18 Beautiful Months

Today, my little girl is 18 months old!

The months have flown by. It doesn't seem long ago that she was just a tiny little peanut.

In no time, she became a jet-setting baby flying here and there when she was just 6 months old. She's been in 14 states so far!

Before I knew it, Fall was here and we were celebrating her first birthday.

Now, Spring has come again and my Kumquat is definitely more little girl than baby.

So, here's what going on with my sweet girl these days...

She and Pink Kitty are still BFF's, but she has added some new folks to her entourage.

She's such a funny little collector. She always wants to make sure she has as many buddies & toys with her as possible. In the mornings, it takes a long time to get her out of the crib because she checks out all of the 4,325 buddies sleeping in her bed and tries to figure out how many she can hold long enough to get out of the crib with her. She's recently started handing me some guys to carry. It's funny how behaviors change, but are the same over time. Before she could walk, Baby K would crawl on her wrists so she could carry one toy in each hand. Just before she started walking, she tried also carrying something between her feet. I think that's when she finally gave it up and started walking. :)

We're finally starting to get some consistent words out of the little girl! Not too many, but we'll take what we can get. Baby girl loves to climb, so her favorite word now is "Up!"

And by "up," she means any vertical motion - up OR down. She also says, "Go!" Especially if you set her up with a good, "Ready! Set!" Just in the last few days, she started saying "Eat." She also sometimes says "Dada" and "Hi" and sometimes both together for a very precious, "Hi, Dada!" Even though she just has a handful of words, she is extremely communicative. She uses 51 signs! I counted today. God Bless Baby Signing Time... and God Bless my good friend, Sarah, for telling me about it! Today at brunch, K asked for "more drink please." I told DKG I can't imagine how different things would be for us right now if we weren't signing.

She actually has made up a few of her own signs. My favorite is her sign for "glasses." She makes a fist and taps the back of her hand on her eye. She also has her own signs for "walk" (the sign for "shoes" moving up and down), "spider" (so she can play the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" game on my iPhone), and swing (basically the same as "wind.")

Glasses and shoes are two of her favorite things right now. She can put her sunglasses on her face correctly on her own, although she does sometimes still prefer to wear them upside down or around her neck. Most of the time she gets it right, though! She also desperately wants to get her shoes on her feet all by herself. She can almost get some of them, but she can totally get her rain boots on alone, which may be why she loves them so. She's been dying to wear them, so she was thrilled to do some official puddle stomping last week.

Some of her favorite activities now are swimming at the YMCA, going to My Gym and walking to the playground. Even though the playground is just down the street, it usually takes us at least 45 minutes to get there and usually about an hour to get back. That might have a little something to do with all the awesome neighbors we meet along the way.

She has become so independent and adventurous. I just love that about her. She is so focused and determined and doesn't give up on trying any big girl thing... even if it's scary to her at first.

And once she can do it, she is just SO proud of herself.

And that makes me such a proud Mama.