18 Months and Soccer Star

Callie hit her 18 month mark this last week.  The time with her seems to be going a lot faster than it did with Kenna.  I felt like we had baby Kenna for a very long time but we are quickly losing baby Callie.  She seems to really have grown up in the last few weeks.  She is using a lot more jibberish to carry on conversations with us.  When it is time to bless the food she folds her arms and starts babbling then smiles really big when she’s done.  She’s pretty adorable.  She’s learned some new words (finally) -

-keees (cheese)

-ha-woah (hello)

-gauk (drink)

-bye bye (she says it perfectly clearly)

-gucky (micky/Minnie/Daisy/etc. – they are all gucky)

She can finally say 'dada' too!  This is a pretty big deal for those who don't know.  She has always called Nate 'mama'.  When he'd get home from work she would run toward the garage door yelling, "mama! mama!"  It would make him crazy.

She has a bunch of other words that vary in the way she says them a little bit.  She always attempt ‘bless you’ when she hears you sneeze and ‘thank you’ when you give her something.  She can say grandma, grandpa.  She also says “yah yo” a lot.  I’m not sure what it means but it is really adorable to hear.  

She is starting to learn animal sounds.  She knows a lizard moves its tongue in and out really fast.  I think this is her favorite animal to imitate because she will show you this when you ask her what any animal says.  She also really likes the sheep sound and when you sing 'Old McDonald had a sheep' she will immediately start to "baahhh baahhh." 

She is becoming very independent.  She wants to feed herself completely.  If you try to help her she will shake her head and say "nah nah."  This makes more mess for me but she is very happy with herself.  She looks up every few bites and smiles at you with food all over her face.

She’s a champion climber.  She can scale Kenna's kitchen set (much to Kenna's dismay) and looks half noodle like Kenna was.  She clicks her tongue, pops her lips, puts her finger in her mouth and pulls it out to try to make a popping noise.   She blows kisses and dances along to songs.  She likes ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ and will clap and stomp along with the song.  She's starting to try to blow kisses but she doesn't get the whole moving your hand away from your mouth part so she just hold it there and says "mmmmm."  She can give real kisses now instead of the open mouth slobbery kind.  She even makes the popping noise but is so excited to do it that she usually makes it about 2 inches before she gets to your face.  Her favorite past time is pushing things around.  She loves to push her little monkey bear in the stroller or shopping cart and if we go outside she wants to push, not ride, her tricycle.

 

 She is an adorable, fun addition to our family.  She always has a huge toothy smile for you and waive to say, "hi" or "buh-bye."

Kenna is plugging along with soccer.   I can't really say it has improved much, but I can say she doesn't love it.  Thee have been tears at or on the way to all practices and at the games.  This most recent game she sat and cried that she didn't want to play while her team warmed up.  Nate and I left her to walk over to the field.  The coaches wife who is just a kind as the coach took pity on her and talked her in to walking over to practice with the team.  The first playing period seems to be the worst for her and after that she warms up to it.  She does make and excellent cheerleader though and loves to clap and cheer on her teammates.

We have had several talks about commitments and not quitting and she knows she has to finish the season.  At the end of the games when I ask her what her favorite part was she says, "My favorite part was that I didn't quit."  And to her credit she didn't.  She just cried like a baby before begining.