Things to Remember

There are so many things that Kyla is doing & saying these days that I want to capture on camera or video, but never seem to either have the equipment around or I don't want to interrupt the moment. Here are some of the things that are special right now, at almost 21 months.

• How so many of Kyla's words sound the same right now, such as: Ally & owie; shoes & you & juice; Thank You & choo choo; that & dog & dot.
  
• How she interchanges Mama and Daddy when she gets excited, but quickly corrects herself.
• How she is starting to walk down the stairs by herself and doesn't want to hold our hands when we are out and about, walking around.
• How she shows us her muscles and makes a grunting noise.
• How she gets so sad when Daddy leaves. The other day Jedd was going to the hardware store and he put on his baseball cap. She immediately went over and put on her own hat and grabbed her coat and stood by the door. Of course, he couldn't leave her behind and they often have unscheduled outings together on the weekends. She's got him wrapped around her little finger, for sure.
• How she kisses Mama more than Daddy. After she gives me a kiss, Jedd will ask for one. She'll lean in with puckered lips, then at the very last second, turn her head and say, "No."
• How she tells us the pigs say "la, la, la." - Thanks to Sandra Boynton and "Moo, Baa, La La La." One of our favorite books right now.
• How she sucks her thumb when she is tired, hungry or scared.
• How she and her cousin Tyler play so well together and sound so much alike when they yell or scream or cry.
• How she imitates EVERYTHING that we do. Jedd used the ladder to change a lightbulb the other day and after he was done, the next thing we knew, she was on the 3rd step. She went up and down the ladder about 15 times before we finally put it away, amid her crying protest.
• How she will say "Thank you" when she hands us something, because we always tell her to say it to us when we give her something.
• How she kisses pictures of other babies. And how she will say "baby" when she sees toddlers of any age, even those that are a good year older than she.
• How she has taken to removing her sleeper in the middle of the night. We now put her in her summer 2-piece PJs and turn up the portable heater in her room.
• How she is starting to realize she can laugh even at her own antics and how she will continue a fake laugh after the initial humor has passed.
  
• How she is no longer a baby and so quickly becoming independent. It is fun and entertaining and bittersweet and nerve-wracking to experience.
  

Cousins-in-the-Box


Mmm... pudding!