19 months!!

This past month, Samara:

- now has lots of words. Last month I had it at around 150 and I've stopped counting because she'll repeat anything and everything. Some of the latest include: kiss, squeeze, chocolate, Shawn, mitts, crash, careful, geez, sister, cookies and dammit (whoops!).

-has continued putting words together to form sentences. Some include: bless you, don't touch, so sorry, did it and dropped it.

-is really developing preferences on what to do, eat, wear, read, etc. She will firmly tell us no if we've guessed wrong!

-takes us by the hand to get us to where and what she wants, including going up and down the stairs like a big girl.

Favorite things this past month:

-winter clothes. This kid can't get enough of wearing boots, mitts, parkas, toques, etc. It does not seem to matter if it's indoors or outdoors...although she absolutely loves going outside to FOVEL (shovel)!

-putting things in the barbage (garbage). There was one day where I swear she spent the better part of the morning inspecting the carpet for pieces of lint she could pick up and then ask me to open the cupboard so she could throw the barbage away.

Things I never want to forget:

-her reaction to the snow. It's true that she was around for last year's snow but this is the first year she clearly "gets" it. For the first week every time she looked or went outside she'd shout, "MESS"!

-her grasp of the word "ew". I think she heard Shawn or I say it one day and now just about anything is "ew". Shawn was asking where different parts of the body were the other day and he asked her where his hair was and she grabbed it and said, "ew". Ha, very nice!

-how she hugs herself and says "brrrr" when she hears the wind.

-just how sweet she is to her new sister. I know they won't always get along but how nice that she took to her right away...loves giving Presley kisses (and stealing her soother but we can't have it all!).