What I've Learned - 18 months - Anna

What I have learned in Anna’s first 18 months of life:

1.   Toddlers mimic EVERYTHING. Makes you pay great attention to whether or not your behavior is appropriate to be copied.

2.    It can be quite entertaining, and inappropriate, when toddlers are learning to talk. Sometimes words like “sit”, do not come out very clear. This is especially entertaining when you are changing her diaper (and friends are over visiting) and Anna says, “Oh sit” in the midst of changing the poopy diaper.

3.   
Each night before dinner, as a family, we all grab hands and say a blessing. Nothing warms a parent’s heart more than when after the prayer; your child reaches out her hand to do it again. After the 50th time however, the warming in your heart starts to cool a bit.

4.   Toddlers are amazing at teaching adults the game “fetch”. 


5.   Routine is important for babies, but becomes especially important for toddlers. However, it is okay to sometimes break from that routine. 


6.   There is no guessing a toddler’s emotions. Their anger is pure. Their frustration is pure. Their love is pure. Luckily, those emotions often pass quickly. Along with this, their forgiveness is genuine.


7.   Repetition, a toddler can take their shoe off and put it back on for hours on end. The determination to learn is an amazing gift that adults would do well to not lose. 


8.   Some traits and characteristics are inherited, but many are learned. Our children can be a really great mirror into our own behavior. 


9.   It is amazing the size of a parent’s bladder, when their child has finally fallen asleep on a long road trip. 


10.                 Our Facebook friends are twisted. Cute videos of Anna may get 200-300 views, but videos of her tantrums get well over 1,000 views. 


11.                 Apparently it is a thing for strangers to give kids money for being cute. Anna has now “earned” $2.00. I believe any stranger that will just give a kid money for being cute should not be trusted. 


12.                 It is amazing, that even at 18 months, Anna can be in a pink skirt, a pink shirt, and pink shoes… and someone will STILL say, “What is HIS name”.