18 months...2 weeks later

Well my big girl turned 18 months...2 weeks ago.  :(  Boo for Mommy not keeping up with blogging.  For some reason finding out we were expecting again, and having all day "morning" sickness, just got me out of my routine.  I am now happily getting back to my crafty self, part of which means blogging.
Back to baby...  Here is her new pose for the camera.  Do you think she hears how cute she is a little too much??

My precious girl is growing by leaps and bounds and I have had a hard time picking out new things she is doing because it is all blurring together.  Here's a few quick stats:
Height: 33 inches
Weight: 25.8 lbs.
Clothes: 24 months or 2T
Shoe Size: 5
# of teeth: 12 (this hasn't changed for a long time!)
Favorite Foods:  yogurt, spaghetti, ice, peas, and anything sweet.
Favorite Cat:  Pumpkin...especially since she lets Kayla drive her around in the umbrella stroller:
Favorite Toy:  baby dolls, closely followed by puzzles.

When we took her for her 18-month checkup, the doctor gave us a survey to assess her skills.  She did awesome in gross and fine motor skills, and good in all other areas like speech and social interactions.  Here's my current favorite example of her fine motor skills:

Okay, not being able to post a video...should be easy, right?  Just click the button and search for video on computer, but it won't let me search...big technology dummy!  If I can figure it out I'll do it later.

(It's of her buckling her high chair buckles...she loves to do this!)

And for gross motor she is running, throwing a ball, climbing, and squatting to pick up toys.  She loves to climb the stairs of her playground and slide down her slide (sometimes by herself!).

She also has developed a love of the moon (or as she would say "moo").  Not sure if I've already mentioned this, but it is too cute, especially when she tries to grab it.  She also will draw lines with chalk or crayons and call them the moon.

Her speech was a little below her other scores because she isn't saying 2 words together yet, and she's not quite finishing most words, either.  Everything is "da" or "ca" or "moo" or "ta" and we have to look at the situation to figure out what she is talking about.  Oh, well.  She'll figure it out sooner or later and then I'm sure she'll be off to full sentences before we know it.

Well, she has woken up from her nap, so off I go!

Should Kayla Get a Dog?

One of the Fiesta events I most frequent is the Pooch Parade in Alamo Heights.  My former boss lives on the parade route and has a brunch each year for us to come out and enjoy the parade.  This was Kayla's first time to go and she wasn't content being a mere spectator.  Her joy came from running alongside the parade with the dogs, "da!", and petting any whose owner would be kind enough to stop and let her.  Mostly this turned out to be fairly large dogs, like Great Danes and Golden Retrievers.  Kayla was up to it, of course, seeing as how she has such good practice with Apollo and Daphne.  My mom and I took turns "parading" her up and down the block to see all the dogs.
This little white dog was on loan (or were we dog-sitting her?) while her owner caught some treats after walking in the parade.  It was the perfect size match for Kayla being that they could both still pull each other around.  It was very amusing to see Kayla trying to walk this dog, laughing the whole time.

Even more amusing was watching Mommy scramble after baby and dog once Kayla let go of the leash.

Next year's dilemma: should she have a dog of her own to parade??  The verdict is still out, but I'm not sure we can say no to this face:

Easter Egg Hunt

This week our playgroup got together to have a little egg hunt for the kiddos.  This was Kayla's first time "hunting" eggs, and seemed to prefer to just be outside in the grass rather than finding the little treats.  She picked up a few...

She kept on looking at me as if to say, "Why are we doing this?  Why can't I just play??"  She won in the end and had a good time outside with her friends, picking up rocks and treasuring them just as much as I thought she might have treasured the eggs.  Oh, well.

The loot

We gathered all the kids together as best we could to snap a group pic.  Most of the kids had gotten the idea and actually started opening their eggs to see what was inside.  Kayla did that the next day, prompted by Mommy and Daddy.  Here is the result:

This girl loves stickers, her main exposure to them being from the doctor's office after she gets a shot.  These did not come at so high a price, though.  Maybe someday I'll teach her that they stick on paper just as well as her tummy...