Ham

Willow has become quite the ham lately, loving attention from anyone. She's also starting laughing until all the air is out of her lungs - it's quite humorous! Here's a video of her laughing at herself each time she stacked her pretend food. (This time it didn't sound as much like laughing as it usually does.)

Family picture

Our family has grown a bit since last year - not only Willow's size being bigger but the addition of Kim's boyfriend to the photo.

I refer to this one as Willow's "school girl" photo.

We've earned every one of those teeth, so she'd better show them off!!

This one reminds me of this one (3 months).

More Christmas vacation

We had a couple "warm" winter days last week so we headed out to a couple local parks. Willow loves being outside!

Checking out the pigs at the farm/park.

Willow says, "Playing with Nana and Grandpa is fun!"

19th month

Here's an update from December, Willow's 19th month:

- The biggest change this month has been in Willow's pretend play. She'd been doing some pretend play with her dolls, but it has really taken off now that she has her kitchen. Her pretend play now includes abstract objects (like holding a pretend box of cereal to pour into her bowl, picking up a cookie from a page in her book, etc.).

- Willow continues to imitate some words we ask her to say, but mostly gets by with the words she's been using regularly, the signs she knows (adding "thank you" this month), and non-verbal communication.

- She's a very sweet little girl and has started initiating kisses. She's also enjoyed saying "night night" and giving hugs and kisses to everyone (which is especially cute since we've been around family a lot during the holidays).

- Willow is starting to help dress and undress herself more - pulling the shirt off her head, putting her arms in/out, putting on pants from a standing position. Whenever we get undressed for bathtime, Willow always puts her clothes in the laundry, her hair clips in the drawer, and her diaper in the trash. She usually insists on carrying everything at the same time.

- Willow has become quite a little Miss Independent. When offering help, she frequently will push your hand away, insisting on doing it herself.

- Here are a few of Willow's favorites:

Favorite word: No

Favorite color (to say): yellow

Favorite books: Nursery Rhymes

Favorite activities: chase, playing in her kitchen

Favorite fruit: clementines

- The combination of Willow's determination and favorite word being "no" has led to a deadly combination, causing us to start timeout this month. She's done VERY well staying seated in the timeout location (thank God!) and the threat of timeout has calmed her down a couple times. We did have to sigh, though, when she voluntarily put herself in timeout when being good one day.

We love our Willow Libby!!

Christmas Part II

Willow has been soaking up her time with Nana and Grandpa (I'm soaking up my time as well!!). She keeps us all going, going, going and she continually motions for us to "come" with her hand (it's pretty cute and hard to resist).

Willow observes Grandpa frying ham and potatoes for breakfast...

so she can make them in her kitchen, too!

(thanks for the adorable hair bows, Morgan!!)

Willow always loves going to Inflatable Palace, and this time was no exception.

Six Flags, here we come!

Making green wreath cookies with Nana.

Willow is still getting in a lot of mileage on her car every day. She's even let her baby doll drive and tried talking on her cell phone while driving. Her favorite is for us to put in the floor board (to keep her feet up) and push her around the house. (thanks for the cute hat, Nana!)

Willow has enjoyed her new farm with animal sounds. Take note of the pink John Deere hat from Grandpa - very appropriate to wear while farming!

Willow loves petting cats at the SPCA. Most of them let her pet them much longer than Alli will.

We visited the Children's Museum (love the indoor options for the winter!) and Willow played more than she ever has. She's usually more interested in watching the other kids, but this time she really relaxed and played herself!

Since getting her new car, Willow LOVES driving! Thankfully there were two trucks and not much competition!

Cadence came over for some fun playtime at our house - they had a great time playing with Willow's strollers.

Christmas

Willow definitely came out well this Christmas. She still has all the gifts from her mama and dada to open (her attention span wasn't quite long enough...) but she was excited about the others that she got to open. Her top 4 (determined by the length of time they were enjoyed today) were definitely her car, her baby doll, her chair, and her KITCHEN!

Grampa and Gramma got her this toy car. It took her ONE time walking past the play room before she noticed it and ran right over. Here's a little video of her first few minutes:

(note: this is a plastic knife used to "cut" her plastic food)

We intentionally saved the kitchen for last, knowing that nothing else would get played with after she found it...and we were right. Her reaction was pretty priceless. She was quietly playing with her baby doll in the kitchen with Nana when she walked by the play room and saw it. The video is kindof long, but she was just so excited that I couldn't stop recording.

Christmas Eve

Since we're in town for Christmas this year, we were able to attend our church's Christmas Eve service. Last time we went, I was pregnant and life was pretty different. Childcare isn't available during the service, which makes things "interesting" with a church full of kids. Willow did really well considering how long of a service it was.

Willow and her friend Ella (can you believe she's a year older than Willow and they're only 1" different in height!) entertained themselves by looking out the window.

Willow was on the move when we got home from the service, so it was difficult to get a motion-free picture of her in her dress.