17 months

Laila turned 17 months old this past week and is becoming such a little girl. I am sad to say she really isn't a baby anymore. She has a true sense of humor, is loving and compassionate, and is really engaged in soaking up as much knowledge as she possibly can.

She loves to sit and read books so we go to the library often for toddler story time or she will just sit down on the floor and pull out books from her shelves and read.  She is starting to show a little bit of imagination as well and will play "pretend" and is great at independent play.

She is a little goof ball and often cracks herself up. She knows when she's doing something silly (as in this picture of her wearing her Mrs. Potato Head glasses) and will often come find me to show me whatever silly thing she is doing. She is getting pretty good at following directions and is becoming a great helper.  She will pick up her toys on command and will go to the trash can and throw things away when I ask her to.

Her vocabulary is astounding to me and is growing by the day.  She says more words than I can count at this point. She is not really stringing sentences together yet but will repeat or mimic almost anything we say to her. She finally says her name now, which we have been working on for a while.  It sounds like Yay-ya right now but we knew those L's would be tough to say in the beginning.  She is currently obsessed with Elmo and Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street and Abby is pretty much her favorite word right now.  We also have friends staying with us and one of the girls is named Abby, so that is working out well :)

While I said in the beginning that she really isn't a baby anymore, she still has her moments at night when she will get really tired and snuggly and will curl up with us for story time. Those are some of our most precious moments with her.  She only sucks her thumb when napping or bedtime, and only when she has her purple blankie (which she calls her Baby). "Baby" generally has to stay in her crib but comes out on occasion.

Overall, we fall more in love with her every day and love watching her grow up, explore and become her own little person. She is happy, fun and sweet. We couldn't ask for more. We are very excited for her to become a big sister because she is going to be a great one!