More Da

She is learning new words and phrases at an amazing rate, or so it seems to us. "More Da" is a popular one over the last few days. Dave was mowing grass & I held Dillon up to the window to see him. She got too heavy so I told her I was going to have to put her down. She immediately started crying "more Da, more Da!" So, of course I held her up to the window a little longer. When he came inside it was "BIG Da!" She saw his car the other day and said "Da car." She told a little girl in the grocery store "bye baby." "Baby duck" remains pretty popular too. She has also said elbow, shirt, swimming, pet. And we can't leave out Dave's favorite-- booger. I told her I needed to get the booger out of her nose one evening. She allowed me to do so but only after having said booger a half dozen times. Now she'll walk up to you, look up your nose and say booger, then crinkle her nose for added effect. Lovely.

She made some friends yesterday afternoon at the park. Our city has a girl's soccer league that was having practice at this park. We happened to be in the area of the field as the girls were arriving. Of course, several little girls (probably 8-9-10 age) and a toddler- it's like a match made in heaven! Dillon would take anyone's finger that was willing to walk with her and lead them around wherever she thought to go. The girls shared the soccer ball with her, got her to roll it to them, and absolutely delighted her by kicking it into the goal. She also got to see a man exercising his dog by hitting a ball with a tennis racket for the dog to catch. She just squealed when the dog would catch the ball in the air. She never wanted to pet the dog, just follow it around and watch it. I'm sure she was thinking "Why doesn't my dog do that? All he does is bark and try to steal my food." Maybe that's why she's always trying to steal his food!

Today is her 18 month appointment with the pediatrician, so we'll see how much she weighs and how much taller she's gotten- which is quite a bit. All those 12-18 month clothes that were 2-3 inches to long at the beginning of the summer now fit perfectly. I noticed the other day that I can see the top of her head over the chair when she walks by. She's losing the fat rolls on her legs and her torso just looks so much thinner. She looks more like a toddler than a baby. Part of me is sad and nostalgic for the little baby that she isn't any more and the rest of me is just excited to see what comes next. All the talk about how fun it is to re-experience the world through your child's eyes is completely true, even if the experience of choice happens to be boogers.