Eighteen Months of Toddler Chandler

How are we at 18 months already?  How?

Eighteen Month Fun Facts

• Verbal Skills: Sigh, a little.  No great strides here, but maybe some baby steps.  On one trip to Whole Foods, she used the sign for "more," but she may have thought it was the sign for "yogurt melt."  She loves those things and I was holding a bag of them.  Chandler said something that sounded like "nana" while pointing to a banana.  Her word for dog is now down to one syllable, so it doesn't sound as much like "daddy" anymore.  She says "Go!" if I say "one, two, three" while she's sitting at the top of a slide.  This last one is a little exciting, a little scary: she sings something that sounds like "Let it go" from Frozen.  We don't even listen to the soundtrack, so I guess she got it from Frances.  I'm hoping next month she conquers saying "mama."  Fingers crossed.
• Motion: Very, very interested in hoping.  She can get one foot a few inches off the ground, but I bet she'll have it mastered soon.
• Nicknames:  Her father calls her "Chandler-Bandler."  Frances calls her "Chandly."  I call her "Chewie" (her initials are CHU), but only in texts to my sister.  All so bad.
• Teeth:  This is where things fall apart a bit.  Chandler suddenly has twelve teeth, four of them in place and eight of them in the process of coming in.  To look at her, she seems to be handling it very well - not a lot of crying.  But, about six weeks ago, I noticed Chandler was pulling out her hair (and eating it, but never mind). I consulted Chandler's doctor.  She guessed that it was a pain management technique for her and prescribed Lidocaine to rub on Chandler's gums.  I've been medicating her steadily for a month(!) now but Chandler has less and less hair all the time.  The pediatrician said if it became a bad habit, we could shave Chandler's head and stick bows on her head so people would know she's a girl.  I said that didn't sound like us.  Mark is fine with the shaving; I'm not there yet, but I'd like to give her a chance to grow back some hair before freezing temperatures set in.  Poor bubby.  Oh, and I had mentally set aside a week this month to pull the paci, but her doctor said not to until this teething/hair thing is figured out, so the pacis got a reprieve.
• Books:  She just loves the lion in Dear Zoo, although she will tolerate Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
• Sleep:  See teeth, above.  I don't dare ignore her crying in the night ("Maybe she's in there ripping out her hair in pain!" I say to myself), so the nighttime sleeping has fallen apart a bit.
• Stats: 32.75 inches tall (76%) and 23 lb.s (55%)
• Difficulty: On a scale from newborn to two year old (or three year old, pick your poison), we are definitely moving closer to the two year old stage.  Suddenly, Chandler will screech and arch her back when I try to put her in her car seat.  Or screech and protest when I don't let her go up and down the steps again.  She is suddenly a terror at restaurants.  I'm trying to savor each and every sweet moment, while putting a survival strategy in place for the next two years (it involves a lot of activity away from the house).  Luckily, there are still many sweet moments.  She is so darn cute and enthusiastic.