18 Months After: Mental, Physical, Emotional Development

My daughter just turned one year and a half old. We took her to the pediatrician for her scheduled wellness check-up. Everything went great and she's glad she didn't get a shot. Growth-wise, she's in the 50th percentile for weight of 23 lbs. and 12 ounces; 50th percentile for head circumference of 46.5 cm., and 25th percentile for height of 31 inches.


Mental and Physical Development

1. More words in her vocabulary - We noticed that this week, our toddler is saying new words everyday. Her vocabulary is developing constantly.
   
   
2. Animal recognition - Before, the only animal she can say and recognize is cat. Presently she can already distinguish a cow from a horse, duck, monkey, dog, bird and vice-versa. Using books with animal pictures, we ask her to point which is which and her answers are correctly consistent.
   
   
3. Animal sounds - When asked what does a cow say, she answers "mooooo." The first time we taught her the sound of a cow, she repeated it as "meeeee." But now she says "cow moooooo." Another animal sounds that she can do now are "mew for cat" and "quack (she pronounces it as kak) for duck. She tries to imitate the sounds of animals in her "See N Say" toy which she does pretty good.
   
   
4. Body parts identification - She just learned what part of her body is the nose, eyes, mouth, and ears by pointing when asked. There are times that when we asked where her eye, nose, or mouth is, she repeats the word and use her finger to show it to us. Haven't heard of her saying "ears" yet. We are currently teaching her hands and feet, and she's still working on it.
   
   
5. Favorite toys - At this stage, my daughter already has her favorite toys. Most of the time she plays and carries her stuffed cat named Missy, and Po (bear from Kung Fu Panda movie). She also takes either one of them to bed at bedtime.
   
   
6. Puzzle activities - Two weeks ago we started to let her do animal and shape puzzles. The first few times she tried her puzzles were interesting. You can tell that she's thinking where a piece of puzzle goes because she looks at it and then looks on the puzzle board. As she gets familiar with the puzzle pieces, she's getting better at it. Next puzzle activity would be letters.