Dear Isabelle | 17 months

Dear Isabelle,

You are now 17 months old, sweet pea!  We rejoice with you for every milestone you achieve and there are so many to list!  You are one amazing bubba you know that?

You are definitely a very vocal baby.  You talk so much in your baby language, but now peppered with a few words that make sense.  You also fill your conversations with facial expressions such as frowning and pointing at something to express the seriousness of what you are telling us, or giggling into laughter because you are trying to tell us a baby joke.

Thanks to our weekly sing and sign class, you can now sign and say simple words, some very useful, like "hot" when the food we serve you is too hot, and you have also learnt to blow to cool it down.  You love cats and will always sign cat and say "meow" to me when we see the resident cats on our way to aunt Vanessa's.  You love eating and so will sign and tell me "more" when I give you snacks, and sign "biscuits" too.

After class with your best friends

Recently we learnt the rainbow song in class and you now know the colours of the rainbow and the first colour you said was "purple"!  Not single syllable word but a double one, since you are at it!  That amazed us and the other colour you love to sign and point to your cheek is "pink".  You can do "orange" and "blue" too.  We are so proud of you, baby girl!

You now learn to do signs to nursery rhymes, and will always rotate your arms wildly to "The Wheels on the Bus", and rock back and forth to "Row row row your boat" and scream very aptly to the phrase "when you see a crocodile".  You start bopping to the bunny song too.

These few days you developed a few patches of dry skin and you keep scratching them.  When I asked if it's itchy, you repeated "itchy" after me.  When I was changing your nappy after your poo, I commented "eeks, so dirty!" and you repeated loudly "dirty!".

Studying daddy's notes

You love to go out.  You understand mommy when I tell you "let's go downstairs and get ready to go out" because you will look at me, then drop everything and head to the stairs.  When we reach the bottom of the stairs, you will sit on the last step and wait for me to wear your jacket and shoes.  Thereafter you will very kindly help mummy or daddy take our shoes and place them in front of us.  The other day you actually reached for both the house and car keys and dangled them in front of me whilst standing at the front door.  Mummy was speechless.  I got your hint and hurried up.

Trying to unlock the car

Bringing daddy his shoes

You love to help out during our grocery shopping runs to Sainsbury's.  You sit in the supermarket trolley and observe what mummy puts in the trolley, and you ask that you survey each item before putting them behind you in the trolley.  This is almost our standard practice doing grocery shopping now.  Just because you are ever so curious about things.

A very serious shopper

Food wise, you are starting to show your likes and dislikes.  You like to observe what we adults are eating and mostly want to eat what we are having.  Spicy?  No worries.  It is definitely easier now, when we eat out because you can share our food.  You love eating fries.  You will always ask to hold one French fry in each hand and gobble them down very quickly.  Mommy sometimes bring you to Ikea on a weekday lunch date where we will both share a bowl of soup and a plate of meatballs with fries.  You do like Ikea meatballs.

Lunching at Ikea

Nap wise, it's a hit and miss recently.  You do look like you require less nap time although mummy still tries to put you down after 3h of being awake so she can get some downtime.  Sometimes you will nap beautifully but on other days, it's a nightmare.  On weekends we tend to close one eye to your naps, and sometimes we end up paying the price, because come 730pm you refuse to sleep.  A big milestone was last weekend, where daddy removed the bed rail to your cot.  Now it is a semi toddler bed, because you are a big girl now Isabelle.  And mummy and daddy don't have the Herculean strength to lift you up and over the rail consistently without breaking our backs.  You were so curious as to why the bed rail disappeared, and then you were very happy when you realised you can climb into your own bed.  To be safe, mummy found this foam bed guard from Amazon and so far, it's worked beautifully in keeping you safe on the bed without you rolling down.  After a week, I'd say you have gotten used to it and have adapted really well to this new sleep arrangement. Mummy, daddy and Isabelle are all happy.

Continue to grow well baby girl, you bring us boundless joy with your boundless energy everyday.  Please nap well for us and please don't wake up before 8am every day.  It's tough I know, with summer approaching the room does get bright at 5am with the sunlight streaking through the curtains.  But please try your best, will you?  Mummy and daddy would love a lie in once in a while.

Big love,
Mummy and daddy