18 months! by nicole

Well, our little Ila has reached the 18 month mark in her life. Most people would say "it seems like yesterday that i was holding my baby in my arms." I would say "it seems like 18 months ago I was holding new born Ila in my arms!" And what a great 18 months of joy she has brought to us.

As I write this Ila is destroying a freshly opened box of kleenex. Usually I would put a stop to this behavior, but since she already ruined it last week, while I was

cooking dinner, I don't see the harm in her continuing to do so. She loves pulling things out and putting them back in, and does not seem worried in the least that the all the kleenex once fit nicely into the box, and now there is not enough room in the box for them all.

Ila's word bank seems to increase weekly with a new word or two. She has finally learned about syllables and is starting to say bigger words like hello, mama, dada and peepee quite frequently. It's nice to hear her vocabulary and language skills developing so

nicely. She is a major talker, but most people wouldn't know it because she is a very shy public speaker. She will say "hi" to anyone, but getting her to say much else in public is difficult.

Have I mentioned that she is a climber? Oh my, she climbs on

everything she can! Her daddy teaches her all about climbing! Most o the time it is not a big deal, as she can't really climb high enough to get hurt, but I have had to make a few changes to kee

p her safe. I ALWAYS have to put her tray back op on her highchair when she is not in it, otherwise she climbs on it when I'm not looking, stands up on it and then climbs on the counter tops. If she fell from there she would probably get seriously hurt! I'm very thankful we don't have stairs in our house, as she totally does not have a problem wit

h just stepping off them like they are a regular step. I found her a few steps form the top of a staircase this weekend at her Marma and Poppy's house and caught her JUST in time of a potentially bad fall. It jammed my wrist but I would rather that then a hurt Ila!

(guess which of Ila's parents taught her to do this!?!)

SO there is a little info on our 18 month old. She is as cute and sweet a

s can be, and such a blessing from the LORD! Oh, and she is a major cheesyball when she sees the camera!