Mommy's Little Leg Warmer

Dear Kaia-boo,

This weekend you turned 18 months old (1 1/2 years)! I can't believe that time has flown by so quickly. You're still the same sweet self, although with a decent measure of toddler behavior thrown in there (a few puppy dog tails, I think). The past few weeks you haven't really been adding a ton of words but you're clearly understanding more and capable of doing a lot of things really easily that I didn't expect. This morning, while I was busy stacking blocks up, you put together the ladybug puzzle (really put it together, not just stacking the pieces on top of each other). I had thought you couldn't do that, and so had been putting them together for you. That'll teach me to underestimate you, kiddo!

You've also gotten very good a creating huge towers of blocks and then nesting the boxes back inside each other, and are good at helping to clean up after yourself when asked (thank you, Georgann). I've been spending some good quality time with you on weekends (Dada has been working a lot more lately) and now even when Dada is home you mostly want to be held, read to, picked up, or otherwise entertained. . .by me. This has led to me commenting to several friends that you have entered your "leg warmer" phase - you are attached to my lower leg kind of like a leg warmer. It's very sweet, and flattering that you like me :-)

Have I mentioned how cute my kid is?

This kid knows her way around a wallet.

So, lately, Kaia has been such a blast to hang out with. Sometime a few weeks ago she took to grabbing onto your finger and leading you around the house when she wants you to play with her. Now, in addition to patting the floor or chair where she wants you to sit, and pushing on your butt to get you out of a chair, she leads you exactly where she wants you. Adorable.

There have been several pretty big leaps in terms of development that I have really noticed in the past couple of weeks. The block stacking and sorting has gotten much easier, as has putting the puzzle pieces into place. The bug puzzles are a big hit, even though the only one she can name is the Bee (that's a pretty easy one).

She's adding words and repeating a LOT. She can say Emmett, and Hans, and repeats names when I ask her to. In the car yesterday we were singing Old McDonald had a farm and she was doing the animal sounds. SO cute.