20 months!!

This past month, Samara:

- is quite the talker. She has hundreds of words, combines words to make sentences and has no problem communicating what she wants/needs. It's really nice to just KNOW and to stop the guess work!

- is a good cleaner. She likes to help us clean up her toys and will always put away all her bathtub toys before telling us she's ready to get out. If she spills, she says "uh oh" and goes to find a towel to wipe up the mess. This sounds great...it is! BUT...she also spills things on purpose and still says "uh oh". I don't think she realizes that "uh oh" is for accidents.

- has pooped on the potty twice. We thought we were making progress but now if you ask her if she has to go, she simply says, "nope" and turns her head away from you. I have a couple of books in the bathroom solely for potty reading and I swear she loves the one book so much that she will sit on the potty to read it with zero intentions of USING the potty! I think she's getting close to being ready though. On more than one occasion, I've gone looking for her and she's in her bedroom and has laid out the diaper changing things and gotten a new diaper out.

- is becoming quite the little mother. She loves taking care of her babies, swaddling them, burping them, dressing/undressing them, giving them drinks from her milk and water and just cradling them. It's really cute to see.

Favorite things this past month:

- hide and seek. She gets scared when you pop out but seems to like getting scared! She will hold hands so that she can go "SEE? SEE?!" where you're hiding and then run away laughing like crazy.

- chasing us. She runs so fast that it's quite something she doesn't face plant every time. She laughs wickedly the entire time yelling, "I CHASE YOU, I CHASE YOU!".

- Santa and all things Christmas. She is OBSESSED. We have a few books that have Santa in them and she spends a good part of the day looking through them saying, "yooo hoooo, Santa?". If any Christmas music gets played, she gets excited and says, "SAAANTTTAAA!!!"

Things I never want to forget:

- watching her play. It is just so neat to watch her become independent and figure things out for herself.

- when she hurts herself and kisses it better.

- we've started short timeouts. When she's done, she says that she's "SO SAWRY" and gives kisses. It's so sweet (if you can forget about the part where she deserves the timeout!).

- her love for her sister. There has been no jealousy. Presley (Esey) is the first person she asks for in the morning and the last person she kisses at night. If Presley is crying, she goes over and pats her and says, "it's oooookay, it's ooookay". This is more than I ever could have hoped for. Makes the close age difference completely worth it!