17ish months

Happy summer! Here's a photobomb from the past few weeks:

Playing with Keely at a park

I swear we didn't make her do this. She wanted to push her own stroller. We did get a few strange looks on the walk home . . . parents of the year award goes to us, for making our toddler push a 6-pack of beer down the street in her stroller.

Memorial Day with Varenna at the park by our house

Fearless on the big slide!

Playing in her new tent from Grandma - we are thinking about a camping trip soon, so this is perfect to introduce her to the idea of sleeping outside!

Let's see, what else is new . . . I find it fascinating to see her language developing. She seems to know a new word every day, and she's at a point where her comprehension is much higher than her ability to say what she is thinking. Which means she gets frustrated often when she can't say what she wants. She can understand more complex sentences, and she also is trying to say phrases and put some small words together (like "bye, bye, mommy," or "Hi, Lea"). I have read that these next few months are a burst of language development, and it's so interesting to see in action.

Speaking of action, Kyle commented the other day that he thinks we have a climber on our hands - she tries to climb up on everything, from the coffee table to the windowsills. It feels like we have to do babyproofing round 2 (or 3?) to make sure there isn't anything she can tip over onto herself.

Newest interest: worms. We look for worms in the garden almost every day, and she is simultaneously repulsed by and attracted to them. She pretends to kiss them, but won't actually touch them. We make worms out of play-doh, and she has a book with a worm on the cover that she now takes to bed with her at night. We have lots of conversations about worms these days.

Lea has been at her new daycare for about a month now, and we are really happy with it so far. The center is focused on all aspects of child development, and they are great about documenting what is happening in each room and how the kids are learning new things. Every day, they put together a little summary with photos of what the kids did that day, and how their activities connect with their learning and development. They compile these into binders, so there is an unfolding story written about their experiences. And usually there is a picture of Lea holding hands with another kid, or singing songs, or making a giant art-project mess. I think she's pretty happy there - she comes home tired and messy every day.