18 Months

The last month has been nothing short of insane.  We enrolled GHC in full-time daycare (or "school" as guilt-ridden working parents like to call it); we lost our fabulous nanny; I had a lovely MRSA (super-staph infection); THC had some mysterious stomach ailment that almost sent him to the ER; we purchased a river house in Virginia; I purchased a new car; and GHC contracted a horrible case of hand, foot, mouth disease!  Awesome!

Needless to say, lots of areas of our lives have suffered - work, exercise, eating right, seeing friends, blogging - all hit a brick wall.  But, we're slowly emerging from our insanity.  And what better reason to get back on the blog-o-wagon than to write about GHC's 18-month birthday.

Yep - that's right.  She's 1 and a half.  We're nearing that point where we stop referring to our kid's age by months, but by year.  I remember hitting this similar milestone when GHC was about 3 months old - when you realize nobody cares how many weeks old your kid is.

The past few weeks/months with GHC have been a total roller coaster.  I have had some of my happiest moments laughing and marveling at this little person, who is (sadly?) is turning into a mini-me.  She loves clothes and shoes, being the center of attention, crappy TV, and Apple products.

And (not to brag, but since I'm Asian, I will) she has some pretty amazing verbal skills.  She can ask questions ("What's that?"), form whole sentences ("Gracie do that"), see multiple items and make them plural ("princesses"), Answer some logical questions (Do dogs eat people food?  "No...."), count to ten in English and Spanish, and identify by name and relationship most of our close friends (Who is Freddie's Mom?  "Jenn."  Who is Amy's dog?  "Ralphie."  What do we know about Posey and Lala?  "Baby".  Who always gives you the good apple juice?  "Judy.")  My favorite is that she knows her dad's actual name and offers a tone of exasperation when she utters it (Oops.  I wonder where she picked that up).

Of course, we aren't exactly filling out the Mensa paperwork quite yet.  The other day, I caught her spitting out her food on the floor and getting down on all fours so she could eat like a dog.

But for all the fun we're having, we're also really struggling to deal with an INSANELY strong-willed little person.  The girl's got a temper that makes John McEnroe (am I dating myself for using that as a reference point) look like sweet Sister Mary.  And, making matters more enjoyable, she's a frustratingly picky eater.  GHC, who refuses to eat meat of any sort, has determined that ice cream and lollipops should be a main staple at every mealtime.  And when she realizes that her meal (which 8 times out of 10 has been rejected by the time I've sat down) is being offered without such confection, she has an EPIC meltdown that generally involves her launching herself from her highchair onto the ground where she flails on the floor for 20 solid minutes shrieking for a lollipop.  So, as you can imagine, I look really forward to mealtime at our house.

FYI - I did order some parenting books on Amazon overnight this week.

So, yeah - there's been good.  And there's been bad.  It's been a crazy18 months, sorry ahem, year and a half.  But in a totally awesome Mardi Gras bender kind of way.  And now for the real reason you're here - pictures.

GHC was totally into this guy.  She was gripping him so hard her fingers were turning white.  I'm pretty sure we lured her off this horse by promising her a lollipop.  That was probably Example No. 239 of bad parenting choices we've made this month.

Visiting my office and making a few phone calls with the mouse.  I know (gasp!) - the misuse of technology!  Take away her Asian card!  To her credit, we only have laptops at home, so she'd never seen one before.

Said the doc after we removed her clothing to reveal insane blisters all over her body:  "Yep.  No doubt about this one.  That's a pretty gnarly case of hand, foot, mouth disease."  Daycare:  1.  NKC:  0.

Quarantined all week = massive boredom.  Here we have "Ipad Island".  I know, I know... umbrellas indoors are bad luck.  But I figured we didn't have anywhere to go but up from this point.

"Hey look!  Books on how to control a moody toddler!  I can help!  This is awesome!"

I'm not kidding.  This was taken within 15 seconds of the last photo.  Also, you can see some gnarly HFM remnants on her arms.

"Gracie do that."  Aww, cute, right?  Well, it does get a little old.... when you hear it all... freaking.... day.  Even when we are in the car.  Like, oh, sure, you wanna drive this time?  Great.  

GHC has gotten "cheese" for the camera down pat.  This skill has helped us identify the fact that we need to be saving up for some serious orthodontics down the road.  The girl's grill is definitely gonna need some work. 

GHC demanding that THC draw her a bat.  Now a dog.  Now Elmo.  Now an owl.  Now an airplane.  Now a  turtle....  this goes on for hours.  Luckily, GHC has figured that I can't draw for shit, so when THC isn't home, she generally looks at me and says:  TV.  At least I'm good for that.

Making some calls.  We are encouraging the use of the phone as a means to talk to someone - hoping to avoid the inevitable generational trap of only talking to people by text.

First day of school.  All smiles until she figures out we will be abandoning her there for the next 9 hours.

Checking out the lay of the land at school via horseback.

In GHC's entire lifetime, it has rained less than 10 times.  We took advantage of some rain last week to teach GHC about jumping in puddles.  About 1 minute after this photo was taken, GHC decided to teach us about laying and rolling around in puddles.  Gross.

The weather in Houston has finally become bearable.  Fingers crossed that triple digit heat is behind us... for now.