18 Months!

18 months?
a year and a half??
only 6 months from turning 2???

When did this happen? My baby girl isn't a baby anymore...

Time is flying by and we are just soaking it all in! Lea amazes me every single day. She is growing up and learning more than I could ever imagine.

She 'passed' her 18 month well check with flying colors. She's still in the 75th percentile for height (32.5 inches) and the 25th percentile for weight (22.5 lbs). The doctor said she looks fabulous and is right on track with everything she should be.

Some fun and new things she's been up to are as follows...

I love hearing her yell "HEY" every time she sees someone, anyone. She says "Bye-bye" now, too.

She gets into EVERYTHING. Since she's getting smarter, she's using more "tools" to get into things, too... For example, pulling a chair over to get onto the table/counter. I like to try and give her as much freedom as possible (while keeping her safe and me sane) but sometimes that can get ME in trouble! I don't follow her around or watch her every move... so sometimes she gets into things she shouldn't (like toilet paper rolls, my purse, the laptop or my chapstick).

I try really hard not to be the mom that says "No" constantly so I do things like distract her instead. It makes for really long days when I am always looking for something new to distract her with, though!

Whatever I am doing, she wants to do. She watches and copies me all.day.long. If I brush my hair out of my face, she brushes her hair out of her face. If I am stirring something in the kitchen, she wants to be stirring something, too.

When Lea has a cup, she wants to "Cheers" anyone (and everyone) else that also has a cup... and she does it over & over again. She'll hold her cup up and wait... and wait... and wait until you finally Cheers with her. I am trying to get her to say the word "Cheers" because sometimes I won't notice that she's holding her cup up!

It is so easy to put her to bed... she loves her crib! After her bedtime/nap time routine, we simply lay her in bed, give a quick kiss and say "Night Night". She waves and we walk out. That's it! :) (Don't get me wrong, it hasn't always been that easy and we sometimes have off nights.)

She loves playing outside! She likes playing in the dirt, with sticks, leaves and even bugs. Now that it's warming up, we're out there pretty often. When I ask Lea if she's ready to go inside, she always shakes her head no.

Lea loves music and loves to dance. She likes most any types of music but her favorite seems to be good 'ole rock-n-roll (she takes after her mom!).

She's been trying to jump (she bends her knees and rises up quickly, but her feet don't leave the ground!) and she's done a couple (sideways) somersaults.

Her language skills are really taking off the past few weeks. She actually tries to say new words now. (She used to just blurt out something random when you asked her to say a word... for example, if I asked her to say "Tree" she would say "bluh!" but now she'll actually say "teee".) She says lots of things that I understand, but most other's don't. And she babbles a lot. She babbles with her dolls and stuffed animals, and when we're at the dinner table, she babbles as if she's trying to join the conversation.

Here are some recent pics of our big girl...



Playing with a little grub she found while we were gardening.



Enjoying her first popsicle!



Bailey liked it, too!