Growing Up

I snuck into E's room tonight to put away some things and as I glanced into her crib I thought to myself, who is the big girl in there? Seriously, she's not a baby anymore! I mean, she is 17 months now! We are only 1 month away from nursery at church...yippee! We went to the doctor today so I better note our major accomplishment...20.4 lbs. Yes, we finally crossed the 20 lb mark!

Here is a little about E (mom's bragging moment):

-She is becoming an expert at animal sounds and pointing out animals by their sounds. Her favorites are 'boo' (that is moo), 'dodo' (as in cock-a-doodle-do), 'hu,hu,hu' (with head moving forward like a dog barking), 'errr' (that would be an elephant) and 'raaar' (lion). All of the sounds and speaking is a huge accomplishment as E has been seeing a speech therapist for her delay in speech!

-She loves pointing out body parts including her (and your) eyes, ears, nose, head, teeth, chin, toes and belly.

-She is an expert waver for Hi and Bye! She also frequently says the words with the wave. She is also great at blowing kisses.

-She loves being outside! We've had fairly nice weather this winter which is great. It gets hard when it is too cold or rainy.

-She has learned that she needs to say 'more' (which sounds more like 'bore') when she wants more food. It is great because when she starts whining all you have to say is "what do you say?" and the whining stops and the words come out!

-She has a real sweet spot that has been coming out! She gives great hugs and is often found hugging dad and patting his back when he gets home from work. She gives open mouth kisses and often makes kissing sounds. She LOVES her baby. It brings tears to my eyes to see her walking around cuddling her baby and kissing her.

-She folds her arms for prayers by putting her hands on her chest (still working on getting a photo) and says 'men' at the end of the prayer. Today she kept saying 'men' during the prayer to tell dad to stop praying!

She loves to laugh! She is also one active girl which makes church a challenge. She loves to hide and play chase...or just run away from me. She has become quite good a peek-a-boo!

These are the moments that make all the struggles of growing up worth it!