How our big girl spends her days: zoo animals

Jane got this Little People zoo just before Christmas.  It has a lot of cool features and places to put the animals.  It has been so fun to watch how her play has changed as she's gotten older!

You'll notice that the dog and Stella are also playing zoo.

Jane loves elephants.  Jane likes to talk about all of the things she saw the elephants doing at the zoo--zoo keepers washing the elephants feet; elephant eating carrots, leaves, and apples; Jane and Mommy feeding the elephant leaves; elephant digging in the dirt with her trunk and throwing the dirt on her tummy and back; elephant peeing (this happened last time we were at the zoo, unfortunately a little boy pointed that one out.  Jane thinks this is very funny)

Jane has a whole basket full of these adorable Little People animals that were made to go with the zoo.  She used to love these animals.  Not so much any more...I had to snap this picture quickly before Jane put all of these animals back in the basket.  

Jane prefers to play with the realistic Schleich animals.  We need to get her some more!  Jane likes the cats and the bird the best (I think she likes the smaller animals).  These animals go a lot of places with us...they especially like playing in the sand table and bathtub.  I like these animals because unlike stuffed animals and dolls, they do not pick up lots of dirt and germs and they are easy to clean!

  The animals even get fed a lot of pretend food.  This elephant is about to have a feast!

little baby clothes

We've started shopping for clothes and supplies for our new little one.  Newborn stuff is so tiny! Pictured above are 2 sleepers compared--size newborn and Jane's current PJ's (18-24 months).  We also ordered a bunch of goodies (including some cloth diapers) from Amazon, as they were having a big sale.  Newborn cloth diaper compared with Jane's current diaper size are pictured below.  If you're looking for baby gift ideas, we have most the baby stuff we need from Jane but we need more cloth diapers...

How our big girl spends her days: dolls

Jane is such a good little mama to her dolls--Stella, Dog, and Baby Brother.  Jane likes to feed her dolls food, give them bottles, hug and comfort them, push them in the shopping cart, and sit them on her lap.  The dog is her favorite and has recently started going EVERYWHERE with us.  We just ordered a second dog because she is so attached to it.  I'm sure the doll play will increase once baby brother (still unnamed) joins our family.

Jane hugs and pats the dog on the back.

The dog often sits on Jane's lap while she watches a movie or listens

to books. 

The little mama and her babies!

The dolls get a drink of water

The dog gets lots of licks from Jane

How our big girl spends her days: sand table

Jane spends about an hour a day playing sand and water table.  I LOVE this age because Jane is so easily entertained by a couple of buckets, rocks, sand, and water!  Of course playing in the sand table is the most fun when the pink dog joins in!

 A fun flashback (Jane at 11.5 months):  http://jenniferanderik.blogspot.com/2012/03/jane-got-one-of-her-presents-early.html

Jane and Mommy paint at an art studio

It is a rainy day and Erik is working from home today, so Jane and I decided to give Daddy a little peace and quiet and head to a local art studio.  Jane had SO MUCH FUN!  She was super serious and focused the entire time we were there.  I couldn't even get her to look at me for a picture.  We were there for over an hour and could have stayed there longer, but Jane had to get home for nap time.  After MUCH convincing that it was time to go, we went back to the bathroom to wash our hands.  Jane kept repeating, "again! again! again! again!"  The lady wanted to paint some more.  We will definitely be going again and again!!  

Jane pained on an actual canvas

Jane discovered *GLITTER*!!!!

Jane really enjoyed selecting the paint containers and brushes.  We were the only people there, so she had them all to herself.

The after...

Jane painted a colorful picture frame,

a painting on canvas (you can tell she REALLY liked the glitter),

and a bird house.  We love our talented little artist!

18 month stats

Jane had her 18 month well baby check today.  She is 2'9'' tall (80th percentile) and weighs 20 lbs 8 oz (20th percentile).  She is a tall and skinny girl!  Jane was surprisingly cooperative considering that our shy baby was being poked at by strange people.  We got a referral to a have a speech and language evaluation done.  We're not concerned about her language; if anything I think it is advanced to for her age.  But she has so few words and sounds that our pediatrician thought it would be a good idea to have an evaluation done.  I think the baby sign helped language development but interfered with speech development (we'll see what the speech pathologist says on Monday).  After her appointment, we took a family trip to the injection room.  Erik and I got flu shots.  Poor Jane had to get four shots.  She WAILED.  After they were done, she didn't even want to nurse; she wanted out of that room!  

