Lily Kate at 18 months

Wow, my baby girl is already halfway through her second year of life! We are on the road to the terrible 2's...although Lily gives us a sneak peak of those terrible twos every now and then. :) She is getting more and more opinionated, verbal, independent, demanding, and head strung by the day. But along with those things, comes more affection, more communication, more games, more giggles, more dancing on demand (hillarious!), and more skills that make me so proud every day. Lily has an incredibly good memory. On Friday I gave Lily an orange sand sifter toy with puffs in it to keep her occupied in the car on the long trip to my parent's house. (Worked like a charm!) Then on Sunday I handed the same toy but without the puffs. After examining it carefully, Lily gave me her best puppy dog eyes and signed and said "More please".. followed by three more signs of more, more, more and a pouty bottom lip. Lily definitely remembered the organge tray had puffs before...she is acting more and more like Pugsley with her passion for food. Lily's teacher told us that she ate three plates of pancakes at daycare last week. And she pre-eats breakfast at home with us too! Tubby, tubby.

Here's more of what she's up to at 18 months:

Games: Lily likes to make up little games around the house. Last night Lily stood on the couch and slid her back down the back of the coach until she landed on her bottom. Then she got up and slid down again. Repeat about 25 times. And she cracked herself up everytime!

Diaper changes: Lily cries or fusses for about 9 out of 10 diaper changes! We try to sing and make silly noises, but Lily cant be bothered to be changed. Hoping she exits this phase soon!

Words: Lily finally said her name! My mom is so good about coaching her on new words. Lily always comes back from a day spent with my mom impressing us with new words and skills. This time it was "Li-ly" which came out more like "Ni-ly" but was completely adorable to us. :) Lily hasnt acquired too many other words since 17 months, her favorite things to say are "Mama", "Dada", "nooooo!", "Bye Bye", "Hiiiii", bu-BUBLES!", "weeee!". One cute thing Lily picked up is she will wave at my belly and say "Hi baby". Or lean her head on the belly like she's hugging the baby. We still dont think she "gets it", but she will defintiely learn soon what all this big sister talk has been about when the baby arrives. :)

Sleepovers: Lily had her second sleep over at my parents' house on Friday night- Aug 17th. The only other night she spent away from us was in early May when we went to Appalachicola for our anniversary. Lily did great! We enjoyed running several errands Saturday morning kid-free, but by about 11 am I was missing Lily like crazy and was happy to have her home!