Eighteen of One, a Year and a Half of the Other: Baby B Turns 18 Months

Happy 18-month birthday, our little Baby Brigid! Can't believe 18 months ago you entered our lives. Can't imagine our lives without you. We were indeed blessed by our bonus baby.

Brigid has shown us what 18 months is like in the last few days. Aside from the aforementioned temper tantrums she's become accustomed to throwing, she has also started saying many words, some out of the blue; others are repeated when you say them to her. Yesterday, when I got home from work, she wanted to brush her teeth with her baby toothbrush, a rubber thing that slips onto your finger or the cap of the baby toothpaste tube. We put it on the tube and hand it to her generally and she has at it. Well, yesterday, I put some of the Orajel-brand ooze on the rubber bristles and she said, "teef. Bushhh teef." She said it over and over. She went around with that thing for about an hour telling her sisters, me, the cat, that she bushh teef. She says manana for banana and still says, though not necessary on cue, meesh? for please. She says kitty and mau (for meow) and baaa for sheep, woofwoofwoof for dog. This morning, as I was getting ready to bring Margaret to school and myself to work, she pointed at the television and said, "teeeveee teeeveee" over and over. I think I may have heard her say something for Patricia this morning as well but she said it so quickly I couldn't catch it and she wouldn't repeat it for me. Oh, how could I forget the staple of the American diet, hot dog? She emphasizes hot, as in HOT dog HOT dog HOT dog, over and over. Last night we went to Oak Street School for Patricia's open house. They served a hot dog dinner before the program and Brigid proudly announced to anyone around that she was having a HOT dog. This morning she was also walking around singing something. It was definitely a song, because she had a tonal quality to her voice as she was saying the words, but I couldn't make out what she was singing. She was also dancing at the same time, thrusting her hips out from side to side. It could have been the ABC song or Itsy Bitsy Spider, both of which we have been working on. Or it could have been any number of songs from Blues Clues or Sesame Street. She sings La la la la, la la la la for the Elmo's World song or whenever she sees a picture of Elmo.

Last night was a repeat of the night before as far as getting her to settle down for bed. I ended up once again having to put a screaming, sobbing child in the crib. She settled herself after only a few minutes -- she was exhausted -- but she has gotten herself worked up into a sweat the last few nights. I think she's just overtired, but it's hard to walk out on her when she's crying so hard.

Patricia and Margaret are both in chorus this year -- Patricia was in chorus last year as well. And Patricia was discussing this morning taking an instrument, either flute like Margaret or clarinet. I'm not sure which of the two would be most appropriate for her, but she's always expressed an interest in playing the piano so I'm kind of reticent to encourage her to take one of the other two. I'd love to have her learn piano. Our friend and Brigid's Godmother, Michelle, doesn't have another flute to lend us ;)