18 Months!!!

Wow, I can hardly believe that Em is 18 months.  Emily is doing very well, growing and changing every day.  She continues to amaze us, I can not count the number of times Paul and I just look at each other and say did you hear that or did you see that.

The terrible twos have started...some days I can not wait for Paul to get home and help.  Emily likes to run the show around here and is one stubborn little girl.  Her favorite word is "No" many days, and has her idea about how things are suppose to go.  She is also the most sweet girl ever, and loves to help mommy out.  She has one chore of putting away her dirty clothes in the hamper, and does a very good at it (sometimes too good of a job).

Behavior is a new "issue" but typical of her age.  She knows what things are "no" around the house, and likes to test us.  She has started to have her babies do these things.  She knows that she is not suppose to touch the shelf of CD's, so she will go up to it and touch them and say no - no.  Then she goes to get her baby and makes the baby doll touch them and flip them off the shelf.  Baby or Oliver (the cat) get blamed for many things Emily does as well.  I do not know how many times I hear "baby did" during a day.  So Emily and Baby have started to get time outs, and baby always gets out of time out first while Emily remains for another minuet.  It seems to be helping some though the one time I threatened a time out Emily pondered the decision, did what she wanted to do and then marched right over to time out - put her arms up and said "up" for me to lift her over the gate into the time out area.

Sleep continues to be a battle at our house, at 18 months Emily has yet to sleep through the night (except the random times that add up to three in her whole life).  It is very normal for her to wake three or four times a night still.  I know much of this is habit at this point, except when she is having a tummy flair up and then she wakes from discomfort.  We just have not been well enough long enough yet to get a good sleep routine established.

She has well over 50 words, speaks in phrases and babbles lots of sentences.  She does all sorts of "tricks" but does not preform on que with others around :)

She is now just over 20 pounds (3 ounces over) and 31 inches tall.  She is doing very well on her Gluten and Wheat free diet.  Paul and I have decided to put off any formal diagnosis and testing as far as Celiac Disease goes.  Emily would have to be on a full gluten and wheat diet for 8 weeks before testing can start!  She would have blood work first and then a colonoscopy and biopsy of her small intestine to test.  After many discussions between us and the doctors we have decided to put this off.  She has started to actually gain weight, and is developing well, on her new diet so we are not up for changing things just yet.

Update on our little man, my OB doctor is having me come back in more frequently from this point on due to increased contractions and dilation.  I am suppose to take it easy, that is not always easy with a toddler!  Paul does a great job helping me out with things once he gets home.  But we do not want this little guy thinking he can come sooner than he is suppose to.  I am over 25 weeks now - less than 15 to go!  We are still pondering name choices...

Here are some recent pictures