18 months: Raya

I can't remember the stats themselves... but 55% for Height, 85% for Weight, and 90% for Head.  

She's starting to slim down!

 She likes to put on shoes lately, here she is sporting Levi's boots.  We were getting ready to go swimming and she took the initiative to get ready.  She is very punctual!

 More signs of Independence... she wants to dress herself.  Almost there, but not quite.

 And... she's starting to really express her emotions... ok.. well, she's always been like that, it's just gotten louder...   You never have to guess what Raya is thinking or feeling! (I love her more for it)

Some generalness about Raya:

She wants to be big.  She doesn't use a sippy cup anymore, she has to have a placemat on her high chair because her big brothers have a placemat on the table, she actually throws a fit now when I put her in the high chair because she wants to sit at the table, there's so many things... she wants to be big.

Words she knows: mama, dada, ee-i (Levi), ehf (Seth), gramma, dog, cat, ball, water, bath, yellow, eye, nose, mouth, ear, hair, car, baby, zebra, giraffe, horse, cow, book, sheep, duck, up, down, no, yes,

 -- her words are coming, and she's at the point where she can repeat what we say.  A lot of her words are slurred and if you're not around her all day you may not understand when she says something like "Baby Beluga" (her favorite song) because it sounds more like "bebe burga."

She likes to sing and dance, she claps and sways. Some of her favorites are: Baby Beluga, Down by the Bay, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old McDonald, twinkle twinkle...etc.

Her favorite rhyme is "Bumble bee, bumble bee" and she goes about the house saying it and tickling.

Signs she knows: more, please, thank you, play, baby, horse, cow, pig, sheep, duck, bird, rabbit, chicken, mouse, cat, gorilla, dog, hot, cold, book, story, read, blocks, ball, banana, cracker, cheese, cookie, candy, apple, bread, milk, water, cup, eat, flower ...

I'm sure there's more.

Raya can understand basically everything that we're saying now... we can giver her simple tasks like "throw this away" or "put these in your pj drawer and get some pants" ... "where are your shoes?"  I'm just waiting for her word explosion, because I know she comprehends a lot more than what she can say, but then I see her signing so much, maybe she just prefers that for the moment. She's starting to combine her signs, like she'll sign: cup, water, please.

I just want to add that "Raya" really is the perfect name for this little girl (it means "friend").

She is kind'of special to me... :)