Mya...18 months

this is her surprised or excited  look. we see it often and love it more and more each time.

piggytails. finally. her hair is finally long enough to fit into piggytails. so darn cute.

sweetness (even though she is clearly pulling claire's hair.)

mya is a bully too.

she loves to read and loves being read to.

ahhhh.

my love.

hmmm. could she be causing trouble?

I am probably going to make some of you faithful readers faint at the mere idea of posting without a 3 week wait. I know, impressive! The fact is simply that I am home with a sick child today and have a big ole head full of data and facts from her 18 month check up. That, and quite possibly the fact that I've been overcome by guilt lately as I look back at all the nifty posts of nothingness that documented Claire's every moment and the lack thereof for our poor little Mya. Disappointing. My only comfort is that I too, was a second child who has the gift of reminding my Mom of her shortcomings in the realm of keeping a baby book and photographing every dirty diaper or sneeze. Therefore, I guess it is true--I deserve what is due onto me.

Mya has truly blossomed in the past 6 months. I find myself staring at her in awe quite frequently. She consistently follows one step directions, labels pictures in books, sings parts of the "ABC's," "Twinkle Twinkle," "Moon, Moon, Moon," can answer questions with one word responses, says what sound five or so animals make, and has a vocabulary beyond what I can count at this point. She says "I love you" without much prompting. Who'd have guessed this little spontaneous phrase could tug at my heart so strongly. Mya loves to hug her babies, follow her sister's every move and do things herself. Yes, I am afraid we have already reached a point of independence. She tells us when she has a poopy diaper, although she's been doing this since about 12 months of age. Mya can count to 5 in chorus and can count to 3 independently. She eats whatever is put in front of her. On an aside, the other day I had some sushi in the car. Claire detests it, but Mya asked for one to which I complied. The little bugger ate it all and asked for another. I ask myself--whose kid is this?? SUSHI?? AT 18 MONTHS?? Ha. Additionally, she loves steak, rice, corn, pizza, spaghetti, chicken, crackers, water, yogurt and pretty much everything else. She HATES whole milk. Always has. We tried to push it for awhile because of the brain development benefits, but decided it wasn't worth the fight. She isn't much of a milk drinker in general, so we try to give her cheese, yogurt or other dairy products to fullfill her calcium needs. Mya loves to make faces. She frequently looks down while giving you a look from the top of her eyes. It is her way of joking around. Pretty cute. She also says "tickle tickle" while trying to tickle you. Such a sweet kiddo. She loves, loves, loves to read books. She often sits in her little chair and reads aloud by herself, but also brings books to Chris and I to read to her. She has her favorites. She loves books she can label or identify the pictures, body parts, etc. She loves to dance, color, paint, and play outside. Mya also shows excitement with the cutest wide eyed, wide mouthed expression. It is priceless. She waves to everyone and anyone and is pretty social. She also approaches anyone. I guess that is one benefit to living in Korea. Being the center of attention everywhere we go has helped develop her social skills! She is so stinkin cute. Her hair is much blonder now than when she was a wee little babe and it is finally beginning to grow. Mya has most of her teeth--1 year molars came in around 12 months (which I never documented at that point) and her canine teeth (top and bottom) began cutting through in early November.

We had her 18 month well baby visit today. Living in MA we had the luxury of choosing our own pediatrician at an off base facility. It was awesome. That being said, we no longer have that luxury. I hand carried their medical records here and was rather irritated that not a single page was reviewed during the visit. Granted there wasn't much to be noted considering Mya has had normal birth/development up until now, but until I brought the doctor's attention to her large cafe aulait on her back, he wouldn't have even known it existed. Irritating! It also didn't impress me when he started to count how many there were, a number that was discounted at her visit in 2009 when we visited the pediatric dermatologist. Again, IRRITATING! Anyway, because she is showing no other signs of neurological concerns and appropriate cognitive/communicative/motor development, we will continue to monitor. She was a complete angel through the entire visit.

She has been battling stomach issues for the past 24 hours or so. I guess it is going around, but it was good to have the virus confirmed by her doctor. I also noted her continual cough, runny nose that doesn't seem to completely clear and congestion. It turns out---Mya has walking pneumonia! UGH! What a fool I have been! I was so convinced it was viral and have been tired of being told that by doctors in the past that I have been waiting to bring her in. Stupid me. He thinks it started by repeated colds that weakened her body, which resulted in the pneumonia. I guess that made me feel a bit better, but really. This kiddo is far from miserable. She runs, laughs and plays like her typical self. How lucky are we? She is sick, yet doesn't let herself wallow in her misery. If only a few others we know could take that note! Ha!

Here are the stats:
height-- 30.31" (26th percentile)
weight-- 22.05 (26th percentile)
head circumference--49.5 cm (94th percentile)

I'm going to wait until she is well to follow up with the vaccines. She had her flu vaccine (although I didn't want her to--it was required by her daycare) three weeks ago.