Twenty Months and Counting!

(I have some cute videos to add to this post, but I have been having SO much trouble uploading videos lately!! I don't know what's up, but I'm beyond frustrated. I'll keep trying to figure it out, but I'm going to go ahead and post this without them or she might be celebrating her 5th birthday by the time I get it up!)

I'm going to interrupt tales of our Western travels to celebrate my Kumquat's 20-month birthday (which actually was a few days ago... oops!). It seems like I always mentally write these updates and then never get around to posting them. So, I'm interrupting all other posts to make sure I get at least one up here before her second birthday... which is coming much too quickly!

SO, here's what's going on in the Kumquat Garden these days...

♥ Little K is getting to be such a big girl. It makes me so happy and so sad at the same time. She continues to be SOOO much fun and keeps us laughing all the time. She really does crack me up. Lately, she LOVES to be tickled and will ask us to tickle her. What really makes me laugh, though, is when she tickles herself or has other things (stuffed animals, random toys, the garage door opener, you know...) tickle her.

♥ She and Pink Kitty are still BFFFFFF's. (Sorry, Lindsey & Becca. The BFF job is taken!) They go everywhere together, except for the pool. Pink Kitty is a little scared of water, you know. So, sometimes she waits in the locker at the Y or in the wagon at our pool. Either way, Pink Kitty is never far away!

♥ We are still keeping busy, busy, busy with swimming at the Y and our neighborhood pool, going to My Gym classes, and meeting up with buddies to play. Some friends from our play group just moved into our neighborhood recently, so it's been super-fun to have kids just around the corner to play with.

♥ I was going to say that little girl still is not a big talker, but she's really been picking up the pace this last week. All along, I've thought that at some point she'll just suddenly start spouting soliloquies (try saying that 5 times fast!) and it looks like that time might be approaching. Although, who knows? This time last year, she could say "cat," "hat," "dog," and "ball," but then she stopped saying all of them. I'm hopeful, though! She's still signing plenty and is picking up new ones, too. Her recent favorite is "balloon," which she also uses for the color "blue."

♥ She LOVES to do animal sounds, especially cat, dog, bear, snake and elephant.

♥ She also loves to identify and say body parts. Right now, she can do eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, head, hair, shoulders, elbows, knees, feet, and toes.

♥ She loves reading and has a specific set of books that must be read prior to naps or bedtime. Otherwise, she doesn't really seem to have a favorite book... she just loves them all!

♥ She's kinda obsessed with our iPhones. That's really not a new thing. In fact, we actually got her her own iPod Touch a couple months ago when she figured out how to unlock our phones and started sending out random text messages. We figured it's cheaper (and less emotionally exhausting) in the long run to give her an iPod she can use and not destroy our phones. It's been so great, especially with all the traveling we do. Anywho, we've found some really great educational games. Our favorite one is First Words. It really is amazing. She's now able to recognize almost all of the letters, with some understandable mix-ups. She's still having trouble with "n" and "m," for example. She also says a lot of letters... "r," "m" and "e" are her favorites. :) For you iPhone-carrying parents of toddlers out there, I'd totally recommend this app. It's right up there in my very favorite can't-live-without-them baby products, along with Baby Bjorn bibs, Baby Signing Time, and Plum Organics.

♥ I could go on all day about all the cute things my Kumquat is doing now. Last favorite - she'll point to herself when we say "Where's Kumquat?" (Well, not really Kumquat, but you get the idea.) She'll also say her name, which comes out sounding like "Sissy." Sweet, eh? I really do love this girl!