eighteen months.

It hasn't been long since my last update about you... but you are learning and growing so fast I can hardly keep up at this point! Already, you can put your own sandals on, hold your arms out to catch a ball and throw a ball with surprising strength for such a little girl. Amazingly, you can point to and say the words "elbow", "knee", "hair," and "toes." Sometimes you confuse elbow and knee, which is truly adorable. When asked, you can point to almost every part of your body. You are learning to say and distinguish between the colors blue, green and red. You have also started recognizing and saying the sounds or names of animals and objects (other than kitties) all on your own. You say "biiiig huuug" while hugging us or your stuffed animals, and exclaiming "pretty!" to describe things that you like. Every time you see a tiger, lion or dinosaur, you "rawr!" with glee. 

You love to eat Chobani yogurt, scrambled eggs with cheese, all types of rice and dark chocolate. If I forget to give you a fork or spoon, you seem rather offended and try to grab mine. Almost every little bit of the food goes in your mouth these days, except for when you're eating rice, which gets sprinkled all over the floor beneath you! And of course, you're still nursing voraciously. Your second bottom molar is finally in and you're now working on the eye teeth! You will only try new foods while sitting in my lap. 

You have started humming and singing when the music of your musical seahorse plays. If we hold out a bubble wand, you can blow the bubbles all by yourself. You've learned to enjoy your weekly manicure (nail clipping), because I say the "This Little Piggy" story about each finger and toe. I've recently started putting your hair into a tiny ponytail that shoots straight up from the top of your head; you love it.  You do the hand motions of Patty Cake all by yourself (the clapping, rolling, patting and "marking with a B"), as well as The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

You have begun showing real interest in dolls now too. You carry your toddler-aged Disney Jasmine doll around the house yelling "doll!", and naming and pointing to her body parts. Yesterday, you even used a tissue to "blow her nose" without any sort of prompting from us! You'll also put your doll in bed, cover her eyes and say "nigh-nigh!" as though to put her to sleep.You dislike swings and touching grass with your hands. You love to play with stickers and dance, especially to anything with a catchy, deep bass line. You are very particular about your likes and dislikes, especially in terms of showing affection, which you do on your own terms. 

Almost every day is something new, exciting and astounding for all of us together as a family. I've loved watching you grow from helpless newborn, to curious infant, to precocious toddler. I look forward to what tomorrow will bring. 

It is such a joy to be your Mama.