17 Months!

Today Bowen turned 17 months old. Wow. The time is going so quickly. She is growing into such a fun, mischievous, entertaining little character! When we're out and about, she is constantly waving to strangers and saying 'Hi' - she loves the attention. It is really too cute. We can see her turning into a little girl before our eyes and it is SO fun. In every way now she's communicating with us, whether through actual words, hand gestures, sounds or actions. I've really noticed lately that everything she does or says has a distinct purpose or meaning and it's my job to figure out exactly what that is. It's becoming easier and easier every day. The words she says right now are: up, down, boot, hat, bear, apple, banana, bunny, book, ball, hi, bye bye, momma, and dada. The sounds she says and makes are: tick tock, moo, baa, quack quack, choo choo, woof, meow, buzz, ooh ooh ahh ahh (monkey), rrraahhh (lion or tiger), ssss (snake), shh (with a finger up her nose!), wee wee wee (little piggie), ding ding (bell) and the elephant trumpet with one arm up! She loves for us to sing to her and is constantly requesting different songs - most commonly 'The Wheels on the Bus', 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', 'Wind the Bobbin Up' and 'All the Sleepy Bunnies' (two British favorites). She does all the different motions that go along with each. She loves to find all the parts of her body - her eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, head, hair, ears, knees, feet, hands, fingers & thumbs, tummy & bottom! Another obsession lately is any kind of animal. We have lots of fun toys that help Bowen learn different animals - we scatter flash cards on the floor and she plays 'fetch' for each animal and we also have magnetic animals for the fridge which she loves to carry around. It's always fun and gratifying to watch her learn something new and I take a lot of pride in teaching her. I try to talk to Bowen about everything I'm doing during the day, noting the activity or color or item, etc. I see constantly how much she picks up just from our everyday interaction. One of my favorite parts of the day is late in the evening after Stewart is home, relaying to him all the new things she did or understood that day. She is our little piece of sunshine. A friend of mine said the sweetest thing the other day - that Bowen has such a bright and happy face - a face that makes you smile. I couldn't agree more.

Happy 17 Months to our sweet girl. xo