18 months!

Vivi has been talking up a storm lately, some of it understandable, some of it less so!  She has been saying a lot of new words this month, plus making lots of other sounds.  She now says Ducky and Tiger when she wants her lovies.  She says "milk" constantly!

She loves playing outside and will get her shoes or her hat to let us know that she's ready to go outside.  She got her first pair of rain boots this month and got soaked splashing in a puddle almost instantly! She loves to dig around in our garden and explore the yard and lately she has been taking off down the street when she thinks she can get away with it, just like Ryder used to do!

She has all of her molars in now, so she can eat things a little more easily.  She still prefers milk to everything else, a habit that we are discouraging!  She eats a lot of different foods, just not too much of any of them.  She has really been enjoying the summer melons though she still isn't interested in berries.

Aside from some hiccups when each of her molars were breaking through, Vivi is an excellent sleeper now.  She goes easily down for her 2 naps (1 to 1.5 hours each) and right on up to bed.  It takes her between 15 and 45 minutes to fall asleep most naps and nights, but she just quietly makes noises to herself for that time.  She mostly sleeps through the night, with just a short cry between 10 and 11pm many nights.  Since there is nothing we can do to console her and going in makes it worse, we just let her fall back to sleep on her own; it usually takes just a few minutes.

"Cheese"

She seems like she is always smiling!

Eyelashes for days

Closest to sitting up that we could get in her silly mood

Very silly

She loves getting out toys and by getting out I mean dumping boxes of them out on the floor to see what's there!

38 months!

Life with a three year old is pretty interesting.  It is mostly adorable, and a small sliver of totally insane!

Ryder is definitely fully entrenched in a boundary pushing phase.  He has run away from my mom as she tries to get him into our house, has run away from me while I was grilling dinner on the back porch and will try every door in the house to try to get outside until he finally admits that he has been locked in.

The hour or so before his nap and before bedtime are the most challenging.  Being overtired, or even just tired seems to bring out his devilish side.  Any day that we get through those hours with minimal tantrums is a successful day.  With the days being longer, it has been hard to get everyone to bed on time, so we have been trying to come in a little sooner and have a little more decompression time before bed.  When he is ramping up at bedtime, I try to get him to do a quiet activity, like coloring, painting or doing puzzles to calm him down.  It mostly works!

Ryder's favorite words lately have been "fantastic," "amazing," and "perfect."  He is very liberal with his compliments and will tell us that things we are doing are fantastic, which is so cute.  Just when I thought that we were going to get away without a "why" phase, Ryder has been all about asking "Why?" lately.  Sometimes, he accepts my answer right away, but usually there are three why's before he is satisfied.  I have resorted to "Because I said so" when there is just no other further response!

Watching him play with Vivien is very sweet.  Most of the time, he hugs and kisses her and plays semi-nicely.  They do a lot together.  I love it when they sit on the couch together and drink their milk!

Still doesn't mind posing for photos

Still loves to ham it up :)

Loves his firetrucks

Nice smile

So big

Look who couldn't stay away from our photo shoot

17 Months!

Vivien is still eating less than she was a couple of months ago.  We're lucky if she eats one good meal a day; mostly she takes a few bites and that's that.  She has a few bites a few times a day and then drinking milk.  If she had it her way, she would take less of those bites and drink more milk!  She still loves bananas and potatoes especially, and will eat a few other fruits and vegetables sparingly.  So far she hasn't liked any berries; she just likes to smoosh them in her hand!

Vivien loves walking and climbing.  She has gotten continually more steady on her feet and now rarely falls.  She occasionally trips over little items but no big falls.  She loves climbing on everything- coffee table, Ryder's bed, the couch...  She climbs right up the tall and steep front steps of our house without looking back and goes right up the ladder to the clubhouse on our playset.

She is an interesting mix of attached and independent.  She has no problem, inside or out, playing by herself for quite some time.  When I go in the kitchen and leave her in the living room, she is upset for a few minutes and then finds something to play with and amuses herself.  She frequently wants me to hold her and carry her, but when she doesn't, she is off on her own exploring.

She is talking more and more.  She says "milk," "bird," "up," "wet," and "hot" among others.  She also mimics really well.  She can repeat longer sentences and phrases, without exactly saying the words that we're saying.  She chatters constantly and loves to talk to us.  She understands almost everything that we say and follows directions really well.  She loves to interact with us in any way really.  She loves to play "offer the food and then snatch the food away" and peekaboo.  She also really enjoys sitting on my lap and playing with my face and hair.

Climbing up on the table to look out the window

Smiling sweetly

She loves playing with our toys

Peekaboo!

Happy baby

Love that face!