Kendall - 18 months

It's occurred to me recently that I haven't posted on Kendall specifically since she was a baby. For Taylor, I tried to post blogs after her well visits to document her vitals and milestones. Since we've had Kendall there have been numerous occasions that I have looked back at Taylor's post to compare. So I'm going to attempt to make this post all about Kendall.

Kendall is such a sweet child. I knew as soon as she was born that she was going to be my cuddly child and she is. She is contempt sitting in your lap or you holding her. Don't get me wrong, she likes to play and can hold her on. But she likes to cuddle just as much. Kendall is an awesome sleeper. She get's that from me. She usually asks us to go to bed for both naps and night time. She'll gather all her night night items, say 'night night' and head to her room. She usually goes straight in her crib, alittle humming at the least.

She loves her big sister. She looks up to her and recently copies/mocks everything she does - actions, words, songs. This can be good and bad. She's hurt herself a few times copying Taylor and they've gotten into screaming matches to see who can outdo each other.

She loves music and is a dancer. Since she was a baby, she knew how to do the chicken dance. Now she dances to all music and will attempt to sing along.

She's my social bug. Everywhere we go she makes friends. If she see's another baby, she'll try to talk to them "baby." We went to the library this week and before we left she had had conversations with two other children their. She has a real concern for other people's feelings and wants to know what's wrong.

She is part monkey. She loves to climb. She started walking at 10 months old. Not long after that, she was climbing on the furniture. We have found her on table tops at times. I keep waiting for her to learn to climb out of crib. She's tried before by hiking her leg up.

She seems to like animals. However everything is a dog to her.

She is so independent. I'm sure this is typical of most second children and beyond. But it still amazes me. At 18 months, she went trick or treating by herself, sits at the doctor by herself (ENT doctor in the chair all by herself for the exam), puts her self to sleep, gets in her carseat, brushes her teeth, attempts to put on her shoes. She loves to read books but must read them herself (babble). She does not like to be read to.

She's my texture baby. She had trouble starting solids, starting a sippy cup, etc. Even today some days she doesn't like certain foods/textures. We haven't had a problem with her putting non edible items in her mouth. And she also has to adapt to textures with her hands. She does pretty well with it but has to get use to the texture first on her own time. With eating, she'll usually play with it or touch it a few times before putting it in her mouth.

She's a biter and a hair puller. Kendall has been pulling hair since she was 6 months old. She still has that habit and even occasionally bites. Luckily, she's never bitten anyone outside of the four of us. Hopefully we can keep it that way. She responds well to time outs and reprimand. She listens most days better than Taylor, though I'm sure that will change with age as well.

At 18 months, Kendall weighs 23.8 lbs (42%) and is 33 inches (85%).

Her speech had a slow start due to ear problems but in the last few weeks had blossomed. Her vocab includes: mine, "side" (outside), doggie, woof, shoe, more, milk (maa), cheese, sit, Taylor, (Ta-da), dada, momma, uh-huh (yes), uh-uh (no), CiCi, glasses, night night,

She knows many body features: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, hair, head, fingers, feet.

She has seen almost every doctor specialty since she was born: Gastro (stomach), ENT, allergist, Opthalmo (eye),speech (texture aversion- feeding therapy). Luckily we have spared the most serious referrals and all she has is treatable at this point. She does have esotropia (cross eyes) and probably will wear glasses her entire life. At this point, doctors don't think she will be a surgery candidate (good thing). We hope that the glasses continue to work. As for gastro, there are still some minor questions of her possible intolerances. We won't know anything for sure until she gets older. Around two, our pediatrician may order some lab tests but even that might not tell us what we know. Right now, our only suspicion continues ot be oats. We have no reason to think anything else causes her probles, (wheat, etc).

So that's my Kendall in a nutshell. She is a pleasure to be around and I love her so much.