26 facts about our 18-month-old Miss L

L turns ones and a half today, so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about what she's like and what she's into. (This is as much for my record as anything else, since I'm terrible at writing down her developments.)

1. Play doh is her new favourite inside activity. Her favourite cutter is the butterfly, which she tries to say but sort of pronounces "bye-eye". Here's a picture of L and one of her friends playing with play doh.

2. Her vocabulary is on the constant up and up. Every day she is able to express herself more (and I'm able to understand her more).

Some of her favourite words are "Stuck", "Bonda" (Bonty) "Star", "Bore" (ball), "Baa" (bath), "Dadda", "Aama" (Mummy), "Anna" (interchangeable for her three best Wellington buddies, Anwyn, Ava and Sebby), "Uh oh", "Sly" (for slide/park), "Wok" (walk), "Block" (iceblock), "More", "Doc" (doctor), "Appa" (apple), "Nana" (banana), "Bean", "Cheese", "Beebee" (blueberry) "Up!" "Dow" (down), "Book", "Bubba" (bubbles).

3. Potty training - we gave it a go and had some success when she started telling me "wee wees" if she needed to go ones or twos. Unfortunately she doesn't like sitting on the potty or the toilet, so we've stalled. I'm going to a meeting about "potty training from birth" this Friday, so hopefully I'll pick up some helpful pointers there. I would love to progress her potty training while the temperature is still warm enough, and before bubba two comes along.

4. She's at that helpful age when you can ask her to do something like put washing in the washing basket and she actually does it.

5. If she's tired, she gets scratchy. Literally. She will try to scratch mummy or other children.

6. She recognises the drive to daddy's work and starts calling "Dadda" a couple of blocks before we get there.

7. On our street she knows which house is Anwyn's and which house is Ava's, and will try to head to one or the other any chance she gets, all the while calling "Anna".

8. Swimming is her favourite activity EVER. She brings me ALL her togs several times a day and sorts them out into ones she wears to the pools, ones she wears to the beach, and ones she wears around home.

We have a little clam shell out front and if I'm not careful, she'll hop in it (clothes, shoes and all ) before I have time to strip her down. This happens several times a week.

We quite often head to the Kilbirnie Pools with her buddy, Sebby, and his awesome mum, Mel. L loves it so much, and her water confidence has really taken off since we started going. She's happy to do unders, float on her tummy, and she goes along with floating on her back, even though I know she doesn't like that too much.

If we head to the beach, she's happy to swim there too. Again, clothes prove no barrier. And of course, bath time is a joyous occasion.

9. She's a cruisy little girl, who seems to take everything in her stride and not make much of a fuss about anything. I find her such a delight to be around, and feel like the luckiest mummy in the world to get to spend my days with her.

10. We make scrambled eggs for breakfast so much that the other morning she went to the fridge to get the eggs and milk out for me, without me asking.

11. Before dinner we hold hands to say grace, which L finds delightful. But if the grace goes on too long, she'll be quick to pull her hands away to signal "enough already".

12. She's a whiz on the iPhone, and knows how to unlock it, scroll to the stories she likes, open them up and read them through. (Don't look at me like that. This one was all her Daddy.)

13. On Sundays we head to church and I do so love having an excuse to dress her up in pretty frocks. She loves the singing, and if we're out back in the parents' area, she always wants to go back into the hall when she hears a song come on.

14. The top-knot is L's signature hair-do. So cute, and practical for keeping the hair out of her eyes. (If she realises it's there, she tries to pull it out though.) Here's a photo of her buddy's 2nd birthday party.

15. L is my little helper in the garden. She pulls carrots, picks strawberries, cherry tomatoes and apples, and munches on beans.

16. She's figured out how to open my laptop, so I have to be careful where I leave it because she's forever changing the settings on me.

17. She never laughs quite so hysterically as when she's playing with Bonty. Especially when he doesn't like whatever it is she's doing, eg. riding on his back, pulling his tail or tipping her sippy cup on him.

18. L likes to help me with baking. Her main responsibility is licking all the spoons for mummy, but I also try to get her to help tip ingredients into the bowl. Unfortunately she tries to eat those too.

19. When she gets caught holding something she's not allowed to, she runs away as fast as she can and then throws it on the ground.

20. She loves dancing. Her main dance moves are spinning in circles, pointing, clapping, bending and nodding.

21. She loves books. During the day she'll often bring me a favourite book (like Muddled-Up Farm) and hop up onto my lap for story time. She's also happy to pull a book from the book shelf and flick through it herself, sometimes animatedly reading the story with hand actions and lots of jibberish.

22. Her mosquito net is her favourite cuddly/blanky/shigey. When we go away on holiday, we just cut off a couple of pieces to bring with us. She always sucks her left thumb when she's snuggling shigey.

23. L has 10 teeth. Six on top (two of them molars), and four down the bottom (none of them molars).

24. She learned to crawl at 13 months, and walk at 15 months. Now she is confident walking up and down hills, and getting more confident on steps.

25. She loves learning her ABCs. We sing the Phonics Song and the regular ABCs song together every day and she is fascinated by her ABC books. 

26. She counts like this: "One, two, one".