We are training Remi to develop a resistance to water boarding.

She loves this water bottle.  If we leave it within her reach she will use it to immediately begin squirting herself in the face.  She knows it’s her duty to stand up to any form of torture she may endure in public schools.

Remi is (obviously) excited to announce she is now 18 months old!  She had her 18 month checkup today and she has some updated specs:

• Her weight is dead on average for her age: She is in the 50th percentile at 24.2 lbs
• She is quite tall for her age: In the 75% percentile at 32″ tall

I can’t belive she is approaching 1/2 my height!

Her motor skills are right in line with expectations but Dr. Beamer thinks she has a better than average vocabulary.  We keep a list of new words she has learned to use.  Words only make it on to the list if she can repeat them on different occassions.  That list is currently at 56 words (& I think that’s conservative).

Still no super powers though.  I was expecting teleportation or laser vision by now but perhaps those take longer to develop.

Unfortunately, she had to get 2 shots today but we made up for that by buying a new book & having lunch at Chick-fil-a.  That’s a fair trade for a couple needles.

Smart Remi from Camp Murphy on Vimeo.

For those of you who haven’t been able to interact with Rem-Rem this may give you some idea of her level of development.  She’s a little tired here so she’s a little less alert than usual.  Normally she will identify things much quicker and usually indepenently of my questions.

All stuffed toys are “bear” to Remi.  They may all share the same name but she definately has a favorite.  It’s her “Baby’s 1st Pooh Bear”.  She will hug him and kiss him and if he is anywhere in the room she excitedly says, “bear!” until she gets her prize.  Pooh is probably her best companion during a diaper change.  She gets to point at Pooh’s “be-bo” (belly button) while we get to clean up her poo.

Her love for Pooh made him a likely canidate for being Remi’s first snuggle toy.  She has typically denied any attempt at pillows, blankets or dolls in her crib.  Remi sleeps alone. At her 11:00 AM nap time I quietly placed Pooh Bear in the corner of her crib.  I walked downstairs to a calm and quiet house just in time to hear the thud of Pooh hitting her bedroom floor.  I was more sneaky for nap #2 (4:00 PM).  I placed Pooh in the crib before taking Remi up for nap time.  This time there would be no chance of me disturbing her.  Despite my planning the thud of a bear hitting the ground occured as soon as I hit the steps.  This occured again at Remi’s bedtime (8:00 PM).  I gave it one last try but Pooh was violently rejected as I closed the door of Remi’s room.

She only loves Pooh as a friend.

New images in the gallery above. At 15 months Remi’s vocabulary is now 19 words strong. Her mastery of English includes:

• Mommy
• Daddy
• Meow (not the sound, she uses it for “cat”)
• That (I contend this was her first word)
• Hot dog (we can’t count this as 2 words since she only uses them for one meaning)
• Ice
• Uh-oh (she uses this one a lot)
• Bowl (we have no idea how she learned this one)
• Bottle
• Baby
• Bow (her word for any non-cat animal)
• Be-bo (our word for Belly Button)
• Bear
• Water
• Eye
• Hi
• Light
• Ball
• Book (not surprising since she plays with her books all day long)

*edit* She just said a new word during lunch today: “Bean”

That’s 19 20 and counting!

This video is a bit longer than what I typically like to post but I don’t have time to edit it & she does something really cool at the end. It’s only like 90 second long so it’s not that bad.

At 1 year & 18 days old Remi crawled to her toy stroller (loaded with baby Grover) stood up and began “walking” behind the stroller.

It’s not quite as momentous as her first real steps but her first assisted steps are still pretty damn special.

Just one year ago at 10:48 AM this happened.  From 7 pounds to ~25 pounds in one year.