Lily baby's 17 months update

It's been 4 months since the last update. Reading it again makes me realize how much has changed. It's nice to have this blog as an account of Lily's development and i hope she will enjoy reading it when she's older.

Lily baby -as i like to call her - now walks by herself of course, she runs in fact! She pretty much walked at around 13 months. She has SO much energy, it's impossible to get her to stay still for even a few seconds. We tried to take some pictures of her a couple of weeks ago to create a holiday card and it was just crazy. She was running around the living room, wiggling around as soon as we would take her up, pulling on the santa hat to take it off, she was just a ball of energy and most of the 50 or so shots we took ended up in a blur. Thankfully we manage one good shot but that was pure luck:)

Random things about Lily:

-Getting her up in the morning is still a delight. She's so happy to see me, all warm from the bed, still sucking her thumb and holding her teddy bear using the same hand-- so so cute! I LOVE holding her and she snuggles up in my neck -- I could stay like that for hours. Her laugh is just amazing! i never get enough.

-Her favorite stuffed animal is a horrible greenish/yellow chicken I bought last year around easter. It's pretty bad looking and soaked with mucus, yikes! --i tried to clean it but too much water/soap would break whatever it is that produces the chicken sound so it's going to stay as is. At least it's only got Lily germs on it.

-She knows what she wants and can get pretty upset when she doesn't get it. I try to diffuse and get her distracted or make her laugh when that happens but sometimes it doesn't work and i've gotten pretty upset myself too on occasions and yelled back at her when she has one of her tantrum session. I felt like such as bad mom each time! i know she observes everything we do right now --the weight of that responsibility is amazing!

-She love hats -- not wearing them but she wants us to wear them so she can make fun of us:) . Whenever she gets a chance she goes to fetch a hat for me to wear and she then looks at me and laughs. And if i take if off she gives it back to me...whatever it takes to make her laugh is fine by me.

-I think she understands a lot but she does talk yet which is a little worriesome. For example she knows when we're about to play a movie for her and points to the remote for the tv (she watches these awesome children movies produced by the BBC), she sits down when i tell her to in her bath, when i tell her i'm going away she waves bye-bye, etc.....BUT she doesn't say much that we can understand. It's likely due to the fact we're speaking to her in English at home (that's the language we speak among ourselves) but she hears French at daycare and of course when we're out of the house, with my parents, etc. She's been pointing at everything and asking what it is, she says "that?", "that?" but she doesn't repeat after us when we tell her what it is. She also says "Mama" occasionally but that's about it. I can't wait for her to say something to me and i hope it will be soon!!

-She drinks her morning bottle by herself which is so sweet to see and she drinks out of her sippy cup. She also holds the spoon to eat but we hold it for her at the same time otherwise food would end up all over the floor and her clothes:) She still has the habit of throwing things down on the floor and has been known to do that with utensils so we try to teach her not to before letting her handle everything on her own. It's funny to list these little things she does now but not too long ago she couldn't drink by herself and now she can and it's a big deal. I remember the day she first did it and i was so proud, clapping and encouraging her -- every small step counts:)

-She's started to dance recently. Well dance is a big word but she likes to put music on -- she got a little car that makes music for xmas -- and then she moves her legs up and down, one side at a time (sort of like a duck:) and she even twirles which is so cute but can be dangerous as she loses balance and has fallen a couple of times. Still i love dancing with her.

-We read books every day, meaning I read and she turns pages. Sometimes she's in a hurry and doesn't want to listen to the story, other times she only wants to read one page and then throws the book away, and then other times she picks up the same book 3 times in a row. It's interesting to see how her favorite books change over time and how she used to stop and spend more time on one particular page of a book and now she does it on a different page. She's constantly noticing different things and that's fascinating but I'm going to need to buy new books, not for her but for me --i am SO bored with the ones we have been reading, i know them like the back of my hand:)