17 Months

Cora is 17 months old! She is so much fun! I absolutely delight in her! She has such an easy, joyful, personality that it makes parenting her so much fun. Physically, she is such a litte girl now. She has slimmed out a lot and her hair is finally in enough to do something with it. I am really enjoying this age with her. She's independent on a lot of things, but still loves to be my little "baby" at times snuggling in the rocking chair with her pacifier that she calls "boppy". At 17 months she is:

1. TALKING in phrases constantly. She will put two words together all the time such as: "I come", "prairie dog funny", "a bite", "hiding spot", "pet Rica", "wake up", "birtday party", "happy birthday" etc. Some of her new words for the month are: earrings, jumping, nice and clean, petting, hiding, jumping, itsy bitsy, snuggle, slides, kicking, kick, Paul, Josh, Dave, Todd, pumpkins, piggies, Rics, penguin, smile, jacket, prickly, zeek, Mimi, Carol, Brittnie, etc. When she is with another kid her age I am reminded at how fortunate I am that she is talking so much! She can usually tell me exactly what she wants at all times! She can also say all of her body parts and colors.

2. Getting jealous if Brandon kisses or hugs me. She will immediately come over and pull at my legs until I pick her up so that SHE can give me a hug and kiss and then does the same with Brandon.

3. Starting to like to lay in the dirt and swim in it. She is one grimy little girl at the end of the day. She LOVES to be outside. She asks "OUTSIDE?" a hundred times a day and I try to get her out there as much as possible. She loves to slide, pet Carrot, climb on the rocks, play in the sandbox, blow bubbles, etc. She will always remind me to go for a "WALK? JACKET? SHOES?" if I forget!

4. Very into animals. She loves Rica and will try to share all her snacks with her. She will go find her many times during the day yelling, "Rica? Rics? Ricky?" She also loves to pet Carrot and feed him dandelion greens. She will say, "Ah, sweet baby!" when she pets Carrot.

5. Loving attention. She charms everyone around her. She will say "Hi" a million times when someone is around just to make sure they are watching her. She will ask them to watch her before she does anything she is proud of. Such a show off! She will jump with her feet off of the ground, dance, sing, etc. just to get attention.

6. Tough. She will fall and scrape her knee or fall and bonk her head and literally she just gives one litte exclamation and that's it. With Eli, he would cry for hours if he got one little injury, but she just gets right back up and takes off running. Sometimes she'll have everyone kiss her boo boo...even the dog.

7. Loving babies. She asolutely loves babies pretend or real. She loves to play babies and barbies. She will rock and make her babies burp really loudly.

8. Only taking an afternoon nap now, and I love it!

9. Missing Eli while he's at preschool. She will talk about him in the car on our drive home after dropping him off. When we go to pick him up she gets SO excited and will be yelling "ELIJAH? ELIJAH?" Don't ask me why she calls him that when the rest of us call him "Eli".

10. Girly. She asks for nail polish, earrings, and clippies for her hair. I love it! The other day she dug through my makeup and found nail polish and wanted me to do her nails. She sat perfectly still holding her hands and feet out for me to paint them! It's so much fun! She is a great balance of both the girly side and the rough and tumble keep up with brother side!

11. Best friends with my niece Jacklyn. I swear she loves her more than ME! She calls her "Jackie" and will say she's her "friend". Jacklyn will hold her and they will play together for hours! They have an amazing sisterly bond. It's really beautiful to witness.