At what point do you make the transition from speaking in terms of month to years? When someone asks how old Klair is, I find myself considering my audience before I speak. For the most part I've been telling people lately that she's a year and a half... because with a bit of rounding that's about what she is. Occasionally, when someone has a child her age or is really toddler savvy, I give them the month response. But, if I tell the average person that's she's 17 months they look at me quizzically while visibly doing the math in their head, trying to assign some meaning to that measurement of time. I'm starting to think I should ditch the month thing altogether. It's strange to think that's she's graduated to the realm of years and half years.... I remember when I was still counting her age in weeks... in days, even!
That was a random tangent. I never really did a 16 month post (I wrote
this post to commemorate 2 years since we found out we were pregnant instead)... so this can be her 16 and 17 month post combined.
Here are a few important and most recent highlights:
Klair folds her arms and bows her head for prayers. At the end of the prayer, she also says amen. She's actually been doing this for a while now, and it's so sweet it makes me want to cry. It's a huge payday for Sam and me.
Klair is really, ridiculously photogenic. Always has been. Trying to choose which photos to use was nigh unto impossible... so, sorry for the overload but let's face it. I'm not really sorry. She's just too cute to narrow it down anymore.
Lately, she has been responding to us by correctly nodding and shaking her head when we ask her questions. Additionally, if she's hurt I can ask her where and she'll point to whatever is ailing her. These are really convenient abilities. My life has turned into a perpetual game of 20 questions, but I'm grateful for the increase in communication capabilities.
Klair loves to try and mimic words and has added "water," "more," "all done," "puppy," "bum bum," "eye," "bubble," "baby," "girl," etc., to her vocabulary. Furthermore, she is constantly trying out new words from the books we read. The most impressive one was "umbrella." The least impressive is "no no no Mama" while shaking her head. Okay, it's actually pretty awesome that she can say it, I'm just not particularly fond of the meaning. Several days ago I gave her a cookie and asked if I could have a bite. She shook her head and said "no no no." I went in to take a bite and she pushed me away and ran off with it. It was so funny! I was dying with laughter to see how protective she was of her cookie. Is it terrible that I sometimes (often) giggle when she does mischievous things? It's hard keeping a straight face sometimes (all the time). I think she's too funny! I'm going to create a monster if I'm not careful...
Klair is constantly on the go. She's also pretty fearless, which is good in some situations, and not so much in others. She's great in new places and is a social little butterfly, but she also has a lot of bruises lately because of her lively, adventurous personality. I actually considered photoshopping the bruise off of her forehead in these pictures, but then realized that it wouldn't do justice to her little personality.
Klair loves milk. She didn't show much interest in it when we first weaned her from breast milk, but a switch flipped and suddenly she can't get enough of it. She would drink it all day long if we let her.
Speaking of which, she has become a picky little eater (I can't emphasize that enough). If I even offer her something she doesn't like, she will scream at me and hold her breath until she turns bright red. I don't want food to become a battle, so I offer her what we're eating and then try to find healthy foods that she will eat instead. There are a few good things she'll eat--oatmeal, peanut butter, sweet fruits, wheat bread (sometimes), sweet potatoes, cheese, yogurt, rice cereal.... and, well... that's about it. I try to dress these things up with added nutrients by throwing flax and chia in just about everything and making her fruit smoothies with kale and spinach blended in. She also loves macaroni and cheese, so I've found a pretty good compromise. I buy the Annie's brand. The noodles are made out of whole wheat and they don't use any artificial colors or preservatives. So, while I'm not delusional that it's actually healthy... I figure it's healthier. And some days, that's good enough for me.
She knows a lot of the people in her life by name including her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and the family friends that we see frequently. She can't say their names (with the exception of Papa) but if we ask her where someone is, she points to the correct person.
Klair is a major daddy's girl when Sam's around. She's actually pretty clingy altogether, but when he is present her entire world revolves around him. And, when he leaves, she has a nuclear meltdown. Every. Day. I'm actually looking forward to the time when I can tell her that Daddy is going to work/traveling for work, but will be home soon. That level of communication will lend itself nicely to my ability to soothe, comfort, and reassure her. For now, mornings are just plain hard and evenings are like Christmas.
...but, when she's sick, sad, or tired she wants her mama. I can't say I'm too upset about this fact.
Furthermore, she has a lot of separation anxiety in general these days. Well, not a lot, but more than she's ever had. She loves loves loves to be held and to cuddle, and I love it back. Is my house as clean these days? Are my dinners as creative? Not at all.
Klair has gone over a month without being sick!!! That is a huge accomplishment. This winter was rough on us between teething and the all around cesspool of germs and viruses that she's been exposed to as we've started venturing out of the house more and more. I should probably go knock on wood or something now.
