17 Months!

Beanie is 17 months old today, and it seems her face has changed the last few days. The baby look is long gone and I can new see the little girl face emerging!

And what an amazing little girl she is.

She has a smile that can melt your heart and the sweetest disposition. She is smart as a whip and I am endlessly amazed at all she knows.

Let me see if I can do justice in documenting some of it.

I think the biggest thing the past month has been the immense development in language. In an earlier post I mentioned she had about 26 words in her repertoire and I think she has added a couple since, so about 30 words at last count.

She understands activities of daily living which is typical at this age. She knows when the kettle whistles that its "tea" and the tea is "hot" so a "no no". She knows when we go to the bathroom that I get a washcloth, and shut the door, and after a bath we put lotion which she tries to put herself. She knows after I wash my hair, I blow dry it so she will point to the drawer where the dryer is.  She know what cooking is and loves to pretend to cook. She likes to "feed" her stuffed animals and make them go "sleepy". She loves pouring tea from her play tea set and drink from the cup and eat a cake!

She is very entertaining and its fun just watching her play with her toys and make up games. She loves going round and round and making herself dizzy. We have also started playing play hide and seek in the house which she loves. It is usually me hiding and her finding me. If I ask her to hide, she runs to a wall and puts her face against it, as though she is hiding - so cute!

Her favorite places to go to if she wants to avoid me changing her clothes or something is in my closet, under the bassinet (there is a cloth shelf where I used to put her baby stuff) or behind the rocking chair in her room.

Oh and the latest is this game where she will pull my hand to get me into her tent and then proceed to put everything in the room into the tent  - while I am still in it. I am not kidding, she will take ALL her books, toys, things off the shelf that she can reach, and by the end of it there is nothing in the room except the furniture because every loose article is in the tent. We then have the process of putting everything back.

She recognizes things and animals and even if something does not look similar knows what it is. For example she was looking at a book and saw a picture which I said was a rattle. She looks at it, runs off and come back with her own rattle. The rattle in the book was wooden and square, Beanie's is plastic and round with a  handle but she could still associate them because they were both "rattles". Really cool to see this logic developing.

She loves animals and adores the black cat next door. We also have a neighbor from our sub division who walks his dog most evenings by our house. Beanie loves to look out for "Lucky" and likes petting her. She is now getting comfortable waving at people and saying Hi.

I am amazed at how much energy these little ones have. Geez - she comes home from school and is non-stop playing and moving around until bedtime. In the meantime she has exhausted my Mom, Dad and me!

She plays outside every evening with her sand box and the water hose. She has a sudden interest in my flower bed and pulls off the flowers and puts them on the porch steps and goes back for 'more". Sigh!  She also knows it a "No" , but does it anyway.

The little tantrums are coming through now. Its so adorable when she stamps her foot or otherwise shows her displeasure, and I have to really try hard not to smile and just hug her because she is so cute!

Food-wise she loves cheese. Cheese toast, cheese ravioli, mac n cheese, etc.  I have my Mom make a somewhat healthy mac n cheese with whole wheat pasta and organic cheese. She is still not into meat but will eat eggs. She loves bread and bananas and will gobble then up at any time. She is really good about fruits and veggies, so I cannot complain about her eating. I would feel better if she ate some meat to get more iron.

Sleep is much better. I read in a book that a child will eventually sleep through the night. Beanie is so much better, many nights she will sleep a good 7-8 hour stretch, wake have some milk and back down for another 2-3 hours. She usually sleeps no more than 10 ours at night which is on the lower side but given she only has one nap seems to be doing fine. She  can take a long time to fall asleep which can be a bit challenging. She has suddenly taken a fancy to the song "You are my sunshine" and has me sing it at least 30 times each night. Just when I think she is finally asleep she will raise her head and say "more".

My baby is growing up and I cannot be happier to see her develop and learn and flourish. I love the  simplicity that children bring with them and I love seeing the world through her eyes.

What an amazing place it is!

I love you, baby girl. You light up my world!