Nick Names: Baby baby, Smush
Height: 27.5 inches (Estimated)
Weight: 20 pounds (Measured at home)
Head: 17.5 inches (Estimated)
Special Outings: Lake Winnipesaukee, Parlee Farms, The Richard’s
Visitors: Our neighbors
Loves: Water, Climbing Stairs
Hates: Sleep, Eating
I’m not sure if it’s too much to say, but this might be your hardest month yet. You hit a sleep regression HARD, at the same time separation anxiety peaked. Suddenly you’re fighting sleep, you’re screaming, and one night you were up from 9pm until midnight. It wasn’t fun. We’ve mostly moved passed that, but you’re still not as “easy” as you were a month ago. You want to be walking, but you can’t yet. You want to explore but you also don’t want to be out of our arms. And you cry at daycare drop off now. So it’s been a rough month. We’ll get through it, of course.
And you make up for it in other ways. One of your favorite things to do is give kisses. You lean in with your whole mouth open and give the wettest, longest kisses ever. Over and over. You especially love kissing your siblings and climb all over them. No one can make you happy like they can. Tom had to tell them to give you a break in the car the other day, because you were laughing so hard and needed to take a breath.
You’ve had some big experiences this month too - you went on your first out of state road trip and experienced a lake vacation for the first time (and you did awesome on the car ride!). You’ve learned to climb stairs and can stand up on your own now without holding on to anything. We’re all watching you to see when those first steps will come - I have a feeling they’re going to be sooner rather than later.
You’ve also learned how to wave, and it’s the coolest thing when you start waving when you see me through the window at daycare pickup. You still take a while to warm up to people, but it makes it so much more rewarding when you do let someone else hold you. You have the biggest stink face, the loudest shrieks, and when you don’t want to be contained you are impossible to hold. No teeth yet, which means you still have the cutest gummy smile - when you do smile of course.
I can’t decide if the past 6 months have gone quickly or not. Sometimes it felt like a never ending slog that we were sleepwalking through, but on the other hand I swear we just celebrated F’s first birthday. Either way, we have an official 18 month old on our hands. And thanks to a sleep consultant, we are back on track with sleep and everyone is feeling more like themselves lately. F is back to sleeping and happily chatting in her crib, and it feels like at least one layer of stress has evaporated.
F remains the happiest Spearson, excited to be a part of things, and loves it when we go somewhere. She mostly gets mad when we try to remind her she’s a baby and can’t always do the same things that the older two can. Oh how quickly she’s going to demand equal treatment though. Already she fights back if someone tries to push her away.