Giggles + The Grump: Jibba Jabba. Non-Stop.

LC at nineteen months is absolutely hilarious and entertaining. She is going through a serious language growth spurt, and she seems to learn new words every day. The best part is that each time she says a new word, she gets so excited and is very proud of herself--it is so cute.

As her vocabulary expands, she is babbling/talking to herself more and more. In the morning and before she falls asleep, she lays in her bed and talks to herself, and she's practicing her sounds throughout the day. She is still into her ABCs, and loves pointing out letters. She can pronounce almost all of them except Q, J and W. And one of her new favorite things is to have objects sing the ABCs, which involves Trevor and I making that object dance as we sing the ABCs. I was trying to convince her to wear a new pair of shoes the other day, so I had the shoes sing the ABCs and now every time she put them on, I end up singing. Good times.

Along with letters, LC is also getting into identifying colors. She can say blue, green and pink and can identify most of the other basic colors. She gets really excited when she sees something that is blue, green or pink because she can say it, and will point at the object and say the color over and over. She also loves coloring with her crayons and markers. She'll scribble with the marker, and then ask us to draw with it. We spend a lot of time drawing letters (mostly F), shapes and poor renditions of simple animals (bees, ducks and pigs are among the favorites).

LC has also become the world's cutest, and at times most annoying, back seat driver. She will say "Go" over and over again while you're driving. Stopping at a light or waiting for traffic only make the instructions get louder and louder. We tried explaining to her that the light has to be green to go, so now she shouts "Green! Go!" at stop lights. And if you're on the way home, she'll add that word to the mix. "Green! Go! Home!" Over and over and over. We're still debating on whether it is more effective to respond to her with reason "LC, we are going" or just ignore her and hope she loses interest in the word soon.

Giving directions to Target. Yes, she chose to wear Dad's tennis wristband as well

Elmo is still a big favorite around the house, but she is starting to get more into all of the Sesame Street characters. She discovered the stickers in one of her Sesame Street coloring books, so we are now finding stickers all over the house. Her favorite place to put a sticker is on her foot/shoe, so it falls off as she's running around the house and inevitably ends up stuck someplace random. Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch (or "hat" as she calls him because of the trash can lid he's always wearing) have become new favorites, but Elmo is still #1. The Elmo puppet gets a special hug and kiss before bed and then we tuck him into his basket in the closet. It's hilarious watching her; she can't go to sleep until we've put Elmo to bed as well.

I think my favorite word that she has learned is "kisses". She will say it and then run towards you and let you give her lots of kisses. She has also learned to give hugs, and having her snuggle up with her little arms around your neck is pretty much the best thing in the world. She loves snuggle, but is often too busy to do it for long. We joke that seems to have her own agenda. She gets very focused on seemingly random tasks such as moving her crayons from one part of the room to the other. Or organizing puzzle pieces in a certain way. It is hilarious to watch her brain in action.

Hugs for Daddy

And of course for Mommy

LC has become a huge fan of being outdoors, especially since we put a swing up in the backyard for her. We've been lucky to have decent weather this winter, so she's been able to spend a lot of time outside. She spends most of her time in the swing, but has recently learned to kick a soccer ball and can now climb up and go down her slide by herself. It's great watching her figure all of these things out and seeing the pure joy she has playing outside.

High Five for swinging!

Peek-a-boo with Mommy

Pure. Joy.

After a rough couple of weeks, LC has taken a liking to baby brother LT. She has begun to show much more interest in him and seems to only get upset when he is eating. She's started identifying his body parts as he's laying around and has started to give him hugs and kisses when he is upset. It's so amazingly sweet watching her with him, we can only hope that it continues as long as possible. The only worrying part is when she runs up at night to "brush" his hair before bed. She's still a little heavy-handed with the brush and isn't always 100% sure which side to use.

LC & LT

A brief period of regression

LC's personality shines through a little more each day; she is incredibly sweet, smart and funny. She is becoming less shy, and has started waving and engaging random people as we are out and about. I think it is charming and cute, but Trevor would rather that she keep up her "stranger danger" alerts indefinitely.

Here is a photographic "essay" of some of the things that go on around the house on a daily basis: