17 Months

Magnolia turned 17 months yesterday. Her vocabulary is growing everyday and she is constantly repeating things she hears. Just in the past couple of days she has been "talking" nonstop. She's really trying to tell us something. We just listen and beg for more....what is she is she saying, we would love to know! She is also growing much more independent. When she's in a social situation she doesn't cling, she's off exploring but will periodically come back to us. We consider this to be great attachment with a lot of trust. She still loves salty and spicy but has recently experienced chocolate and REALLY likes it. She LOVES her book Hug by Jez Alborough and the reunion of baby and mother in the story frequently gets acted out in this house. She is becoming more and more of a daddy's girl. She goes crazy when he walks in the door at night and looks for him first thing in the morning. During the day she asks for him and I tell her he's working so now she says "dada wo wo." She just cut her 9th tooth, her canine tooth. No sign of those 1 year molars yet. She loves to recognize the letter "O" anywhere she sees one, I'm sure because I was SO impressed the first time she did. She also tries to draw "o"s too. She can hold a pencil very well, all the way at the bottom and she can make tiny marks on the paper. We have yet to see what hand will be the dominate one. I love seeing the world through her eyes. She does the sign for butterfly when she sees a large bird flying...that does make sense. I filed my nails today and when she saw the nail dust (gross), she exclaimed "snow!" :) Looking at a jewelry kiosk in the mall she did the sign for butterfly. I had to go over and see where she saw the butterfly and sure enough in the middle of a hundred tiny little gold charms, there was a butterfly charm! It is so much fun to watch Magnolia grow and reach all of these little milestones with her. She delights us in every way and we just love her like crazy. Happy 17 months Magnolia. xoxox