Sasha at 17 Months

Sasha became 17 Months mid-February so here's the update.  

During this month, Sasha's vocabulary expanded, including saying "Ow and owie" when she gets or sees something painful (a MRSA infection on my neck brought that on).  She also says "Stinky" when she has a poopy diaper and "Thank you" when she is given something (only when prompted of course).  The picture below is of her saying the "U" part of Thank you.

Sasha also learned to say her name, though it sounds like "Dosh" or "Dosha" so it was hard to pick up on at first.  She also has officially named her Butterfly "Bubby" which sounds a lot like how she says Belly, Baby, Puppy and Bear... plus she calls all pillows Bubby.  She also uses "Mommy" and "Doggy" and "Bath" at the appropriate times.  One of my favorite new things is that she says I love you "Lah Loo" and Ammon and I milk that for ALL IT's WORTH!!

You'll also notice Sasha's little reindeer slippers.  She became obsessed with them this month.  

Sasha just really loves to mimic us, so we have little "Sasha, can you say... ? " sessions.  Even Kaleb gets into it, and he just loves to get her to copy what he says.  Most of the time if it is too long she just nods her head as if to say, "Yes I can say it but I refuse to at this time."  Sometimes she will also kiss at me when I kiss at her as well.  

This is the month I got to borrow my sister's AWESOME camera and got a few better shots than I normally would.  I love this closeup of her cute pouty lip!!

With the help of a new app, I was able to make one of the shots look just AMAZING!!  Of course, it helps to have a photogenic little girl!

 The only problem with getting a little photo crazy is that Sasha became a ham!!  All we have to do is say "Sasha, look over here!" and we get this cheesey little grin.  She also got obsessed with watching the screen when the camera was on, so it really is a miracle I got any decent shots at all.

My little girl is just a bottle of personality!!  She thinks everything is just meant to be fun or funny and just loves to laugh and be silly (she gets that from her Daddy)!

 Sasha picked up this handkerchief, put it in front of her face and started walking around.  She kept bumping into stuff and giggling like crazy.  Finally I just tied it around her head.  Kaleb thought it looked like so much fun he wanted to join in.  A few good thumps into the wall quickly changed his mind though.

 Kinda as a metaphor for Sasha's personality, this month she decided to push things around: laundry baskets, coffee table, chairs, you name it.

I'm proud to announce that Sasha went binky-free this month.  I was super nervous for fear of her becoming an even less predictable sleeper than she already was, but after only one nap she seemed ok.  This is probably also partially to do with Bubby's nose being available for chewing.  

 This month we started to use Timeout more often.  As much as she obviously didn't like it, she learned pretty quickly.  I now can threaten "You wanna go in time out?" and that often motivates her.

Sometimes it frustrates and frightens me how independent Sasha can be.  She has absolutely no qualms about wandering away, thinking she will be perfectly safe.  And though I don't want to hinder her sense of adventure, I also just can't quite let her go too far just yet.  

It seems apparent to me that Sasha has a lot of potential to be a mover, someone who gets things done and motivates others to glean from her confidence.  I see Kaleb blossoming a lot under her fearlessness lately, mostly for the better.  Maybe that's a little too deep for an 18 month old, but hey,

 it never hurts to see a kid's potential, right?