Caroline- 17 months

 My sweet girl is 17 months old!  We finally turned her carseat around to forward facing a little over a week ago.  The new recommendation is to keep children rear facing until two years old, and our pediatrician encouraged us to keep her rear facing as long as possible.  Well, it was time to move her shoulder straps up a notch (since they were slipping off- eek!) and that meant that the seat had to be turned around.  I think she looks like a really big girl!

 I thought the balloon hair was pretty funny!

 Sunglasses?  Check!  Phone?  Check!  Cute shoes?  Check!  I'm ready to go, mom!

She is just the sweetest little thing.  She gives lots of hugs and kisses, loves to snuggle, is willing to kiss any of our boo-boos, and checks on big brother if he's sad.  She loves to play outside, do whatever Garrison's doing (scary!), sing, dance, color, paint, climb, and eat!  This girl is always ready for a snack.  She sings the melody to "Baa-Baa Black Sheep" and even gets in a few words!  She also sings the theme song from Thomas the Train and we've even heard her sing the birthday song a few times!  They're usually on "ba-ba", but she definitely knows the melody!

Her vocabulary grows daily.  Some of the words she knows are: done, boot, shoes, keys, balloon, bubbles, outside, gone, bye-bye, hi, eyes, pillow, kitty cat, doggy, cake, tree, plant, bed, ball, cracker, cookie, bird, poo-poo, pee-pee, and boo-boo.  She loves to wave and blow kisses.  She usually greets us first thing in the morning or just after her nap with waves and kisses.  She regularly lets me know when she needs her diaper changed.  She pats her bottom, says "poo-poo" and then leads me to the changing table!  So smart.  :-)  She is also quite proficient at nodding her head yes and no.  She is so dramatic about it that it cracks us up!  She also has a funny face that she loves to make on queue.  She is not the least big squeamish about messy things or afraid of bugs.  She picks up june bugs and cicadas by the handfull and then carries them around!  Such a funny girl!

She goes in for her 18 month check-up next month.  I can't wait to see how big she is!