Ready to be a big sis at 18 months

Rosie is a big girl now and shows it. She's already having serious adult conversations (if you're patient enough to try and figure out what she's saying), loves cleaning up a mess as fast as she can make one, and can't wait to find everyone their shoes so we can all go outside.

Some of her most used words: fish, shoes, Ella (her neighbor friend), mess, ouch, scriptures, please, thank you, Jesus, diaper, mail, doorbell, up, bed, juice, house, eyes, Rose, strawberry, rock, yuck, beam (for sunbeam), and stuck.

She's even beginning to put a couple of words together like "big piece" and as I said before, she will have a conversation with you and tell you a story over and over again until you really really understand. She makes sure of it.

What she likes to eat: spaghetti, beans, goldfish crackers, eggs, baked potatoes, hot dogs, pizza, sausage, mac n cheese, potato chips, tomatoes, yogurt, and garlic toast.

Still not wanting much sweets, or fruits and veggies, but she is more willing to try new things as long as it's "hot."

What she likes to do: read books, go outside, go on Mom & Dad's bed and look out the window, watch as much TV as we let her, color with crayons, go to the library for story time, swing on the playground, check the mail, take a bath, take care of her baby doll, sing with her microphone, push her shopping cart around the house, have all of her binkies in her mouth and hands at all times, climb all over Daddy and sit on his lap, say hi to everyone she sees, play with stickers, roll around in the laundry and climb into the baskets, dig up dirt with a shovel in our garden, play the piano, help Mama stir the juice, throw her balls, and run away when being chased.

Her favorite songs: The Wheels on the Bus, If You're Happy and You Know it, Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam, ABC's, Popcorn Popping, Dora the Explorer, I am a Child of God, Ring around the Rosie, etc.

It's so fun to watch her try to sing them and how fast she picks up on them. She also loves to dance to them and spin around in circles.

A typical moment for Rose: At about 10:00, after watching her favorite show Bubble Guppies, Rose gets grumpy. She keeps whining and doesn't want to eat or read her books any more. We decide to take her outside. "Do you want to go outside?" we ask. "Oooh! Shoesh, shoesh, shoesh. Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye!" "Can you get Mamma's shoes? Can you get Dadda's shoes?" we ask, then she brings them to us. We put on her shoes and go out. once down the stairs, she squirms until we put her down and she runs through the grass. She sees her friend Ella. "Ewa, Ewa! Push, ouch, push, no no," she says before Ella even does anything. Ella comes over and pushes her down while Rose says "no no." She use to cry at this point, but she has toughened up, and just gets up and runs away, shrieking with delight. She spends most of her time in the sandbox, digging with a shovel and putting the sand in a bucket before dumping it out. She goes over to the little plastic play house by the swing set and says "house, doorbell." She rings the doorbell and opens and shuts the little door. She goes out and finds a stick and says "stick, stick," and then asks to go on the swing. After a while she decides to go over to the slide. On the way, she sees a bug, and points to it for a while. After climbing up and down the stairs, (she rarely goes down the slide any more) she is back to the sandbox until it is time to go inside. Once inside, she drinks some juice takes off her shoes, then tells us a story with a very serious expression on her face: "Dist dai moss Ewa. Ewa. Bye-bye" She points outside and continues. "Babbit dit ow aesip Ewa, Ewa. Push. Thea spa thash. Owch." As long as we keep nodding, she will continue this story for five full hilarious minutes. Then it's time for lunch and nap time.