17 Months!!

Dear Evelina,

You are 17 months old!! Oh my good gracious, you are almost officially 1 ½ years old. Where has the time gone?! You have been such a busy little girl this month learning lots of new things, exploring, talking and dressing up. So, what else has been going on over the last month?

• You officially have 15 teeth and your 16th one is starting to make an appearance (we think). Once this last canine arrives, you will only have your 2 year molars left to come. Hopefully we have a least a few months before they decide to arrive but you’ve been chewing on your hands A LOT lately so I wouldn’t be surprised if they came in before your 2nd birthday.
• You know all of your classmates by name and can point to each of their pictures when asked.
• You really enjoy school and have so much fun there. When we drop you off you act all bashful but your teachers have told us that the second we leave, you are little miss social. What an actress you are. In the afternoons at pick up, most days you don’t want to leave. After a quick hug, you are off to play with toys and one of your buddies, or, if its snack time, you will steal your friend’s food. Hilarious but not very polite.
• You’ve added car, shoe, coat, flower and day to your signing repertoire. Some new verbal words include more, help, yeah and no (thankfully you still like to say yes more than no). You will also pant like a dog and eee-eee like a monkey. Your favorite word is definitely “Up”. You must say it about 1000 times a day and will even say it when you want to get down. We need to work on that.
• Peek-a-boo continues to be one of your favorite games. We will often catch you moving your hands over your face and saying “BOO”. I’ve heard you many times in the morning after you wake up and before I go in to fetch you, saying “BOO” and giggling to yourself in the crib. It is quite possibly one of the cutest things to listen too. You truly get a kick out of yourself.
• You continue to enjoy watching Sesame Street and Baby Signing Time. If we ask you if you want to watch, you will say “yeah”, run over to the TV and wait patiently for us to turn it on. You like to shake your booty to the music, giggle with the characters or point to them, and even sign on occasion.
• Music is one of your favorite things. You like dancing, gesturing to songs (Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, If Your Happy and You Know It, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Monkeys Jumping on the Bed), and you love songs that require us to interact with you (Row Row Your Boat, Royal Duke of York, Humpty Dumpty, Trot Trot songs, Round and Round the Garden). You NEVER get sick of the interactive songs and are known to request more 100 times. I’m not kidding, oh my aching back.
• You also LOVE the toddler tunes we play in the car. The second you are cranky or not happy to be in the car seat (which is frequent), we can just put on your toddler tunes and all is right with the world. When a song ends, you will become cranky until the next song begins. My little impatient one, I wonder who you got that from?!
• Coloring is one of your addictions. You just LOVE it and request a crayon every.single.time we go into your playroom. You’ve even started to color in objects on paper if we show you how. We still must fight with you to stop putting crayons in your mouth but this will phase out with time. You also love painting projects but these can be messy so they aren’t something we do every day…considering you don’t like the bath.
• Dada is the bomb. You love him to pieces and will have frequent tantrums when he leaves the house to attend to chores outside, or if he leaves your bedroom at night so I can complete the final steps of your bedtime routine.
• You've used the potty once over the past month which is always very exciting!! 
• Bath-time continues to not be a fun time. It makes me sad that you dislike it so much. You are either crying in the bath pleading to get out or just standing at the edge waiting for it to all be over. You HATE having to sit down in the tub and despite all of the fun toys we offer you, you just aren’t interested. You want out!! We just want you to love it and have fun splashing and playing. I’m really hoping this is just a phase and one day you will request bath time and be in the water long enough to get pruney. You don’t hate all water though, you LOVE to put your hand in the stream of water from the faucet while the bath is filling up and you love to wash your hands at the sink. There is just something about bath time. I’m going to have to get in there again with you soon.
• What else isn’t so fun? Meal times. You are a selectively great eater, meaning that you only eat well at school. Your teachers wish that all of your friends ate as well as you, but little do they know that when we feed you meals at home, you don’t want a thing. Well, unless it is a turkey dog or cucumbers dipped in ranch dressing. I don’t know what’s more frustrating, bath time or meal times. Luckily you love fruit so we have that going for us. 

What's on my leg?;  Signing "book";  Page turning;

This November we get to celebrate your 2nd Thanksgiving and see Grandpa and Auntie KK!! YAY!! They aren’t going to believe how much you’ve changed since they last visited. Only 18 more days!!

You are the sunshine of my life,

Mommy