Eighteen Months!

Our baby girl is a year and a half old! She has become quite the personality in our family and is fun to be around. She is also mischievous as she goes around digging in cupboards and emptying drawers or shelves, turning on the bathtub (and sometimes getting in fully clothed), unraveling toilet paper rolls, and all the other typical toddler explorations. 

Her verbal abilities are exploding and she's about where Heidi was at this age. She uses the sentence "I want _________" all day long, filling it in with a variety of desires. She also mimics the things that we say quite often, but not just in a parroting way- she usually mimics when its most appropriate to do so. This gives her a huge repertoire of words, although she doesn't use them all consistently. That said, her favorite word is still "no" and she uses that response to almost any question. If she says it in a happy way it actually means yes, if she is crying or upset when she says it, then it really means no. Other words that she uses most consistently are everyone in the family's names, water, milk, ball, shoe (she is a shoe fanatic!), down, nose, bum, book, here, hello, go, bubbles, tickle, bye, oops, mine . . . and I'm sure others I can't think of right now. Natalie can point to about 20 body parts when you ask, although she has to be in the right mood to do so. She's also very good about following one-step directions. 

Natalie has become more attached to her blankie and stuffed animals, which is very typical at this age. I try to keep her blankie and two favorite animals (a koala and teddy bear) in her crib where they will stay clean and be ready for nap or bedtime. Until recently she didn't care much about them until I took her into her room for sleep, but more and more, she insists on bringing them out with her when she gets up or she pulls them out later. She especially loves to wrap up in her blankie and roll around on the ground squealing- its the cutest thing. She also insists on me wrapping her blankie around her while I snuggle and sing to her before nap or bedtime. Sometimes she wants one or both of her stuffed animals too, but usually not. 

Natalie has started to really enjoy having books read to her. Her favorite books are Dear Zoo (a book with animals hidden under flaps that she gets to lift up) and a book that asks lots of questions to which the answer is always "no" and she loves to yell the answer. 

She has also become more independent lately. Sometimes I loose her because she is off wandering around by herself. She still wants to be carried around or wants to be me most of the time, but she's starting to break away a bit. She is growing up so fast, but we are so glad she's ours!

Here are some photos of her at a year and a half: