Brielle is brilliant.
I respectfully submit:
Exhibit A: She can walk backwards. She can stack 2+ blocks. She can walk up and down steps holding my hand. She can turn the pages in a book. She will read interactively, pointing to objects in a book. She can follow commands, like “Put it in the trash.” (yesterday she even picked up half a cheerio off the floor and tried to put it in the kitchen trash -which she can’t even really reach-independently) or “Take your penguin book to Dada”. She can take off her diaper (not that this is particularly helpful) and some of her shoes and her socks if you get it started for her. She can use a spoon and drink out of an open cup (sometimes without even spilling!)
These are all 18 month milestones!
Exhibit B: She calls her sister “Nah-Nah” (Aviana by the way, is pronounced with all AHs as in father, not a long A as in Ava.)
Exhibit C: She yesterday signed “banana” for the first time while saying “nana” for the first time!
Exhibit D: She signs write, wants me to give her a marker, she takes off the lid, writes on the calendar (we are a color coded family; we write family activities in different colors of fine point markers, ex. Chiro 8:30 am Meeting 8 am Gymnastics 10 am–so she sees me doing this a lot), puts the lid back on,(that is amazing fine motor for a one year old) and puts it back in the box.
Exhibit E: She started signing “thank you” appropriately, automatically signing it when we give her something. She even does it when she gives us something 🙂
Exhibit F: She knows to sign “please” when we say ask nicely, or if she hears the word.
Exhibit G: We have a verse of the week. We sing it as our toothbrushing song, then if Aviana wants to say it back to me, she can have a sticker on her calendar. It’s incorporated as part of our bedtime routine. Yesterday Aviana stayed the night at Grandma’s, so Brielle and I were doing our routine on our own. She was sitting down on the step in the bathroom. I asked her (jokingly, not really expecting a response of course) if she wanted to say her verse. She stood up, turned around to shut the door, and reached up, pointing at the verse calendar!! I was absolutely agog!
Exhibit H: She speaks at least 7 words and regularly uses at least 15 signs.