The Goodmans: Bingo 18 Months!

The Bing turned 1.5 years old on Aug. 14! She is so amazing and lovely and sassy and spunky. She is independent but can be so charming with her cheeser smile. Her hair is long and often in her eyes because she likes to pull her hair clip out. She can say quite a few words and will says words if you ask her to say them. She knows how to get her point across and takes matters into her own hands. Her memory is incredible. For example - she knows where we keep rice krispy treats. She saw that Lilly had one in her hand on our way out the door today, so she ran to the pantry (and this kitchen has quite a few) and got herself a rice krispy treat. (She also knows where the chip pantry is and the fruit snack pantry). Bingo just doesn't eat snacks though, she is happy to eat any fruits and vegetables, unlike her big sister. Most recently Bingo has been enjoying deliciously ripe peaches. We are going to hit the potty training hard now because Bingo has made it clear she does not like being in a soiled diaper. As soon as she has a dirty diaper, she will come running to you with wipes and a new diaper in hand, the other hand touching her diaper and a look on her face that says "I'm uncomfortable. Change me now please!"

Bingo adores both her sisters. She thinks Lilly is hilarious, but she has no problem defending herself- that's right, she's still beating up Lilly. She never wants to be left out and tags along with Lilly and the big kids. She is so very gentle with Gigi and wants to be with her all the time. She's very generous with the baby too - always making sure that there's a stuffed animal or blanket in the crib, playpen or on the couch next to Gigi. Today, we gave Gigi a bath in the real baby bathtub and Bingo, ever so thoughtful, ran to get Gigi her personal favorite bath toy, foam letters and numbers.

We call Bing our engineer bc she is so fascinated by the way things work or go together - whether it's legos, blocks, caps and bottles, Bing is methodical and always figuring things out. She's incredibly easy to put to bed. You just go upstairs to her room with her, she closes the door, you look at a book together, turn off the light and she closes her eyes. DONE. This is a new thing - and it's amazing. We've also cut out the bottle of milk at bed time. She does enjoy a bottle of milk in the morning first thing, but we've been transitioning to sippy cups - although those seem like bigger bottles to me. We are also working on using regular cups. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics Developmental Milestones, Bingo is on track for an 18 month old:

- working on: using a cup without spilling
- can walk across a large room w/o falling or wobbling from side to side
- can take off her own shoes
- can feed herself
- clearly looks at us when in a stressful situation
- definitely has temper tantrums
- can say at least 4-10 words
- can point to pictures that we name in a book
- and she definitely pretends to talk

Her 18 month stats are as follows: 32 inches tall and 24 lbs

She has officially started ballet class as well.