Aspen is 18 months

In January, Aspen turned 18 months old!  I love watching her learn and grow.  And I have never been much of a baby person, so now that Aspen is becoming more of a kid, I think she is so much more fun.

• Aspen is a good eater.  She acts like she is starving to death.  She wakes up at 6:00am because she is hungry and will typically eat a 2-3 bowls of cereal.  Then when Sophie wakes up at 7:30am, she has second breakfast with her sister.  But she is incredibly impatient about waiting for her food.  She sits and cries in her high chair until the princess is served.
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• Aspen is really good about going to bed and naps.  When we tell her its bedtime she goes up to brush her teeth and then walks to the crib.  We lift her in, say prayers, and sing her a song and she goes to bed.  She is also starting to nap longer.  Hooray!
• She is very stubborn and opinionated.  Aspen recently gave up the stroller and has to walk everywhere.  If she doesn't want to do something, she will scream and fight until she gets her way.  She is also very independent and doesn't want to be helped with anything.
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• Aspen pooped on the potty for the first time at 15 months.  She goes in the potty a fair amount, and could probably be potty trained if I was more persistent.  She will tell me when she has to go "boop-boop", but it's usually too late.
• Aspen is talking a lot.  She wasn't saying much when she turned one, so I was a little worried about her.  But one day her talking just took off.  She can say: Mama, So-So (or Soapie) for Sophie, car, apple, water, milk, more, what'sthat, thereitis (all as one word), up, blanket, snack, cracker, cookie, and much more.  She is also a sneak talker.  We have caught her saying big words like dinosaur, Sunshine Bear, volleyball, etc.  But when we acknowledge that she said them she makes a face like she doesn't know what we are talking about and refuses to say it again.  The little stinker.
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• She knows all of her animal sounds.  But her roar is my favorite.  She makes great dinosaur, bear, lion, and tiger noises.
• She still has no interest whatsoever in tv.  We try to have her watch so we can get things done and she won't pay attention for more than a couple minutes.  I think she focuses the longest on Super Why, but it's not on at very good times so she doesn't see it a lot.
  
• Aspen loves to read books, but now wants to hold them and turn the pages herself and without help.  So this leads to lots of frustration and she usually ends up reading them by herself because she doesn't like the way mama is doing it.  
• I have been trying to teach Aspen the alphabet because Sophie knew all her letters by this age, but Aspen has no interest in it at this point.
  
• Aspen is a huge tease.  Any time Sophie sets something down (especially Sunshine Bear), Aspen will grab it and start running away with a huge grin on her face.  This usually leads to Sophie chasing her in tears as Aspen is laughing in delight.
• Her favorite toys are the shopping cart and stroller.  She pushes those around the house and loads them up with all sorts of things every day.
  

Aspen is becoming more and more happy and playful the old she gets.  I think it has been wonderful for her to be able to communicate more.  She still can be a stinker and can scare anyone with her glare, but she is also a really funny, goofy little girl.  I can see a lot of my own personality traits in her, so I can tell we will have our hands full with this little firecracker for the rest of our lives.  But we couldn't love her anymore.