18!

It happened.  I officially have an 18 month old little girl!

Here she is looking at the doggie on Don's (or should I say "her") ipad.

She loves a good doggie.

Here she is clapping her hands for us all to see.  Love my happy little girl.

Had to put in the "this is how chubby my cheeks really are" picture.

She loves to run and play.  She loves the park.  She loves outside.  She loves to read and will sit the reading chair in our bedroom and look at books.  I love to watch her turn pages.  But I love more the times she sits on my lap and we read books together.  Good one on one time.  So grateful she still lets me do that.  I know one of these days my snugglely baby will not want to snuggle so much.  But until then I'll take every and all chances I can get.

I have been working on some early speech intervention with Reka.  I went back and forth saying "she is okay and she'll speak when she's ready" and worrying.  The turning point was me checking out a library book about helping your child prepare for learning.  In the first chapter it stated if you see something you are concerned about, act on it.  Don't wait and hope it fixes itself.  It may, but it may not.  Might as well act on it early.  So, I took things into my own hands.  I watched some youtube videos and looked at some blogs.  After much work and much silliness on my part, I got Rebekah to say "ahh ohh," "weee," and "mmmm."   Eventually she could tell me what an owl says, what a dog says on a moonlit night, and what a monkey says.  She would also use the "mmm" sound for yummy food.  She uses "ahh ohh" all the time.  She is even trying to say the word "sneak" - (I've been showing her how we could sneak up on dad).  Right now it comes out "sss sss sss" but, hey, it's a start.

But the really significant thing is.... 

Two days after her 18th month mark she said mama.  Actually it was more like "mum-mum."  Yay!   She has since said dada.  Double yay!