A Year & a Half of Adelaide

*warning* This post is way too long. Probably only our mothers will get through it.  apologies.

I don't even know where to start with what Adelaide is up to lately because she is just doing so much and becoming so much of her own person.  Jason and I went to bed the other night and literally just laid there for like 30 minutes talking about all the things that Adelaide had done that day to make us laugh. And we laughed and laughed all over again. She has so much energy and so many funny little things that she does daily.

Life has been relatively routine for us lately.  Fun and busy, but nothing that has seemed extraordinary enough to have the camera out for (except a couple weeks ago when Adelaide was running around a friend's yard in a yellow polka dot ruffled bathing suit kicking a soccer ball... I whipped out my camera and didn't have a memory card in it. ugh. It was so cute though).  So I made a point today to try to capture a few pictures of her at home doing her thing.  There are A LOT of pictures here so I'll try not to say too much about them.

This was actually Adelaide a few weeks ago when she had a little sick day. She threw up for the first time ever, and even though she only threw up once and didn't have a fever or anything, she was just mellow the rest of the day.  So I had to snap a picture of her actually sitting still watching tv... this is rare - or possibly unheard of - in our house.

Adelaide will finally smile when we say "smile" as opposed to "show us your teeth."  It's still the same cheesy look though.

She has just recently become obsessed with this baby that she got for Christmas. It's adorable and hilarious and she is constantly yelling "BABY!!" and "BAH BAH" (bottle).

This is what I found on the stairs this evening... her baby, a pan, stirring spoon, and her empty spice bottle.  I love seeing the remnants of her playtime.

"Adelaide, put your hands on your head."

"Adelaide, put your head on the floor."

And then things just got wild...

She likes to put things in this bucket and then carry the bucket around on her arm like a purse.

I actually love this picture b/c she was shoving her giraffe in the camera so I would take a picture of it... and she was so happy with her self.

Tickle time.

And then, suddenly, she was done with running and climbing and toys and tickling and wanted to stop and read a book.  Yes, that is one of A's clips in Jason's hair.

Adelaide lately:

- At her 18 month check up she was about 21 lbs (5th%) and like 31 in tall (25th% I think). 

- MUSIC! This girl seriously cannot get enough of MUSIC. Every.single.morning she comes downstairs and points to the computer and does this hilarious dance (ask us and we'll show you how she dances) and points at the computer... meaning "turn on some music." Her favorites are Itsy Bitsy Spider (by doing the motions with her fingers), "A" (ABCs), "EIEO" (Old MacDonald), and "Ah Ah Ah Ah" (If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops).
- Sitting on the potty. This could be a whole post in itself b/c I have no idea if I should attempt to potty train her yet.  She is so young and honestly I don't know if I'm ready to do it, but she loves to sit on the potty... and just sit... and sit... and sit... ONE time she peed a little bit. But usually she tells us she wants to go to the "pah pah" right AFTER she goes, or she pats her buns and says "di di." to change her diaper.
- Nacho. She still won't go to bed without giving him a hug and a kiss and saying night night. I can only hope and pray that she loves her little brother as much as she loves her big brother.
- Books. books books books books.  Especially books with flaps... you know, like where you lift something up and there is a picture underneath. But really in general, just books books books.
- Cats. This is quite random b/c we don't have cats. But for some reason this girl loooves cats. We go on bike rides and she just goes "eow. eow. eow." over and over, hoping we'll see a cat along the way.
- Drawing.  Well, she loves telling us what to draw for her.  Always "eow" first, and then "dog." This is another thing we do every.single.day.
- Brushing her teeth.  And making other people brush their teeth.  And we make her sit down on a stool while she brushes b/c we don't want her to run around with the tooth brush in her mouth, so she likes to make YOU sit down too - while she's brushing her teeth and while you're brushing your own teeth.  If she sees Jason brushing his teeth, she will grab my tooth brush and chase me around with it saying "Mama! Mama! Mama!" until I stop and brush my teeth too.  She can be a little bossy :-)
- Water - We did 6 weeks of "swimming" lessons at the Y. She loved it every time and LOVES the bath and LOVES her little water table in the backyard. 

- I feel like she is already a first-born-rule-follower type. Sometimes I put her in her high chair and then just walk away and she yells after me going "MAMA! BUBU!!" reminding me that I did not buckle her. Of course she also likes to be quite the little rebel sometimes. The other day Jason was making a smoothie and let her stand up on a chair at the counter but told her not to touch the blender. But she looked right at him and stuck one little finger out and touched it as lightly as she could just to see if she could get away with it.  She didn't.
-She loves to help unload the dishwasher, put her dirty clothes in her hamper, and put things away in the fridge.  I also hand her things while we're checking out at the grocery store so that she can put them up on the counter.
- She is super outgoing.  Of course, she is crazy around the house and a lot of times when we're around new people - at someone's house or at church or something - she doesn't want to talk or say hi to anyone for a few minutes.  But by the end of our time there, I can't get her to leave and she is running around like a crazy person and cries when I tell her to put her coat on.  She also LOVES the child watch at the Y.  I feel like she is the only kid who doesn't come running to me when I go to pick her up.  She just looks at me like "Oh hey mom. I'm playing here."
- We've started asking Adelaide to "give us a squeeze" when we want a hug.  She wraps her arms around us and then clenches her fists around our shoulders as hard as she possibly can. It makes us laugh every time.

She knows LOTS of words... We counted a few months ago and got up to about 30.  But now that she will repeat almost anything we ask her to say (or at least attempt), it seems like she's saying something new every day, so it's too hard to keep track anymore.  Of course her pronunciation is not all there, so a lot of the words are things that Jason and I would have to translate.  Ex. The word "bu bu" means "bubbles" when she's getting in the tub or we're blowing bubbles in the backyard; it means "buckle" when she's in her high chair or stroller or shopping cart; and it means "butter" when we're making toast or eating peanut butter or something. "NO." is her favorite word. Sometimes she likes to tease us and act like she is thinking about it and she'll go "uuuhhhh... NO." The answer to everything is No.  Also, the word "MINE" is far too common.

I could go on and on and on about all the things Adelaide does and what she's up to and things that make us laugh.  Honestly, a lot of these things are probably not as remarkable as I like to think they are - I'm sure lots of other 18 month olds are doing the same things. But it is SO so fun to watch her personality come out more and more.  We are figuring out what types of things she really enjoys and she can really express her feelings and desires and her sense of humor. She cracks us up daily and I seriously have so much fun hanging out with her during the day.  I can't believe she's going to be a big sister in a few months!