Fiona at 18 Months

We had Fiona’s 18 month check up last week. She had a little cold, but other than that, she is doing great. She weighed 20 pounds, 13 ounces. She is 31 inches tall and her head is 18 inches around. She is in the 10th percentile for her weight and 25th percentile for both height and head circumference.

Here is waiting in the doctor’s office:

 

 

Here are some recent photos:

Downtown during a street fair day:

While sitting on a curb waiting for John to get a coffee, the WORST caricaturist EVER drew this picture of us:

John came back in the middle. The guy took FOREVER and it’s not even a caricature. John looks like the Joker from Batman, Fiona looks possessed, and I’m looking sideways. He also told us that he was engaged to a Sports Illustrated model that he met four months before and that he had a big recording contract with a music studio in Santa Barbara. Basically, he was probably mentally ill. Next time I’m just saying “No Thanks.”

At the park:

 

 

She ran up and down this little hill:

Playing with an acorn squash:

Playing with a broom:

Playing picnic with John:

Playing with Chinchi:

Sometimes she gives him a raisin, and sometimes she eats the raisin herself.

Her doctor thinks she behaves exactly like any other 18 month old. We discussed lots of things about eating and her eczema. It’s getting a lot better but she still has patchy spots on her legs. We switched sleepers and that helped a lot. We also spoke about speech development. Fiona says “mama” and “dada” and we are pretty sure that she says dog. Whenever she sees a dog, she points to it and says “Doh! Doh!” John swears she actually said “dog” yesterday. She hums to herself and says lots of things that only make sense to her. I am sure once we are finished with the dreaded teething (yes, it’s back again, with a vengeance), she will be able to concentrate on speech. In the meantime, I am not worried. She’ll say things when she is ready. Right now, I like that she cannot repeat everything she hears ;)

Walking around the neighborhood and inspecting the lawn :

 

Riding her little walker in the house:

She was really amused at first, then got tired of it. She also really likes hanging upside down, running around the couch, and thinks it’s funny when I pop up from behind something with my arms raised.

Here she is sitting in the chair my mom bought her for Chanukah. Sorry the photo is fuzzy, it was taken with my phone.

Well I’m off to start addressing holiday cards!

Fiona and Ball

 

 

 

Take time to smell the tomatoes:

Fiona knows how to kick (and even sometimes dribbles) the ball, throw the ball, step on and off the grass without holding onto anything, and can enter and exit the house through the back door without holding on to anything. She is developing physically really fast. She dances to music from her toys, and will take our hands and make us dance with her.

I think it is a little ironic that we gave her a soccer ball because neither one of us has a great love for soccer or even wants her to play soccer. But she likes the black and white ball, so we let her play with it. The last thing we want is to have to get up at the crack of dawn to drive all over the place and stand in the cold fall and winter early morning for a soccer game. Hopefully, she will enjoy athletics that begin later in the day and that we can do with her.

John sitting, and then talking to Fiona:

Photos Photos Photos!

I took a lot of photos of Fiona this week. We had so much fun all week long, going for walks, going to the zoo, going to the beach and exploring the wet sand during low tide, playing in the backyard with Daddy. It’s been a great week and I don’t want it to end.

Playing the open the door, close the door game (where she closes the door and then we look through it and tap the glass, then she opens it again, repeat):

 

She does this in her room too, closes the door. But then she can’t open it and calls for us. It’s really cute.

 

Exploring the backyard with her “light saber” (really, it’s a bubble wand, but she looks very “Return of the Jedi” in some of these photos):

 

 

 

Take THAT Darth Vader!

It rained one day and John took Fiona out in the backyard. Later, we hung the coats in the shower to dry:

John’s coat is soooo much bigger than Fiona’s coat.

On the train at the zoo:

John waving hello:

After rolling downhill:

She wanted to play with some other children, but they were taking family photos, so we took her to the bouncy log:

After the zoo, we went to the beach. It was low tide and so much fun! We all had a blast running around in the shallow water.

Fiona was tentative at first, but soon she was striding confidently across the sand:

  

 

Silhouette and backlight:

Such a fun and wonderful day! The zoo was really crowded, but because we visit often, we didn’t care if we saw all the animals. Also, we got to see the dinosaur show, and that was fun for us (John and me, Fiona couldn’t care less).