18 months today!

Little Valerie, 18 months old today! A year and a half. Six months until you are TWO! Two years of happiness with our little one.

You are growing so much, in so many ways. "Milestones" are nice benchmarks, but really right now what I see happening before my wondering eyes is just so much development - you are getting better and better at doing the things you love to do. Your hands are becoming more dextrous at opening and closing things; your feet trip you up less and less. You are losing your fear of our big blue exercise ball - you've always been fascinated by it, now you are brave enough to run up and give it a big push to watch it roll across the basement floor. You have no trouble at all now putting together your puzzle, or shoving the plastic shapes into their respective holes in the play workbench-with-hammer set. You easily slide the wooden stacking blocks onto their pegs.

And, my genius baby, you now know almost half the alphabet!!! You can consistently identify A, H (which you call "hat"), I, K (which prompts you to lean in for a kiss), M, N, O, S, T (which you call "turtle"), U, and V (for Valerie!). Some of your new words include:

- "am-m" (album)

- "tr-tr" (turtle)

- "dow" (down)

You're still more of an animal person than a people-person. I've realized there's a real, strong cultural preference for babies and toddlers to be sociable and extraverted. People generally like to see babies and small children, especially if the little ones respond to them with smiles and friendliness and like to be held. Well, not this baby! You continue to be very wary of strangers, slow to warm up to our friends, and suspicious of other little ones. That's ok - I think both your parents were probably the same way when we were small (and maybe still are!). You can only be yourself.

But you LOVE animals. Real ones, toy ones, pictures in books, on videos - it doesn't matter. You always offer them a snack (and then eat it yourself) and imitate their sounds. The cutest ones you do are the elephant and the rooster sounds which are unfortunately un-transcribable.

You have short legs, long feet, a long torso, and intelligent forehead :-). Your hair is growing long, with cute little curls when it's damp. You still have your "Mongolian spot." You have two or four new teeth (I'm losing count!).

This month you weaned yourself, which still amazes me. You just decided you were done, didn't want any more, and that was it.

I love you so much and can't wait to see how much you learn and grown in the next six months!