18 Months

The Doodle hit month 18 a week and a half ago; last week she had her checkup.

She's in the 70th percentile for her height (32 inches) and the 10th percentile for her weight (22 pounds). She's coming along great developmentally, probably more so with the talking than the motor skills. Her vocabulary is probably about 40 words, and her current thing is to address me exclusively and at all times. Everything is "blah blah blah, Mama. blah blah blah, Mama". She's learned to say "Please" and "Thank you", and loves to say "hello" to the phone, preferably when there isn't anyone on the other end. She's running everywhere, and is an expert and going up and down the stairs. She's started taking an interest in drawing, and her preferred media are ballpoint pen on upholstery. Her favorite food is graham crackers ("cacku?") and she is revolted by anything that could be considered a vegetable, with the possible exception of peas. We're working on broadening her horizons. When we're outside, she likes to move the rocks from the front of the bush to behind the bush, and pull handfuls of dirt out of the flower pots. We haven't invested in outside toys yet, since it's still early in the season (it snowed this morning) and there's not a ton to do in our little 8x8 concrete patio. She loves reading books and playing at the Children's Museum. She's really good-natured, and I'd say 90% of the time (when she's not teething) she's in a fabulous, sunny mood.

A Litany

What a month. You wonder why I haven't posted? Let's see:

• Took in the car: estimated $1800 worth of work needed. Car is worth $1200 (max). Decide to do some of the work ourselves.
• My Hero and his brother spend 10 hours one Saturday replacing the radiator.
• The next day, we go downstairs to do laundry and discover a half inch of water standing in our basement. It's been there at least 18 hours. On the plus side, it's just kitchen water - a little food in it, but no raw sewage. There's a block in our drainpipe. We won't discuss the fact that it's probably due to a sweater trying to escape its felting bag in the washing machine. On my watch.
• The next day, the Doodle begins cutting three molars at once.
• The next day, My Hero stays home to address the basement with more force - pulling out carpet, flooring, etc. to get rid of the pervasive musty smell. Did I mention that the Doodle usually sleeps downstairs? She's sleeping all over the house at this point.
• The next day, I get a cold. Which I still have, a month later (yes, I've been to the doctor, twice).

Needless to say, blogging has not been on the top of my priority list. These days, I'm lucky if I get to put on clean underwear. But we're coming out of the fog (although I think My Hero may be coming down with my cold - poor guy). We've painted the basement floor with Kilz and are in the process of moving everything back to where it belongs before my folks show up in two weeks.

There has been knitting, but very little picture-taking.