18 Months

Ack.

Gemma turned 18 months old a week ago.  I meant to sit down and write about this two days ago.  This time of year just gets so busy sometimes.  However, I did want to take a few moments to describe our little monkey so we can remember why we started getting gray hairs.

Gemma is always on the move.  This is a hallmark of this age and totally normal.  It is also totally exhausting.  When William was this age, we just simply shut doors, put things up and didn't allow him access to things that were dangerous (ie: scissors) or messy (glue, markers).  Being the third child means those simple steps just aren't that simple anymore.  William and Amelia both need access to the bathroom or their room.  While they do remember to shut the door most of the time, it is the 5% of the time when they forget.  Those are the times we have entire bottles of soap squeezed onto the floor or Gemma standing fully dressed under the water spigot or Gemma dismantling entire cities of Lego creations.

For this reason, our Christmas tree is sitting up on a table so the highest ornaments are really out of reach.  We only put a handful of nonbreakable ornaments on our tree just in case.  At the start of the season, we had a strand of lights on the tree plugged into a timer that would automatically turn the lights off and on.  The lights are still on the tree, but we finally had to unplug the lights and put away the timer.  She would not leave it alone.  We didn't even attempt to hang our stockings from the heavy metal stocking hangers on the fireplace.  One good yank on the stocking and we would find ourselves in the ER for stitching up.

If she can't get to a soap/shampoo/lotion bottle to squirt it everywhere, Gemma would happily spread toothpaste all over the bathroom floor.  I won't tell you how many times she has done this, but it is more times than you would think.  She loves toothpaste and insists it be put on her toothpaste multiple times when she is brushing.  She isn't picky about the toothbrush either and has taken to climbing onto the vanity (via the toilet) top to access a toothbrush that is out of her reach.

She has definite opinions and doesn't hesitate to express them.  In the last several weeks, she has developed a scream.  This scream will make you drop everything and come running to save her life.  However, the scream usually indicates her outrage with her siblings for shutting doors, taking away their toys or pushing her out of their room.  At dinner time, she will confidently shove away foods she doesn't care to eat and squawk for more of something else until I give in and give it to her.  When we recently had some snow, I found some black snow boots in our cold weather gear in about her size.  While I was looking for cold weather gear, Gemma found a pair of pink rain boots that are still too big for Amelia.  They might fit William, not that he would wear them.  Gemma would not hear of changing her shoes to something more sensible.  She insisted upon wearing those pink rain boots the entire time we were outside (and even of awhile inside)

Eating is becoming more challenging as Gemma discovers new tastes, she abandons old one.  If she eats a huge helping of peaches for lunch, she probably won't touch them again for another 6 weeks.  If she wouldn't eat bananas at lunch time, she will put away a shocking amount at the next meal.  The "favorite" food is ever changing and not at all consistent.

Words.  We are starting to have understandable words (understandable by me. Although not always understood by me.).  Gemma has about 20-30 words that I can make out.  In the last several weeks, she has added words for Amelia (Me-Ma) and William (We-m).  She also knows most of her body parts and animals sounds.  Stubbornly, she is refusing to start working on learning her colors.  Most of her speech is still babble. She will carry on a conversation about...something.  I have several videos I hope to post of this because I think it is adorable.