Jane and Mommy feed the elephant

The elephants are Jane's favorite zoo animal.  I am so glad we got a chance to feed them!  Jane was so brave--she even held the leaves out for Bamboo.  She LOVED feeding the elephants and has been talking about this experience ever since.  We even came home and looked up the sign for leaves.  

How our big girl spends her days: books

Jane is reading Olivia Saves the Circus.  One of the pages has pictures of several circus dogs that aren't trained very well.  Awhile ago I told her what each of the dogs was doing. One of the dogs is peeing, which Jane thinks it really funny (she is signing pee with her right hand).  I think it's funny that 18 month olds understand potty humor.  

Jane requested that her dolls sit with her...so sweet!

Jane has always loved books!  Her attention span has grown substantially in the past few weeks.  We  ordered her more books because she's outgrowing several of her books. Some of Jane's favorite books include the Spot dog lift a flap (which are NOT big kid book; I am not that fond of them but Jane loves them...), the Carl dog books, The Three Bears, and A Sick Day for Amos McGee.  We love that she loves books!

Happy 18 months to our big lady!

We LOVE having a 1.5 year old.  Every day is such an exciting adventure!  Jane is always busy.  While at home, Jane loves to create art, play with her big toddler toys, and read books.  Jane also really enjoys going to the zoo and spending time at the park.  

Jane loves to tell stories about things that happen during her day.  She has an AMAZING memory.  She still talks about things that happened in June.  Examples include, seeing a dump truck dump dirt while swinging at the park, getting a starfish and whale face painted on her arm at the aquarium, and seeing a girl who caught a jellyfish on a stick at the park.  More recent favorites include stories about the animals at the zoo...feeding birds, feeding giraffes, elephants getting their feet washed, elephants digging and throwing dirt with their trunks, brown bears drinking water...the list goes on and on!  Her ability to remember and tell the stories is really incredible.  

Jane's language skills continue to develop.  She still doesn't have very many words or even sounds (we will be talking to her pediatrician about this at the end of the week), but she gets along incredibly with her signs.  She has started using 2 or 3 signs or sign-word combinations to talk about or request things. Examples include more (spoken) water (signed), bird swing on top (all signed, the bird was on top of the swing).  Jane also understands simple adjectives like hot/cold and big/small.  Jane can even tell a joke.  What does a bunny eat?  "Hey!"  We saw a bunny at the zoo eating hay; Jane doesn't understand homophones yet so thought this was really funny!  She LOVES this joke.  She tells it herself by twitching her nose like a bunny, saying "hey!", and giggling at her funny joke.  She also enjoys when we ask the question and she answers with the punchline (i.e., "hey"). She is so sweet! 

And now for the biggest change in the past month...JANE SLEEPS BY HERSELF AND THROUGH THE NIGHT!  For the first time ever, Jane has her own rooms, falls asleep in her crib without crying, and sleeps until morning.  This really deserves its own post because our grown up girl was incredible about this change.  I miss snuggling with my baby at night, but we all sleep better this way.  And it is a necessary change with baby brother coming in January.  

Happy 18 months old to our big, SMART girl!

How our big girl spends her days: pretend food

Jane LOVES to play with her pretend food!  Our lucky girl has several sets of nice wooden pretend food.   Jane got the birthday cake from my parents on her first birthday.  The cake came with strawberries, candy, and candles that can be attached to the cake with velcro.  Jane LOVES to decorate the birthday cake with the velco pieces.  She also likes to blow out the candles, but of course she REALLY likes it when the dog blows out the candles!  

You'll notice that the dog is never far from the pretend food.  That dog sure eats a lot every day! (Thanks for my dog Uncle Nick and Aunt Dani Jo!  I bring her EVERYWHERE!).  Jane is feeding the dog an orange.

When we went to MN in Aug, Jane got cookies from Nana (Laurie).  Jane loves to put the cookies on the pan and decorate the cookies.  She bakes the cookies in the bottom drawer of her dresser.  Jane is getting a play kitchen either for Christmas or around the time the baby comes (have to keep her distracted from a preoccupied and tired mama!), but until then the dresser drawer makes a perfect oven.  

How our big girl spends her days: trains

Our big toddler girl plays with big toddler toys.  This train is Jane's favorite toy right now.  She LOVES to load up all of her animals and drive them around!  She also really likes when the train drives under the Jane Tunnel (i.e., under Jane's legs).