ILA at 17 months

The older Ila gets the more active she becomes and the more she wears me out! Right now I feel like I am constantly trying to come up with new things to occupy her. She is not as satisfied being at the house anymore, so we are always on the go! Some days she will point to her coat, stroller, or bring me my shoes saying "go! go! go!" until I will finally take her somewhere for the third time that day. Luckily there are lots of places to go close by that we can walk to, and it doesn't take much to satisfy her once we "GO." There is a library one block away with a great children's section, downtown mall is fun for her to just walk around and comment on all the "doggies!", and then there is the discovery museum on the mall, Lee Park, and McGuffey Park all within a block. She also likes to walk across the street to the church office and see Ozzy, a giant German Shepherd owned by one of the administrators.

Ila has become very vocal and is saying new words almost every day. Not all of them are completely coherent or correct, but at least her version of them communicates what she is trying to say. Let's see if I can come up with most of them: Mommy/ Mama, Daddy/Dada, Doggie, GO!, All-done, All -done Dada, Cheese, Keys, Duck, Truck, More, Moon, Up, Happy, Puppy, Baby, Apple, Uh-Oh, Socks, Gocks (Blocks), Gool (Ball), Bup (Cup), Pees (Please), Tanku (Thank you), Bubbles, Anyun (Elmo), teetee (TV), Awk (Off-->she tells Sydney to get AWK of the couch), Good Girl, Bad Dog, BaBa (Bye Bye), Hi, yucky, ewww, egg/eggies, Kiki (cookie), and some sentences she has said a few times are "I want that," " I want to play with that," "I want Mommy," and "I want Mommy now," That's all I can think of right now but I'm sure there are more. What's more amazing is how much she understands. If I ask her to point to almost anything in her books, she can identify what it is. She can also follow two step commands like "go in the kitchen and get your juice" or "pick that up and throw it in the trash." She's just amazing! She's eating very well with a fork and spoon at all her meals and it's funny to see how she doesn't like to get dirty or messy. Even when we're at the playground if she gets dirt on her hands, she comes to me saying "eww" asking me to clean them off. This girl needs to toughen up a bit! Amidst all of her cuteness, she has also starting throwing tantrums if she can't get her way, but fortunately they don't last very long and are often humorous. Sometimes it's hard not to laugh when she throws herself on the floor in protest for some reason. Even that is cute! (I'm sure it won't always be).

She has been RUNNING all around now for a while, she likes to dance and be silly, and sometimes if I ask her to sing a song she will start humming something and shaking her hips a bit. It is too cute. . . She takes one bigger nap in the middle of the day now, which has been nice for me to have extended time to get things done.

Though i am thoroughly exhausted at the end of most days, I feel so blessed to spend my days with this little girl who brings so much joy. Thanks for reading! I hope this will be nice to look back on to see what she's doing. More to come!