Kacey: 19 months

Kacey hit 19 months on February 1. I love this age. She is learning so much so quickly, her personality is starting to burst out, and she is able to play by herself and with her sisters for a bit. Though with that comes the illogical tantrums and a busy, busy body. But just about everything she does is so innoncent and extra cute.

Kacey is a jabber-mouth. She talks all day long. I took her to the doctor for her 18 month check up and the doctor asked how many words she has, if I had tried to count them. She suggested that the average number of words for a child her age is 5-10. I laughed... oh she has way more than that! Honestly, I don't think I can count them all. It seems that nearly everyday she has a new word. She attempts to repeat most everything she hears. She has just started putting two words together, most commonly "where (fill in the blank)?". Her phrases include, "Where'd it go?" "There it is!" She also might be the most polite toddler ever. She nearly always asks "please" for an item, and without prompting responds with "thank you!" She recently has picked up on "more" which she pronounces so well and "mine" and "no" have slipped in. I'd rather she didn't know those two, but with two older sisters it was bound to happen. Kacey is able to communicate most everything she needs, which is so helpful! Though that vocabulary could still grow. We do play the guessing game from time to time while Kacey simultaneously signs and says "please", with no context to back her up.

All three girls share a room. Typically Kacey goes to bed an hour before the older two. However, sometimes the three of them go to bed at the same time. When that happens we often hear Kacey in the bedroom loudly repeating, "Hailey. Hailey. Hailey!" or "Keira. Keira. Keira!"

She has started getting into pretend play, especially with baby dolls. She brings a baby and a blanket to me, asking me to wrap up baby, then she hugs baby and shakes rocks her. She puts her finger to her lips, "shhh..." and pretends to feed baby a bottle. She also has picked up on pretending to eat the play food from the play kitchen. Of course it's absolutely adorable when the puts a toy purse in the crook of her elbow and waves "bye-bye" and walks away.

Kacey loves books. She is a book monster. If I mention books she drops what she's doing and literally runs for the bookshelf. She grabs a book and pats the couch where she wants me to sit down. Kyle and I look forward to the day that we can sit on the couch and just sit. While we love to read books to Kacey, sometimes you just want to sit. Anytime we take up residence on the couch Kacey comes running over with a book to read and often throws it in our face. 

She loves to push the stroller around. She doesn't just walk with it, she runs. She zips all around the house and over obstacles on the floor. She has a toy lawn mower outside that she loves to push around too.

Kacey has become quite possessive of any objects she has been playing with, or wants to play with, or has looked at it in the past 24 hours. If the girls touch anything she thinks she has laid claim to she erupts in screams. 

Kacey's eating habits vary day by day. Somedays she will gobble anything up I give her. Other days I'm not sure what she's eaten. The only sure foods she'll eat are fruit. She LOVES fruit. And yogurt. She has a daily gogurt and apple sauce pouch- she'd live on those if I let her. She loves snacks and sprints for the pantry at the suggestion of it. She also will routinely devour eggs.

I recently took away Kacey's pacifier. She had gotten to the point where she would sneak it from her bed and run away and hide with it. She also talked with it in, or sometimes took it out to talk. It was a hard first few days, she was very sad to not have her pacifier with her. But she has moved on. The only problem is if she wakes up at night (which still happens often) I don't have the pacifier as a quick way to help her back to sleep.

Kacey's latest trick is jumping from the stairs, off the couch, and off the window seat in her bedroom. She has no fear and does it over and over and over. Maybe I should stop her so she doesn't get hurt, but it keeps her entertained and helps her burn some energy. She loves to jump on the trampoline at my parent's house and also gets both feet off the ground when she jumps from the floor.

Of all three girls Kacey is the least of a people person. She is scared of faces she doesn't know and is clingy to me. She screams and cries while I check out at Costco and the grocery store. Men with beards especially terrify her. She is not a fan of nursery. She stayed for the first time last week. When I checked on her I'm pretty sure she was whining and crying next to the door, but at least she wasn't screaming. So that's a success!

Kacey loves to color. On anything and with anything. So far the worst has just been pencil on the wall and dry erase marker on her shirt. I can't sit down and write without her hovering asking to color. "Color. COLOR!" 

Kacey loves to run and hide. Her favorite spots are behind the couch in the living room, behind the curtain in her bedroom, or just in the middle of the room either standing or laying down with her hands covering her eyes. She runs away at the mention of bedtime and brushing teeth, and of course while I'm trying to get her dressed- that can be a wrestling match.

While she may be busy, she helps keep us on our toes and sure is entertaining. It's fun to have another personality in the house to add to the chaos. :)