i can't believe...

that my little girl is a year and a half.



No longer a baby, that's for sure. She's so grown up and recently has been demonstrating her Independence...from refusing to eat, unless it's her hand doing the feeding - to turning down an application of "pretties" (lip gloss), if she's not the one applying it. She's talking so much, too, these days. It's so nice because I feel like we're finally able to communicate a little bit, and I love being able meet her needs. Today as we were out shopping she kept repeating "mom, gink...gink, mom." So I knew she was thirsty, and was able to give her something to drink. She tells me when she wants a "nack", which usually means that she wants either some goldfish crackers or a package of fruit snacks. She loves cheese, too, and totally lights up when I offer her a string cheese. "Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!" she says perfectly and enthusiastically. She also informs us when she wants milk, by saying "milk", and when her diaper needs to be changed, by saying "poop".
She loves food...more specifically, anything with sugar. She loves smiling at herself in the mirror, and calls the reflection, "Booby". (We wondered if the "R" would be difficult for her to pronounce...hopefully she'll get it straight at least before she enters kindergarten.)
Usually her first word upon waking is "cookie". But I never give her one until she's had her breakfast...which reminds me, she can say cereal, apple, banana, and yogurt, and loves all of those things.
She spends a lot of her time exploring the drawers, cupboards, and closets within her reach; and subsequently, her daddy and I spend a lot of time cleaning up after her. She loves books, and loves to be read to - only she has to be the one to turn the pages. She loves taking showers, caring for her baby, dressing up in anything belonging to mom (mostly shoes and jewelry), and looking for her Binky. The latter of these actually has some history behind it. In those moments of desperation when there wasn't a single pacifier to be found, I used to carry Ruby in my arms as we began our hunt for the only thing that would calm her. "Biiin-kyyy, wheeeeere aaaare you?"...I would repeat, over and over again, until one was found. Just recently, she has started mimicking this whenever she can't find her binky. Only instead of saying where are you, she says where are we. so cute. I have tried and tried to get it on video, but have failed miserably. (That's another thing...she doesn't like having her picture taken - or being filmed.) Here's my best attempt. I had to actually put the camcorder up to the screen of her video monitor (hence the poor picture quality)...unfortunately, this was not her best, but you can at least get an idea of how much she loves her binky.




A few of her favorite things (some of which have already been mentioned):
hairbrushes
toothbrushes
cell phones
pulling faces

doggies
keyboards
toothpaste
peek-a-boo
makeup...isn't she pretty?

food
binky
drinking from a straw (especially soda)
kisses

dolls
cousins
music
marking the "B" in pat-a-cake
daddy

kids
lip gloss
shoes
hugs


I'm just in love with this girl and feel so honored to be her mother. Happy 18 months my sweet little one.