Lila @ almost 18 months

She'll actually be 18 months old in just a week, but here's what Lila's up to lately --

• She loves coloring.  Which means, she loves getting the crayons (she asks for them by name) and then telling me to draw things.  Her favorite thing for me to draw are "bwoonies" (balloons) and buggies.  She also likes socks and bikes.  And recently eye glasses.
• She has favorite songs.  She loves "Book of Mormon Stories" and can all do the hand motions with me.  She often starts singing this on her own by making a book and singing "Muck-a-mommy" which is how she says Book of Mormon.  She also loves "I Love to See the Temple."  Whenever she sees one or we say the word temple, she starts singing "want temple."  She also loves the ABC's or the "baby c's."  We have a toy that sings the ABC's and she bounces around, dancing to it.
• She tries to jump, and it's the cutest thing ever.  She only gets to her tip-toes, but she kind of throws her arms into the air too.  Very cute.
• She's pretty good at praying.  She knows to close her eyes, or she'll squint, but only for a few seconds.  Sometimes she'll kneel with us.  She can fold her arms, but first she'll often stick up her right arms into the air and then fold them.  Funny.  She still mostly squirms around while we pray, but that's okay.  A lot of times she'll say amen.
• Jake's been teaching her Chinese whenever he changes her diaper.  She says "Jia you!" while waving her arm, which literally means "Add oil!" - it's a phrase of encouragement.  She'll say it without any prompting, and then we'll all start doing it.  She won't say "I love you" when we ask her to, but she will say "Wo ai ni" (her version is "ai ni ni") which is I love you in Chinese.
• She tells me when things are "scary" - skee-wee.  Also very cute.
• When she wants to go to bed, she comes to me, and says "Bye bye Daddy!" in a kind of pouty, tired voice.
• Our nighttime routine is to play with her and have some snacks.  She'll do "airplane" with Daddy and Jake loves doing that with her.  She thinks it's fun too.  And she climbs all over him while he's laying on the floor.  And then we'll read from the Book of Mormon and have a prayer.  And then we'll brush teeth.  She likes brushing her own teeth, but doesn't do a very good job at it.  She'll stand at the sink and say "teefy" when she wants to.  She mostly likes sucking the berry-flavored toothpaste off of it.  She's sleeping in her own bed now and always sleeps with her "bankie."
• She asks for high fives by saying "high fi' Tubby!" which means "high five Toby!" because she and Toby give each other high fives.
• She really likes riding her bike.  Brody and Toby taught her to "crash" into things, so she thinks that's really funny and says "boom" when she does.  She doesn't pedal, but tries to sometimes.  Just pushes herself with her feet, and she can go pretty fast.
• I have a plastic tricycle for her in the basement for when it's cold/rainy outside and she pretends it's a motorcycle.  She calls it a motorcycle and says "vroom vroom."
• She loves bath time.  We let her have bubbles every time, and she loves that.  She likes playing with washcloths and putting them on her head, sucking on them, and washing herself.  When she's done with the bath, she says, "Bye Bye Tubby."
• Whenever we need to leave or move on, we ask her to say bye bye to whatever she's currently interested in, and she says it, and then moves on.  
• She likes going for walks after dinner in her "stwowwer" (stroller).  She likes to see the "cowies."
• Nursery isn't going so well.  She has a favorite toy there, but doesn't seem to understand that you can play with other kids too.  Maybe it will help having Brig in there.  Her first official day is Jake's birthday in a few weeks, but we've been bringing her in lately.  It doesn't help that the nursery leaders aren't usually there, so it's someone different every week.
• One of her obsessions is clothes.  She especially likes shirts and one of her most often-said phrases is "Daddy's sheet (shirt)" or "Mommy sheet."  She knows socks and towels and shoeys and jammies.  When she sees a man in a shirt and tie, she says "Daddy sheet."  She loves identifying people's shoes.  "Mommy shoeys" or "Daddy shoeys" or "Mike shoes" or "Nemmy shoeys."
• She still loves Nemmy and Mike.  Especially Nemmy.
• She still always poops in mine and Jake's closet.  It's one of her favorite places.  She walks in and closes the door by holding onto the doorknob, but leaves it open a crack.  She freaks out if she closes it all the way.  She's been really awesome lately at telling us when she's pooping.  She'll point and tell us "Pooping."  And the look on her face (the watery, red eyes) give it away too.
• When she's carrying something heavy, she says, "It heavy."
• She's very independent.  Says "no" a lot when we ask her if she wants something or wants to do something.  
• She recently started liking swings on the playground, but not baby swings, big kid swings.  She calls it "nwinging."  She'll sit on the swing for a really long time, and only likes to be pushed a very little bit, otherwise she says it's "skee-wee."
• She loves Baby Jared already.  She loves giving my belly kisses and resting her head on it.  She asks to see his ultrasound pictures now too.  She usually doesn't give me kisses when I ask for them, but she will always give him kisses.  She points to my belly (and she always has to lift my shirt up to talk to him) and says "Mommy Jee-weet."  I think she's going to be a great big sister.
• She is quite a talker.  Loves talking and loves hearing her voice, I guess.  Babbles but says a lot of real words too.  She must be able to say 70-80 or more words.  She has a very big vocabulary, and even understands abstract ideas, like feelings.  Sometimes we'll be laughing together and she'll sigh and say, "Funny."  Or she understands what "scary" is.  I think she's a very smart girl. I think she'll be an early reader and that she'll be talking quite well by the time she turns 2.
• We really, really, really love this kid.  She makes us laugh all the time and she's the best part of our day.  When she wakes up from naps and we're both home, we always race to her room so we can see her and play with her again.  We love having her as our daughter and she's become the center of our family.  I love her so much.