19 Months

The climbing is still happening at 19 months. It shows no signs of slowing down either. Over the weekend, we had to rescue her from standing on the arm rest of her booster chair. This kid is really testing my nerves. In good physical milestone news, she has learned to walk down the stairs. She's only done the 3 steps off our back deck, but she's pretty confident with it.

She's also learning to express her rage with hitting, which is loads of fun. I've been slapped (in the face) too many times lately. But I am working on my reflexes and moving quicker these days. Fortunately June is a pretty good sport about it, but I wouldn't mind if she just smacked her back one day. It would be 100% justified.

When she's not in the worst mood ever, she loves to sing. "Happy Birthday" has been a recent fave. Twinkle Twinkle is also starting to be evident.

Lil is also beginning to dress herself. She can get some pants on and sure tries to put shoes on, though not successfully yet. She's knows what to do, but she just doesn't have the dexterity yet. Lil is also super into hats and sunglasses which are pretty easy to put on. But the cutest part is when she puts something on and then checks herself out in the  mirror.

In the past month, Lily has learned how to defeat the child locks on the kitchen cupboards, which means I find her running around the house with a kiwi or avocado or sweet potato every day now. So that's fun.  She is also able to open the fridge by herself which is less fun because of all the glass bottles in there. But hopefully soon enough this works in our favor, and she can just get herself a snack.

Her new favorite hobby is flower-picking. In the evenings we like to walk to meet Mike at the train station. Lately, we can't make it more than a few houses down the street because Lil locks in on one yard with a million dandelions and MUST PICK ALL OF THEM! I can't even persuade her to move to the next yard full of them. She just keeps trotting back to the original site.

Lil is getting really good at signing. She uses her signs regularly and consistently now to communicate which is really great. It cuts down on the ambiguous whining and crying. Her favorites are milk and eat, which is surprising considering how skinny this kid is.

The little lady is also talking more and more. I've noticed she has recently begun to chatter like June used to where she doesn't say words, but definitely articulates and has the cadence of a real conversation. It's not as much as June used to, but she's starting it. She's also using more words too. She says help (ho), milk, cheese, water, bye see you, teeth (when she wants to brush her teeth), socks, and beep beep (her word for car). She mostly says doggy, but I've also heard her try to say Lexi lately too.