Sarah at 18 Months

Sarah turned 18 months old on February 5, and she had her 18 month check-up today.

Stats

• Height = 32.5" (up 1.75" since 15 months), 65%
• Weight = 23lb 9.5oz (up 12oz since 15 months), 60%
• Head circumference = 18.5" (up 1" since 15 months), 50%
• 16 teeth, just waiting on her second molars

The last few months have been all about language for Sarah.  She's started putting together word phrases like Mittsy.  Touch.  Soft.  Hug!  (So cute) and sentences like:

• Touch it
• Hold this
• See you later
• Thank you
• I sorry
• I love you
• Love you, too
• Hi, DaDa/MaMa/friend/etc.
• More colors (while coloring)
• No more diaper
• All done
• Happy birthday to Taylor (for her aunt's birthday)
• Let's go!
• Peekaboo!  I see you!
• Sarah, no touch (referring to the litter box)
• Pick up

Some other new and exciting words have been:

• CoCo - Somewhere along the way Mittens got nicknamed Mittsy CoCo by our family, and now Sarah has just turned it into CoCo.  It's adorable!  She like to feed CoCo her cookies (dental treats) and brings CoCo her own favorite  toys like dolls and Crayons.  
• She's started saying South Gate which is obviously a hit with our students.  
• Pink - Her favorite color, and she loves identifying pink things like Crayons and clothing.
• Amen - Said at the end of every prayer and another big hit!
• Amy - This is what Sarah calls me if she's frustrated with me like "No, Amy!" while getting a diaper change.  Good grief, girl!

Sarah's physical ability improves by the week, too.  She enjoys walking backwards, marching, jumping, walking on her tip toes, and walking with her legs spread apart really far.  She's learning how to zip and unzip things like jackets.  She likes to twist lids to open things.

I would say Sarah's two favorite activities are coloring and going outside.  She has a little table with two chairs, and she will color and put stickers on her papers.  She also likes using her easel to play with magnets and write with the dry erase marker.  The other weeks Sarah said "Jacket" (I put it on her), "Socks" (I put them on her), "Shoes" (I put them on her), "Outside!"  She knew!  So I obliged and we went outside.  She's really starting to enjoy swinging and sliding.  She also likes exploring with dirt, rocks, and sticks.

Her imagination is really blossoming.  She likes to lay her head down and say "night night."  She enjoys playing peekabo, and she also likes having pretend tea parties and feeding her stuffed animals.

Random noteworthy things since 15 months - Thanksgiving, Christmas, and lots of sicknesses (double ear infection, sinus infection, stomach virus, and another ear infection).  You'll recall that we went to Colorado back when Sarah was 16 months old.

One really big thing is that we've had some potty success.  I got a little pink Minnie Mouse potty, and she was pumped.  She loves saying, "Potty, wipe, flush, wash," so she definitely understands the steps of a bathroom experience.  Robert and I got her to sit on the potty by giving her some Crayons and a piece of paper.  After a few minutes she went pee pee!  Half an hour later or so she was sitting on the potty with a book and went pee pee/poo poo!  This week she was walking around naked, and later in the day I found pee pee in her potty.  She'd gone without me even being there!  I know potty training won't happen overnight, but it's very exciting to know that she's making progress toward it.

The sweetest moments have been her saying, "I love you."  It melts me every time.  I've waited to hear that since she was born, and I'm pretty sure it'll never get old.  We love you, Sarah!

Upholstered Headboard

About a year ago I mentioned that Robert had built us a platform bed.  Since then we knew that we wanted an upholstered headboard to go with it.  Since we have a California King bed it's not as easy to find things for it compared to having a queen bed.  Looking online it was hard to find CF as an option, and when I did it was $500+ which was more than we wanted to spend.  I knew we'd need to just make our own.  I talked to my aunt Pam who has made a few different varieties of upholstered headboards and felt like we were up for the project.

Pepaw came over, and Robert and I discussed designs with him.  We decided on a camel back design.  Pepaw was in charge of cutting out the wood backing.  I wasn't involved in this, but of course he made it seem easy.  Miraculously the wood fit into my SUV so we were able to move it easily from his house to ours.

We made a trip to JoAnn Fabrics to purchase 2" thick foam and quilt batting.  We used an entire roll of the foam, so if you have a smaller bed you could ask them to measure out how much you need without having to purchase the whole roll.  One bag of quilt batting was more than enough.  Thankfully, both items were 50% off, plus we had a coupon for an additional 20% off.  Our JoAnn's doesn't have much upholstery fabric, and it all seemed pretty expensive, so we went to a local fabric store call FM.  It had so many options!  I went with a woven gray material that was only $6.99/yard, and I got 2.5 yards.  I wanted something pretty plain since our bedspread is very colorful.

When we got home we laid the foam on the wood and cut it out to fit the wood by using an electric kitchen knife.  It cut very easily.  We left the foam 1/2" wider than the wood all the way around since the foam would squish some as we upholstered it.  Then we put the quilt batting over it and stapled it down.  We trimmed the excess.  Finally, we upholstered it with the fabric, pulling, stapling, and trimming as we went.  The whole foam, batting, and upholstering process took about two hours with the two of us working, so I didn't think it was too bad.  It's important to note that, as you'll see in the pictures, we didn't take the foam, batting, and fabric all the way down the board.  We just took it down as far as the bed, and then the rest of the board goes down behind the bed onto the floor.  We stapled the batting and fabric underneath the bottom of the foam.

Robert mounted the headboard to our wall.  The main frustrating part about this is that our bed is between two windows, and it was really hard to find a stud.  Obviously, this might not be the case for you.  We're really please with how it turned out, and I would recommend this DIY project to anyone considering it.