18 months

Leila is 18 months, and for the record, over the last month she:

-Does a little two step/crouch/hands behind her back dance when she gets excited.

-Loves to twirl, especially in a tutu.

-Likes to point at "pretty things" and knows when things are pretty. Examples, tutu's, my jewelry, when she brushes her hair, etc.

-Repeats EVERYTHING. She's like a little parrot. If I ask her to say something, she'll usually repeat it, and does a pretty good job of it. I've been doing better at speaking to her in Spanish, I have to, her brain is like a sponge right now. I can't believe how much she is learning because her vocabulary has doubled since the last letter I wrote. She can now say:

• "Leila" so clearly.
• "uh oh"
• "wow"
• "tickle"
• "bath"
• "bubble"
• "wow"
• "blocks"
• "bum"
• "whoa" especially when I turn tight corners in the car.
• "no" was dreading the day she learned this word.
• "why" don't think she quite knows what this word means yet but Eric taught her how to say it.
• "down" when she wants down, uses this word all the time.
• "more" or "bite" for more food or when she's hungry.
• the body parts she can say are "toes", "nose", "head", "belly", and "eye". She points the body parts on herself, me, or daddy. She loves to lift up her shirt and point to her belly, we're trying to get her out of that habit so the whole world doesn't see her bare stomach. Thanks Uncle Greg.
• says "night night" when she's tired and ready to go to sleep, or says it as we're putting her down. Love that she can tell us when she's ready for bed.
• "book" when she wants you to read her a book.
• sometimes she get's "mommy" and "daddy" confused because sometimes I'm daddy and perfect strangers are daddy too.
• "please" whenever I ask her to say it (after everything) and now she is starting to put two words together, like "more please", "gotch you", and "what's that".
• occasionally she'll say "thank you" after I ask her to.
• says "poo poo" when she's going #2
• says the sounds to the animal noises she knows whenever she sees it, her favorite sounds are "tweet tweet" because everything in her room has a bird on it, "nay" for horse, and "quack" for duck. Can clap for an alligator, say ribbit for a frog, and we're still working on "oink" for pig and "ooo eee aahh" for monkey.
• every time she see's or hears a dog, she yells, "PUPPY!". 

- Whenever she says, "lights" or "please" she has a little lisp. 

-Her most favorite toy are her stacking blocks. She loves knocking them down.

-She's always over stuffs her face before she's finished chewing...like a gerbil. Pops in one piece of food in her mouth after another. We really need to learn CPR.

-Her favorite thing to do is read. She loves to be read to and read to herself. I love that she loves books.

-Top 4 favorite books in order are: Corduroy, Olivia, Brown Bear, Potty. She always brings me Corduroy, Olivia, and Potty to read to her, and I always find her reading the Brown Bear book alone. It's her favorite because she knows how to say every animal in that book. We read those 4 books everyday.

-Top 3 favorite songs in this order: Old McDonald (sings the part "ee i ee i oh" and of course the sound of the animal), The Wheels on the Bus (does the motions for "round and round"), Head Shoulders Knees and Toes (does most of the motions to this song). She also knows the motions to the Little Old House in the Middle of the Woods song - this is a new one Grandma Fuessel taught her.

-Loves being chased around the house, especially by the popper toy.

-Is obsessed with her baby dolls and loves to give them kisses.

-Speaking of kisses, she loves giving kisses, knuckles, and high fives to people she loves.

-Is the most cuddly she's ever been and actually lays her head on my shoulder when she's tired or wants to snuggle.

-Is currently a social butterfly because she's enrolled in gymnastics, goes to wiggle worms weekly, started nursery on the 1st Sunday of 2012, attends daycare at Golds Gym, and loves every single one of these activities. She gets lots of playtime and interaction with other kids in different places.

-Last letter I said she LOVED holding our hand. That time has now passed because she refuses to hold either one of our hands when walking anywhere and continues to prove she is independent.

-Parkour's with her Uncle G all the time.

-Is obsessed with bath time. We now have to spell it out because if we say, "bath" she starts taking her pants off, runs to the bathroom, and points to the tub.

-Is off the bottle but not off the binky. Oh the binky. It's a curse and the best thing ever at the same time. We were going to try to get rid of it when she turned one, but Leila is way too attached to it and we just couldn't do that to her; and we were't ready for the screaming. We've done our research and have talked to several moms about this subject and we decided that the best thing to do for our child is wait until Leila's 2 to get rid of it. At that age kids are old enough to understand a little more and are better able to give it away themselves. I don't want to put her through the torture of putting vinegar or chili on the nipple or even cutting it off, like I had originally planned. Many moms I know have waited to get rid of it until their kid is 2 and when they did that, they never asked for it again (maybe only once). I like the idea of doing it on their terms because 1. it will be much less dramatic for them and 2. they can understand that they need to give it away because ____(insert story here, example: other babies need the binky or the binky fairy is going to take it and will replace it with a toy). Leila just loves her that thing too much and it's her comfort so we're waiting til she's 2 and I'm going to ignore all the dirty looks. She's still on the newborn size and I've read that the smaller size doesn't run the risk of jacking up their teeth up as much, so at least there's that going for us!

-Every time someone she's her, they always compliment or mention her gorgeous eyelashes/eyes.

-Her sleep schedule is as follows:
bed time is 8-8:30pm
wake up at 7:30-8
nap time is at noon for about 2 hrs

-Now that we have room for her rocking chair, she could read books on my lap in the chair all day long.

-Is a total mommy's girl...but still loves running to the door when she hears Daddy come home from work, and no one can play with Leila the way Daddy does.

-Seriously love her.

-She is the sweetest little girl and I can't get over her.

-I feel like my heart is going to explode just thinking about how much I love her.