Today Laura had her 18 month check-up, she weighed in at 23 lbs, and 31 1/2 inches long. She is a peanut, her weight hasn't changed for the last couple months; but that's fine considering their activity level usually ups and their appetite (or time for dinner, that is) decreases. The "thunder thighs" Jason used to refer to have wittled down and her waist is tiny.
I can assure you that what's lacking in the waistline is made up in her personality, and attitude. She's emerging into her own, and it is so fun to see the new words, expressions, and attitude that is "Sissy". She's transformed from wanting to have and do everything that her brother does, into a more independent person that likes to do things her own way. She's a tuffy, if she doesn't get things her way she tends to react aggressively: throws something, she'll take a peck at her brother when nobody's looking, and occassionally she'll throw herself on the floor for a little tantrum. Since Alex never really did the tantrum thing, it's pretty comical for us. And at the ripe age of 18 months she takes a time out with the best of them, she'll sit on the bottom step-periodically she'll be reminded to sit up instead of slouch, but she sits pretty still with a dirty little look on her face trying to suck you into eye contact w/ her-just so you can see her face-that was the moment I knew boys and girls were different. She's right on target in all other areas, next task: potty training in the upcoming months.
Alex is moving right along as well, he really likes school and his favorite past time is wrestling with his dad at night. Some mornings he'll ask on the way to school "Mom, can me and dad wrestle tonight?" He's become quite the negotiater the past few months, he tries to sell the idea that if he does just a little of this, he can have a lot of that. Dinners are a struggle for him, often he's not hungry, then throw into consideration that he's picky and we have a given argument. His favorite line is "My mom lets me do this or that"; he's typically talking to Jason when he says this. I notice his coordination and manual dexterity skills have grown over the past couple months, sometimes I catch myself watching him fall from a taller area-when he's actually jumping off and landing perfectly fine. And the best is that I've grown an extra set of eyes, he watches out for Laura and alerts me to hazardous situations; and in the same sense he tells me when she's been naughty and how the adults around her have handled it in my absence.
Alex is excited at the news of a new sibling, he understands the concept pretty well-many times he looks for reassurance and says, "it takes a long time for a baby to grown in your belly right?" At first he was under the impression that it would automatically be a little sister, since that's all he knows. But then when I mentioned-"or a brother" his eyes got pretty big and he said "maybe a brother and a sister"; I assured him it was one or the other-there weren't 2 in there. Laura is too young-there will be a similar age difference as her and Alex-so she'll be young enough to have some animosity those first couple days; but she'll probably get over it pretty quickly and just adjust to the idea that it's one more playmate in the house. Alex adjusted really well at that age, but their personalities are different-I'm guessing she'll give us a little more run for our money, but nothing we can't handle.
