Happy Half Birthday!

Note: Most of the pictures in this post are from Instagram.  You can find me at erinj413 if you're on Instagram and are interested in following me :)

To My Sweet Genevieve,

Happy half birthday, baby girl!  Yesterday you turned 18 months old, a year and a half--why is this such a big milestone in my book?  I have no idea--I was like this with 10 months too, for some reason double digits really got to me and now that it's been six months since your first birthday, well, I guess it's just hard for mommas to see their babies grow up, though it is fun.

Our early Christmas miracle--you were

so tiny even in newborn clothes, but you were certainly born with strong lungs!

On the move at six months, you rolled everywhere, even under the bed!

My one-year-old at the "Pumpkin Park" where we went at least once a week for months.

I barely got your shoes off you were so excited to jump in the pool.  Your bathing suit stayed dry all evening and your pigtails stayed in :)

 It has been a VERY hectic month for us because we moved (for the third time since you were growing in my belly) into our new house!  You love it here already, even now that we have furniture in it.  You have been a trouper dealing with all the packing, unpacking and boxes (which I haven't been able to bring myself to save for you this time around) and you've transitioned to being in the house rather well.  You've had a few rocky nights, and you're having a little trouble sharing your toys now that they are all unpacked, but you have plenty of good moments to make up for those.

The deck is your favorite "room" in the house, especially now that we have a (baby) pool on it.  I think you would live outside if I'd let you--though you might be eaten alive by the mosquitoes (unfortunately, you are at least as tasty as I am to them).  Water is your passion these days and it's rare that you are fully clothed and dry. We've been to the local splash pad twice and are going to check out our neighborhood pool soon.

Splash Pad Fun (at Jaycee Park)

Chilling out on the deck of the new house.

We don't have much of a regular routine of activities right now other than our weekly play group (which we hosted yesterday and had 11 mommas, 1 daddy and 12 kids under two attend!) and going to the Kids Klub at the gym a few days a week, but we've had fun showing the new house off to friends and family.  Hopefully we'll get back to the library (since you've now graduated to Toddler Story Time) and plan to check out Toddler Yoga at the library downtown soon too.

You are also becoming much more affectionate giving hugs, blowing lots of kisses and even giving a few kisses too if we're really lucky.  You have become a dancing machine lately and will start shaking your tail feathers to just about every genre of music and recently discovered The Jackson Five (I think you might have been born in the wrong decade!).  Your newest fan is our 85 year old neighbor who we go chat with and you give "five" to most mornings.  You're dying to see the inside of his house and love climbing the steps up to his porch to try to get a peek.

Animal sounds are still your favorite things to say, and gorilla has taken the lead as your favorite recently.  You are trying to say your name and right now it sounds a lot like "baby".  You say your own version of thank you and have used sign language for thank you a couple times.  You keep coming up with phrases of words you never just say like "do it" (I'll do it) and "got these" (I've got it/I'm taking care of it).  You're also starting to identify colors--you're pretty good finding blue, green, orange and purple when we play with chalk in our driveway.  You're still figuring out how to get into everything and my plan to just keep the doors shut to rooms and closets you weren't supposed to be in was foiled when you figured out how to turn the knobs to the doors nine days after we moved in!  So, as always, you're keeping me on my toes (I'm hoping you don't crack the code to the baby gates soon, though you've been studying them pretty intensely).

You've always been a terrific eater, but lately you haven't been liking much more than strawberries, cherries, sometimes tomatoes and LOTS of milk, but you seemed to be coming around to some of your normal favorites today (you had eggs for lunch and dinner today!).  I'm also starting to make you smoothies a couple times a week which you usually really like.

Vivie I love you so much and you surprise me everyday with what you know and how fast you learn.  I can't wait to see how much you've physically grown at your check-up next week...I'm guessing 34" tall (you were 32" at 15 months) and 28 pounds (you were almost 27 pounds two moths ago)...I wonder if I'm close this time?

Love,

Momma

P.S. I can't believe I forgot to add that you met almost all of your Schmidt great aunts and uncles who were in town from Minnesota for your cousin Jordan's graduation party and that we celebrated Father's Day by going to the Astro's game where you got to meet TWO of the Chick-fil-a cows!


UPDATE: You weighed in at 28 pounds 3 ounces, were 34" tall and your head circumference was 19" -- 90+ percentile in all three categories and nearly "off the chart" in height.  We're all starting to take bets on how tall you'll be as an adult :)