18 months old

Kayden just had her 18 month check up. She is way ahead of the curve on most developmental things. For example, the doctor asked if she had five words. She probably has 500 words! She's already using two word sentences and frequently uses three syllable words. Gross motor skills continue to be advanced...we'll thank big sister's influence for that. The only developmental "concern" was sleep. Kayden continues to believe that she needs less sleep than Keeley (or any other kiddo her age for that matter). The pedi said there wasn't a whole lot we could do to really change that since we already have her on a schedule with bedtime routines and have already tried adjusting the times to see if that would help. She is just really, really stubborn when it comes to sleep. Actually, she is just really strong-willed in general.

Her stats:
Weight - 25lb (59%) - she stood on the big girl scale for the first time!
Length - 33inches (84%)

She continues to eat well, albeit completely different food than Keeley. She requests eggs for almost every meal and refuses to eat most fruit. She'll gladly eat a chick fil a kids meal and especially enjoys the chicken. This morning when we went to play, I got some chicken minis figuring she couldn't possibly be hungry - she'd just had a big breakfast and a clif bar in the car. She wanted my food though. I tried to give her an entire mini, she handed it back and said "no bread. chicken." If she sees you eating something or senses that you might be thinking about eating, she'll approach you and say "want some".

There is no climbing obstacle too big or too scary for her. Her full on tantrums are lessening a bit, but we still get the flailing, screaming, writhing ones occasionally. She can carry on for quite sometime if she's so inclined. She did it today for 40 minutes because she asked for Kelly and I said he was at work. The only thing that calmed her down was Keeley waking up. (Keeley actually told me Kayden woke her up with all the screaming...)

Overall though, she is a very joyful, strong-willed child.

Here she is dancing to the Christmas music from that decoration behind her. You'll notice she's completely off the ground. She likes to dance!
Dancing for Keeley before we decorated the Christmas tree.