18 Months

I can't believe Sally is a year and a half!! I've been terrible about documenting her updates lately, haven't I? Yes, yes, I have. For that matter, I've neglected any and all updates lately, which I hope to remedy sooner than later. But back to my main gal Sal.

Oh boy is she a handful right now! It took Flarp (noise putty) to get her to sit still for the above picture. So that should tell you all you need to know. The girl just doesn't sit still. One of her very first words was "Go, go, go!" (which I guess is more of a phrase), and does she ever! I'm glad I quit my job when I did because I couldn't have kept up with her the last two months otherwise.

What can I tell you about Sal in the everyday right now? Well, she loves throwing things in the toilet. Loves it. I know parents say that sort of thing. "Oh my kid loves to play in the toilet!" But I'm not joking around here. Sally has thrown dozens of things in the toilet at this point. And I watch her like a hawk. The problem is that she knows how to open all the doors in the house, so I can't just close all the bathroom doors and be safe. She will find the toilet if its the last thing she does. I really hope this phase ends soon.

For the first time today, I felt like Sally was actually listening when I was scolding her. She likes to shake the gate at the top of the stairs, which is really quite dangerous. And she's actually knocked it down twice and almost fallen down the steps. But I think my words of caution are finally starting to sink in, so I hope she will stop doing that and playing in the toilet if I just keep on with my lectures.

Now let me share a bit about little Sal's personality. She's got a lot of it. Sally is a happy little girl, and she loves joking around with Johnny and me. She likes to hide things and then lift her hands in the air and say, "Go?" as in "Where did it go?" Yesterday, she and Johnny were hiding things on the top of their heads, which she found to be extremely funny. In the past few months, Sally has become much more friendly than she ever was previously, and she loves making new friends with adults. She still hasn't caught on to the whole making friends with other toddlers thing, but I figure that will come eventually.

Really, there's just so much to say about our little girl, so I'm going to switch to bullet points:

• Sally loves the water. She loves baths and loves swimming pools.
• Sally loves animals, especially "goggies!" Today, one of our neighbor's dogs ran up to her while we were outside our door waiting for Johnny to get home. She squealed with excitement. Right then, Johnny came around the corner, and the combination of both a dog and her dad getting home caused her to let out the loudest scream/squeal I've ever heard her make. And then the excitement was so much that she started crying. It was sort of the cutest thing ever.
• Because of her ear infection, Sally is once again using a pacifier at night. Aaaarrghhh. I'll wean her off of it as soon as I muster up the energy to do so.
• Sally goes down for her naps and bedtime wide awake. She waves goodbye to us after we sing her a few songs. She snuggles up with her stuffed animals and her blanket and is happy to go to sleep. Hallelujah for no more sleep struggles (for now!).
• Sally gives the best kisses. And she keeps her mouth closed now, rather than the open-mouthed kisses from a few months ago. If she doesn't want to kiss you, though, she'll push your face away with her hand, which we're teaching her is not very nice.
• Sally likes to throw her food on the floor, and we're not sure how to break this terrible habit. We can't take her to any sort of restaurant because of it. I really hope she quits finding it funny sooner rather than later.
• Sally's two favorite foods are peaches and strawberries. That's all she'd eat if I'd let her.
• We have a little routine right now when we get in the car. I turn on music, and Sally immediately starts dancing in her car seat. It's the funniest thing, as she she punches her fists in rhythm into the air.
• Sally loves playgrounds. Her favorite activities are the swings and the tunnels and the slides (if mom or dad goes down with her).
• When Sally is in a bad mood, she refuses to say "yes" about anything. Even if she obviously wants something, she'll say, "No!" if you ask her about it. "Sally, do you want a strawberry?" "Noooo!" "I think you do want one, so I'm going to give you one."

And now, onto Sally's vocabulary! She is learning so many words right now. It's so much fun to watch her picking up on new stuff. Here's her current vocab:

• go, go, go
• no
• yeah
• momma
• dada
• kitty
• doggy
• bath
• ball
• please ("eese!")
• cheese
• car
• bye bye
• okay
• mmmm (when something's yummy)
• teeth
• more

That's all I can think of right now. She's really good at pointing and yelling at things she wants, and Johnny and I keep telling her to "Use your words!" as if that's going to make sense to a one-year-old.

Sally is a ton of fun right now. She's so busy and curious, and she soaks up every drop of every day. I'm exhausted when I put her down at night, but then I miss her once she's in bed. I know that's cliche, but it's so very true.

Lastly, here are a few pics of our little year-and-a-half-year-old whom we adore so very, very much: