Scarlett the Starlet: Eighteen Months Old! (July 21, 2011)

I know I often say in these monthly posts that Scarlett had a big month. But this time, I really, really mean it. (And it's actually been two months since I've done one of these updates. You may have noted that we skipped over month seventeen. That was one of Scarlett's sick days in Hawaii, and although I thought ahead to bring the "17 months" sticker for a photo shoot, I didn't bring a white t-shirt, and you couldn't see the sticker on the yellow shirt she was wearing that day. So there were no sticker photos for that month, and the poor thing wasn't really up to a photo shoot anyway.)

As you probably know, Scarlett fractured her leg on July 1st. I read an article a while back that said babies often focus on learning one big new skill at a time, which is understandable given that everything is new to them and trying to process all of that new information at once could be overwhelming. The article gave walking as an example, and said that a baby who has mastered a few words might actually regress verbally when he or she starts to walk since a huge new skill like walking takes so much concentration. I have no idea if this phenomenon was at play with Scarlett or if it was just a coincidence, but her vocabulary has skyrocketed since she broke her leg (and consequently was not able to get around very easily, so she had less to be distracted by). She went from saying just a handful of words regularly to a vocabulary so big that we've lost count. It's as if she decided on July 1st, "well, since I can't walk around and check things out, I'll go ahead and focus on mastering the English language."

Some of her new words include: please, blueberry, water, milk, cracker, pig, cow, turtle, deer, hat, bow, chair, ball, chew, drink, tea, cute, pink, yellow, green, more, hair, eye, nose, mouth, teeth, knee, ear, belly button, hair, hot, scrub, bath, door, car, ring, up, down, potty, stairs, and cast.

A few other cute things she's doing these days:

She says "shhhhh" and puts her finger up to her lips when one of her babies (her Hawaii turtle, Elmo, etc.) is "napping," or when she sees the book Goodnight Moon (which features an old lady rabbit whispering "hush").

She puts her finger up to her mouth and says "hmmmmmm" while looking around for something or if she's deliberating what to do next.

She holds her nose and says "peeeewwwww" when there is something stinky.

She tries to whistle at Winnie (which is what I do to get her to come to me), but really just blows air loudly. She also tells Winnie "shhhh" or "hush" when she barks. I'm sure Winnie really appreciates that.

She blows on her food to make sure it's not too hot. Doesn't matter if it's pasta (that is legitimately hot) or an orange (that clearly isn't) -- you can never be too careful, apparently.

She likes to give "nose-nose" kisses where she rubs the tip of her nose on yours.

The other day she was having a snack in the kitchen and was admiring some prints we have on the wall featuring different fruit. I was explaining to her what everything was, and pointed out a fig. She responded with "pig." I told her that it was close, but a bit different because it starts with an "f" sound. I then said "fffffff-ig," to which Scarlett responded "fffffff-PIG." Maybe you had to be there, but this tickled me to no end. I'm still chuckling about it.

Without further ado, here is one-and-a-half-year-old Scarlett.