they are sweet potatoes or butternut squash. But she LOVES all fruits. She would eat only fruit all day long if I let her.

* While Ashton loves playing with her big sister (or least when her sister isn't stealing toys from her), she is really good as playing independently and entertaining herself. Often I'll find her in a room alone looking at books, stacking blocks or playing with a baby doll.

* She's an awesome sleeper! She goes to bed without a fuss and doesn't get up in the morning until you go into her room. Unless I have to wake her up, she just quietly lays in her bed wide awake in the mornings until I come in. Never makes a peep. She also naps at least two hours in the afternoons. Although in the afternoons she has started occasionally yelling "Hi!" or "Hello!" after she wakes up to get my attention.

* She is obsessed with dogs. She gets very excited when she sees them out on the street, in books or on TV.

* Ashton hates having her diaper changed and her teeth brushed. These frequently involve wrestling matches in order to get the task accomplished.

* She gets exuberant when her Daddy gets home from work. Loud squeals and excited running happen when she and Olivia hear the keys turning the lock on the front door every evening.