17 months

Kate turned 17 months a few days ago. I have no idea how much she weighs right now, but she seems to get heavier every 15 minutes or so. She has her next check-up at 18 months. It's hard to believe that she's almost halfway to 2!

She's really started to blossom into this funny and sweet little girl lately. Whenever I say "I love you" she immediately gives me a kiss. She loves to look at photos, and her favorite place to do that is the photo calendar that I had made for Nick as a Christmas gift. Often if you pass this calendar while holding her you have to stop to flip through it's pages so she can point at all the people. she recognizes everyone, but most people she calls "nee". She's started referring to me as "Maw!" and Nick as "Daw!" when she wants our attention. This also happens when she is talking to Nick's mother, grandmother and Bill: they are known as yaw, naw, and baw. Her favorite word is "mo", which she says sometimes very forcefully whenever she wants more of whatever she just finished. This isn't always just food - sometimes it's to be tickled again, or to watch another movie, to read another book, or to play another game.

She's now starting to make an attempt at some animal sounds. She does a really cute whisper thing when you ask her what a dog says, although I've never heard a whispering dog. She can identify all kinds of things in books when you ask her to point them out, but when I try to get her to say the words she just nods her head in agreement with me.

She loves her Uncle Trey pretty much more than anyone else besides Mommy and Daddy. Lately when she's over at his house playing, she wants him to stop what he's doing and hold her. She'll lay her head on his shoulder, perfectly content. He's only 9 though, so he can't hold her long before he gets tired. This usually makes her cry.

Her teeth have exploded. Once she started getting them, they all arrived. She has four on the top, four on the bottom, and four molars coming in now. Just earlier today I noticed her gnawing on her hand, which is usually a sign that another tooth is about to appear.

Kate loves blueberries, cherries, applesauce, craisins, bananas, corn, cooked carrots, all forms of meat but especially ground turkey meat, spaghetti, lasagna, and crackers (both graham and Ritz). We started giving her almond milk when I stopped breastfeeding because regular cow's milk causes her face to break out. She loves the almond milk, and I must confess that I like it too and I can't stand to drink white milk. Although I haven't breastfed her for a couple of months now, she still asks for Mommy's milk usually in the mornings and when she's upset. It's hard to get her to understand that there's no more milk there.

Kate loves the Wiggles. I actually don't think love is a strong enough word. My mom gave me some of Trey's old DVDs that he obviously doesn't need anymore. One in particular is about 40 minutes of song and dance numbers. Kate would literally watch it over and over all day long if I let her. Every time it ends, she asks for "mo". In fact, she knows which number is the last one on the DVD and will start asking for "mo" even before this number ends. Needless to say I've gone to bed on many a night lately singing Wiggles tunes. This is why some mothers crack, just so you know. But she's just too adorable when she gets up and dances while they are singing. I've also noticed in the past couple of days that she's mimicking moves and behaviors that they do in the video at the proper spot. It's amazing how smart she is sometimes.