Life According To Me, With a Eighteen Month Old

Already? My baby is no longer a ‘baby’!

To me, Ava is still my little baby, but at this stage in her life she is not considered a baby. Gone are the days of breastfeeding, infant car seats, long naps, crawling and pureed food!

I remember the days when I wished I knew what she was thinking. Now, I understand what she is thinking and if not she will let me know! Language skills are definitely an aspect of development that differentiates babies from toddlers.

Ava started using a lot of words around 13-months. Some of her favourites – Mama, dada, bye-bye, hi, done, book, meowwwww, duck, Moo, Quack etc. In the last month, Ava has gained the capacity to associate words with other things better. She says things in syllable form – BOT-TLE, TI-GER. As a parent, it excites me every time she learns to pronounce a new word and realizes she has done it right.

I recommend introducing creative activities and crafts early to children. Ava’s new favorite activity is playing with Play Dough despite the recommended age being two years. Ava doesn’t try to eat it and even if she did it is non-toxic.  She can’t do much with it, but has learned how to smash the dough and roll it. She also loves to play with little dough balls I make for her.

One other thing that differinuates Ava from a baby is that she is no longer content with me doing everything for her. She wants to be a big girl. For example, she rather rather feed herself now. She’s slowly learning how to use a fork and in the last couple of days it looks like she is on verge of perfecting the technique.

I have talked about all the great things, but none of the bad, right? No, not everything is perfect! We are really struggling with teething. It constantly disrupts her schedule and for the last three weeks everything is out of sorts. Sometimes she simply will not fall asleep no matter what I do. She will be up at 12:30, while I sit there thinking, “Am I a bad parent, what am I doing wrong?”.  Obviously, I don’t think I am a bad mom, but like most moms I constantly question myself.

How is your life with you baby or toddler?