Oden Adventures

Seventeen months old...and still sweet!  And still difficult to photograph.  If you look closely, you can see the mischievous twinkle in her eyes, the subtle resistance to the photography session, in every single shot. 

It seems as if her vocabulary has doubled in the last month; she is constantly busting out new words, too many to list any more.  She is able to play independently longer now, and it's been so much fun to watch her begin to develop some imaginative play (like the cute moment I caught her talking & signing "more" to her baby doll).  I have to try so hard not to laugh when I catch her doing this or else I burst her out of her play world and ruin the moment.  But it's so cute that it's difficult not to!

Her favorite question is "Dat?" [who or what's that?] which is asked upwards of 76 times daily, while pointing to things or people.  She asks it when spying something new to her, but also likes to be silly and point to pictures/things she knows and ask it, as if she is the adult asking us - since adults always ask her this question.

She loves to sing and often after meals has an original ballad to share - some can get quite loud, high, and/or mournful.  Unfortunately, she always stops singing if I get the camera out so I have yet to catch one.  She also sings along whenever playing the guitar or piano.  So we may have another budding coffee shop artist in the family ;-).

She also has begun to sing along with familiar songs - which of course thrills me to no end.  "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", the VeggieTales theme song, and my song "See You Move" are especial favorites to sing along to.  

She has really gotten the hang of her wooden puzzles and her pop-up toy in the last month and very much enjoys shopping around the living room with her new shopping cart from Granma & Grandpa, especially with her baby riding in the seat up front.

She has been taking one (either late morning or afternoon) nap almost every day and, for a few weeks now, has been sleeping about 11 hours at night straight through (woohoo!), which has meant an increase in good nights for all three of us.  

She continues to overall be a delightful, funny, affectionate little girl and we can't get enough of her!

 It took a half hour of coaxing to get this smile - so blurry or not - I'm posting it!! :-)