18 months of joy!

My baby girl is 18 months old!  What an adventure the past 18 months have been!  She is pure joy.  I'm writing this entry mostly for myself.  I've always been a journal keeper, probably since about the 6th grade. I kept pregnancy journals every time and I had a journal for each of the two older kids when they were small.  I would write down things that were going on, likes and dislikes, tell stories, and what they were saying.  As time went on it was hard to keep up with separate journals so I start a baby home pages site.  That progressed to a blog that was public....then a blog that was private....and now this blog.  This is my main source of journaling these days.  I had my old blog printed and the kids love to look through it.  I'll probably keep this tradition of printing my blog every so often so we always have it to look back on.  That being said, here is the top 20 things I want to remember about Miss Gumdrop at her big 1 1/2 year mark:

1. She can say over SIXTY thats right--60!! words. Here are some: bubba, shoe, toes, ear, nose, mommy, daddy, down, stay, sit, bath, eeeee! (eat), ah-ul (apple), book, peas (please), tan too (thank you), cheese, hel-whoa (hello), yeah, yes, ok, stuck!, help!, up, hi, baby, bear, night night, baa, moo, oink, honk, whoo! (for owl), sorr-wee (sorry), hair, here, this, whe-did-i-go? (where did it go?), the-i-is (there it is!), and pretty much any other animal noise I didn't list that you ask of her.

2. She is a climber.

3. She loves berries, yogurt, apple juice, chicken nuggets, cheese pizza, spaghetti, ICE CREAM, and her new favorite (don't judge) is popcorn.  Hey....I have a 6 and an 8 year old too....this kid is exposed to more things than I eve imagined.

4. She loves her baby dolls and pushes them in stroller, feeds them, rocks them, and plays with them all day.

5. She can throw a ball better than her brother and sister!

6. She takes one (two hour) nap a day and sleeps about 11 hours a night.

7. She can rock some pigtails AND a ponytail.  But she hates bows.

8. She loves shoes but will not leave them on her feet.

9. I am her mom-may and I am the bestest person in the world :).

10.  She loves her daddy and her "bubba." Her sister is tolerable in small doses (she tries too hard, bless her soul).

11. Our dogs are fascinating and the source of utmost joy for her.

12. She sings!

13. She dances!

14. She loves t.v. but doesn't get to watch it often.  When she is allowed she loves Elmo, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and 3rd and Bird.

15. She absolutely loves to read.  It is her favorite activity in the whole world.  We probably read 30 books a day.  Her favorites: anything by Karen Katz, Hug, Go Dog Go, and animal picture books.

16. She loves to color (on everything: herself, paper, the walls...).

17. She loves remotes.

18.  Every electronic device is a phone, she puts it to her ear and says, "hel-whoa?"

19. She has a favorite baby, a favorite panda bear, and a little blanket that she sleeps with every night.  She is my first child to attach to a comfort object (or 3!) and I'm totally excited about it.

20. She gives great hugs and kisses.

There are a million more things I could say and that I love about her.  She is truly a ray of sunshine.  I'm so blessed and thankful for every minute of her!

Look how you've grown baby girl!