Penelope 18 months

July 3rd is Penny's half birthday, and life is just so good. It just seems to get better and better being the mom of a toddler. I just wanted to share some fun things about Penny at 1 1/2. First some stats:

Height: 33" (88th percentile)
Weight: 22lb 11oz (60th percentile on the breastfeeding charts; 27th on the regular charts)
Hair color: blonde/light brown
Eye color: changes from green to blue to grey to brown
Nursing: 3 times/day
Bedtime: 8-8:30pm
Wakeup: 6:30-7:30am
Nap: 1-3:30pm (ish)
Preferred transportation method: walking
Favorite foods: pickles, bacon, pretzels, smoothies
Favorite toys: puzzles, coloring, shape sorters
Favorite activity: anything involving music or climbing
Favorite animal: cat
Favorite song: The Wheels on the Bus
Favorite color: green

Language has been completely blossoming lately. I couldn't even guess how many words Penny has, but she uses mostly 1-3 word utterances. Penny is constantly chattering away whenever we're home, repeating everything she hears, and learning new words every day. I love the insight it gives us into what she's thinking. I'm going to share a few cute things she does/says. I know every parent thinks their kid is the cutest and funniest, and other people don't ever find them quite as entertaining, but I want to record these things so we don't forget them.

She's learned to say "Bless you" when someone sneezes, and it's so cute to hear her little voice say "Bessue, Mommy"

Most of the time when I ask her what she wants to eat, she says "bacon".

We were talking at the dinner table last night and mentioned something about Friday, and Penny chimes in with "Julie comes Friday". That's our babysitter... and she does come on Fridays. But how does Penny know this? Weird.

She loves shoes and will bring my shoes to me or Josh's shoes to him when it's time to go somewhere and try to put them on for us.

She is starting to loathe the stroller, and we don't even really bother to bring it many places. We usually let her walk or we'll put her in the Kokopax. We also have a backpack tether, which although I know many people think it's weird or cruel, it actually gives her the most freedom to explore without worrying about her running off. If she's walking without it, she has to hold our hand, and that's not fun for her either.

Penny loves ice, and when she asks for ice, she'll say "ice baby". We were going for "ice, ice baby", but this is mostly what she says.

She loves to lift up her shirt and tell people that there's a baby in there. Same with mommy's tummy.

She's very concerned with who things belong to. She'll go around the house pointing to things saying "mommy's", "daddy's", or "Penny's".

If Penny has two of something, she'll hold them out and say "three waters" or "three books". She sort of gets that there's more than one but doesn't quite have the numbers down. She does use one appropriately and sometimes tell us that she has "one giraffe".

If you ask her what color something is, she always answers with "green".

She loves to have a napkin at mealtime and puts it in her lap.

Penny likes to give the peace sign, but she does it by holding up both index fingers and saying "peace".

Penny will flirt by squinting her eyes and smiling big. She will also pretend cry and pretend laugh on cue.

She loves to high five, fist bump, and do ET finger (touch index fingers).

She also does "George of the Jungle" by pounding on her chest and saying "Ahhhhhhh!"

She loves animals and enjoys showing off her knowledge of their names and sounds. If an animal doesn't have a sound, we've made things up for her. Did you know that an octopus goes "wiggle wiggle"? It's true. And when we told her we were having fish for dinner the other night, she said "bubble bubble". When she sees a monkey, she says "hello, monkey!" But my favorite is that a donkey says "hoo-ha".

When Penny sees an animal (real or fake), she says "Pet it.", and when she sees something she wants, she says "Hold it."

Penny is starting to sing songs. Her most frequent one is "baby go waa waa waa, waa waa waa..." from Wheels on the Bus. She'll also do the finger motions to the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and she'll sing this other song about animals from our music class.

When she does a puzzle, after she puts a piece in correctly, she throws her hands up and says "Yay!"

Penny loves to point out when someone has a booger.

If Penny falls or stumbles or bumps into something, she calls out "OK!", as in "I'm ok!"

When she gets dressed in the morning, she looks down at her outfit and goes "cuh-yoot!" (cute).

She likes to practice saying challenging words, especially three and four syllable ones. Her cousin's name is Catiyana (kaht-ee-ah-nuh), which she couldn't say at first, so she called her crocodile. But she kept practicing and trying, and now she says it perfectly. She'll say "Catiyana"at random times during the day.

That's all I can think of right now. Happy half birthday, sweet girl!