18 months

Abby Jane turned 18 months on the weekend we moved, bless her sweet soul, so that post is now over 3 weeks late... but it is here for our record's sake!

I'm going to try to say what she was doing right at 18 months and not over the last several weeks, because that is for another post...

Here she is helping us wash the car right after Jake arrived in GA...

-fav foods: smoothie ("seemoo"), grapes ("dape"), blueberries, ("booties"), cheese, and bites of whatever we're eating

-knows a dessert when she sees it, no matter if she's ever had it or seen it before, and calls it a "nummy" (i.e. walked in Crumbs cupcake shop for the first time, and she says "NUMMIES!!!!" and yes, yes it is)

-loves to run and announce it "Abby RUN!!" sometimes followed by "Mama RUN!" which is getting challenging...

-is getting better at going down stairs (did I mention that she fell down an entire flight of hardwood stairs in June? stairs are a priority in our learning right now!)

-puts more and more words together in two-three word sentences

-at 18 months, her average week consisted of at least 3-4 playdates a week, and either going to the pool, beach, park (her mothership), or just the courtyard area outside our CA apt every day- getting outside every single day b/c it never rains in CA (thus the fires)

-not afraid of big kids- gets pushed around by older kids at the playground who are moving faster than her and usually takes it like a champ

-has continuously scraped up knees, which I love- it's a daily sign of her adventure and fun-scraped knees under a pretty dress makes me smile, though it's sad when she gets hurt...

What we were working on (see how little this list changes for 19 months...)

-not hitting

-coming when called (I'm picturing a twin on each hip, trying to sprint after my toddler and making the come-when-called obedience a priority!)

-sharing

One good side to the hitting issue (she's not superbad about it, but it does come out when she gets frustrated sometimes) is that the kid can stand up for herself!  One of our last days in CA, we were at the Lumbar Yard (not relevant unless you're a CA friend) and she was about 30 feet away from me looking in a fish tank.  This big 3 yr. old boy comes up to her and starts making monster faces and waggling his fingers around his head, and all this is about 4 inches from her face.  She was drinking her sippy cup while he was trying to be scary to her, and after him doing this for a minute and before I could get over there, she rears back and bops him on the head with her cup.  He ran away crying and I stifled a chuckle before apologizing to the dumb mom of the mean boy who was busy looking in a store window while her son got regulated on by my little girl.  And that's my girl.

More pics to come soon...