CootieGirl just gets smarter by the day and is always doing things to amaze me. Her new word is “more” and she says it plain as day. If you ask her if she wants more water, she’ll hold out her sippy cup and say, “more!”

Just this morning CootieDad and I were talking about looking forward to hearing CootieGirl’s first multi-word phrase. Instead of just a word we wanted to hear two words together. Well, about 30 minutes ago she put her first phrase together. It was two words.

She was fussy in her highchair, so I took her out and placed her on the recliner to finish eating her toast and drink her water. I knelt down in the front of the chair and said, “you don’t need to cry anymore” and she looks at me with huge crocodile tears, shook her head and said, “No more.”

It was only just now that I realized that she said two words together instead of just one word. My original post was supposed to talk about how she knows several body parts and when asked “where are your ears?” she’ll point right to them – she knows ears, eyes, nose, mouth, feet, toes, hands, fingers and belly. But when I started typing in how her favorite word is “more” I realized, “Wait a minute! She just said two words a few minutes ago!”

As I’ve said before, she makes it easy to forget that she’s only 18 months old. She just seems so much smarter.

Tonight I got to pick up the kids from Ms. Deby’s house. Usually CootieDad does it but he had an appointment so I had the pleasure. I walked in and CootieGirl and Madison were playing with Playdoh and making a royal mess. I sat down on the floor with them and played for a few minutes and was blown away by how much Madison’s speech is improving. She’s about 8 months older than CootieGirl, and it got me excited for the day when CootieGirl will speak as well as Madison does now.

As we were leaving, Madison helped me by gathering CootieBoy’s bag and CootieGirl’s sippy cup. CootieGirl saw Madison holding the sippy and started crying a bit, so Madison quickly handed it over to her. As we walked out the door (Madison still helping to carry CootieBoy’s bag), I heard Madison say something to CootieGirl, calling her Dahlia. Deby had told me that Madison had dubbed CootieGirl with that name, but it was my first time actually hearing it for myself, and I have to admit I kind of liked it. Dahlia – it’s quite pretty.

Then I was amazed to hear Madison and CootieGirl communicate with each other. Madison asked CootieGirl a question as we were nearing the car. I only know it was a question by the lilt in her voice – her words were basically gibberish. But CootieGirl knew exactly what she was saying and answered her with an emphatic “No!”

Madison handed CootieBoy’s bag to me and Deby led her back to the house. When they reached the front door I heard Madison call out, “Bye, Dahlia!”

Well, CootieGirl had her latest doctor appointment today – her 18-month checkup. The pediatrician said she’s in the 90th percentile for weight (at 28 lbs 9 oz) and the 50th percentile for height (at 31 1/2 inches tall). In other words, she’s got some meat on those bones. *lol*

He advised us to cut down on the milk and give her more water, which we’ll start doing today – maybe I’ll buy the flavored water since she generally doesn’t liike plain water. He also advised us not to give her apples, which are still considered a choking hazard even though she has all her teeth.

But in my mind, she’s adorable. 90th percentile or not.

As of yesterday it’s official – we received our tickets to see The Wiggles perform at Madison Square Garden on November 20th. CootieGirl is going to FREAK when she sees her favorite men running around the stage and singing her favorite songs. Mama may freak a little bit too. She has a not-so-secret crush on Anthony Wiggle.

I read on my baby forums about how a lot of 18-month-old kids are now undressing themselves or picking out their clothes, but CootieGirl shows almost no interest. She’s perfectly content to stay in her clothes, and perfectly content to let me continue to pick them out for her. It certainly makes getting out of the house a lot easier.

CootieGirl’s language skills continue to improve every day. She’s an excellent mimic – not just verbally, but physically. My favorite verbal mimicry took place in Virginia. I wasn’t there, but my mom said CootieGirl was playing with her doll and after putting Dolly in a chair, CootieGirl shook a finger at her and said, “No no no!” When I came back in the room Mom told me what CootieGirl had done. So I looked at CootieGirl and said, “No no no?” and she immediately pointed her finger at me and said, “No no no!” Heeee-larious. Apparently I say that a lot. But then again, I do have a very curious toddler that tries to get into things toddlers shouldn’t get into.

As her verbal skills continue to improve I find that I’m constantly naming things for her and she’s definitely retaining the knowledge, which is fun. I love that she’s at that age where I can tell her something once and she remembers it. I love that when I ask her to do something she does it and completely understands me.

I wonder if I were to ask her to pick out a shirt to wear, would she know what to do? I’ll have to test that theory tomorrow morning when we’re getting ready for church.

Sorry we haven’t posted at Cootiepie lately! She and I (and CootieBoy) were on the road in VA for a number of days and just were so busy there was no time to post anything CootieGirl-centric.

As of today she and CootieBoy are in the full-time daycare of Ms. Deby, a woman in our church. The “practice” days went well and I think CootieGirl is going to have a GOOD GOOD time over there during the day for the next six months.

We had a good time in Virginia visiting my family – she just gets cuter and more fun everyday and I know my family enjoyed seeing her be her “true” self. She made a royal mess of my mom’s “model” home at times. She showed her ability to adapt to change by sleeping with me in the bed so CootieBoy could have the pack/n/play, and also just by the fact that she was in a strange place for five days and didn’t freak out.

I love that kid.

Two things of note before we head out the door.

1) The picture of CootieGirl crying after we wouldn’t give her the pacifier is now in the Photoblog.

2) I just ordered tickets for CootieGirl to see The Wiggles at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in November. She loves the Wiggles, she loves to dance, and I was able to get really good seats with room for her to dance (front row of second section of orchestra seats). She’s gonna have SCootieGirlmuch fun!

I have one week and two days until I go back to work full-time, so we’ve decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and take CootieGirl and CootieBoy to the Bronx Zoo today. Since moving here in 1997 I’ve yet to go to the Zoo, and so it’ll be a treat for me too.

The NJ Zoo we went to just wasn’t that good – it was more like a farm with pens set up, which isn’t nearly as fun or interesting, and seems slightly wrong for those animals who thrive in more lush conditions.

CootieDad’ mom and brother are going to meet us there, so it’ll be a whole family affair today! I hope CootieGirl does okay since she’ll be nap-free all day.

Instead of dealing with the toddler bed tonight, I opted to attack the pacifier problem. Many months ago we were able to get CootieGirl to stop using it for hours a day and she quickly adapted to having it only at naptime and bedtime. But now, the minute we walk in her room she begins crying for it.

So I decided to nip that in the bud tonight. After her bath and after she was in her jammies, I placed her in the crib. She motioned in the direction of her pacifier, which was no longer in it’s regular spot since I had hidden it. She immediately began crying when she realized I wasn’t going to hand it over (photo here). I asked her to lie down in her crib, which she did, and I turned out the light and left the room.

We endured about 15 minutes of crying but then she settled and went to sleep. Tomorrow morning while she’s having her morning cup of milk I will put all pacifiers in a drawer (except the one that CootieBoy uses). No more pacifiers will lie around the house waiting for a certain little girl to spy them. She’s going cold turkey.

Monday we’ll tackle the toddler bed conversion again.