Klair's hair is getting long. We had her bangs trimmed up, but we left the rest of her hair alone and it's growing really well. She's transforming from a baby to a little girl so rapidly, I can hardly believe my eyes.
She made the switch from a high chair to a booster seat at the table. We have a convertible high chair and I swapped it out while she was napping. When she woke up, I surprised her with it and she was all "wows" and smiles. She really enjoys being at the table with us and it's nice to have her there.
Klair can open doors now. We have the long door handles that you pull down to open, and she figured them out the other day. She gets on her tippy toes, reaches up, and pulls the handle down. The first time she did it she looked to me and said, "WOW." Despite the fact that I'm proud of her for figuring it out, life just got a little bit (lot bit) harder for me.
She loves to play "Ring Around the Rosie." She gets impatient and can't wait for the end to fall down. The game essentially consists of us getting up and falling down repeatedly. Good thing she's so cute!
Klair loves to dance. She'll go in her toyroom, press the button of one of her toys that plays music, and dance around. Her version of dancing consists of stepping back and forth in a swaying motion while spinning in circles (think of a dancing Snoopy).We dance a lot lately. It's a blast.
She's starting to imitate animal noises. Just the other day I was reading her a book and told her that a duck goes "quack, quack, quack." She looked at me, smiled, and said "glack, glack, glack!" She also likes to try and make dog noises, and she's an expert growler when I ask her what sound a tiger makes. She thinks it's hilarious to make these noises.
She can point to most of her body parts on demand. I'll ask her where something is, and she'll point and say "right der." She knows her hair, head, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, tongue, teeth, chin, ears, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, stomach, bum, legs, knees, feet and toes. She can also say "I La" when I ask her to say "I love you." And, she'll say "down" and oblige if I say "sit down" and say "uh" while standing up if I ask her to do so.
She loves to sing the itsy bitsy spider and do the actions. Her singing consists of saying "isty bisty." She also gets impatient with this song and often skips ahead.
Klair has a silly little sense of humor. She loves to laugh, and she loves doing things to make us laugh. She likes to blow raspberries on Sam and me and tickle us. And, when she does it (and often right before) she giggles very mischievously.
It's amazing how familiar she is with her books. She has a ton of board books, yet she knows what everything is in each of them. If I ask her where something is, she can easily point to it, and I often find her flipping through the pages "reading" the books aloud to herself (in her own language of course). It looks like I need to invest in some new reading material for her.
She adores her stuffed animals. She has to sleep with them at night, and every morning when we go in to get her she looks at us in a panicked sort of state, and starts gathering them all in her arms as fast as she can. It's imperative that they come with her.
She's very good with real animals. She'll gently pet them, and give them hugs repeatedly.
She LIVES for balls and balloons. Everywhere we go she is constantly on the look out for balls or anything even slightly spherical shaped. It's like she's wired with a special kind of radar. As soon as she sees something ball-like (a light bulb, a plant, the big red balls in front of target, an actual balloon) she yells "Ball!" at the top of her lungs until her voice is raspy while pointing excitedly. We were in church the other day, right in the middle of sacrament (worship service) and suddenly she yelled "ball!" at the top of her lungs... multiple times. I had no idea what she was talking about until I noticed she was pointing upward. I looked up, and sure enough there was a purple balloon floating against the ceiling. Why it was there is beyond me, but leave it to my child to hone in on it.
She loves bubbles and says this word very clearly. Blowing bubbles with her is like Christmas morning on steroids.
Klair loves my makeup, jewelry, scarves, shoes... basically, she's a girly girl and wants to be just like her mama. I'm okay with this (except when she gets into my makeup, I don't love that so much).
She hates being dirty. If food gets on her hands while she's eating, she throws a tantrum. As soon as I clean it up, she's fine again. If I give her a paper towel she'll often do one of two things. Either she'll use it to try and wipe her own face, or she'll hold it up to her nose and blow a raspberry. She started doing this the last time I had a cold because she things it's what I'm doing when I blow my nose.
Whenever I tell her something new, she watches me intently. Once I'm done, she'll typically say "wooow!" (think Wall-E). Nothing could be cuter. Later, when I ask her about it, she remembers.
I can ask her to go and get me something (a diaper, my phone, her sippy cup) and she kindly obliges.
I could go on forever. Basically, she is brilliant, happy, funny and so so so much fun. I love this age, and I love this girl with my whole heart.
She brings me more happiness than I know what to do with, every day. Every. Single. Day.
Happy 17 months baby girl!
Klair's Outfit (Similar Items)
Blouse |
Jeans |
Shoes
This post is part of the "Little Things" linkup with Words About Waverly.
All photography is by my talented husband... except for the ones of Sam and Klair. Yep, I'm totally taking credit for those...
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