We had some photos done by our friend Charlie Boucher of CharPhotographer last weekend and this is one of the peek shots. We are super excited to get our cd from him and will post more of the photos then. 🙂

Elayna is now 20 1/2 months old. I seriously can’t get over how big she is getting (and how fast)!

Besides being able to smile when I ask her to, here are some of the other newish things she does (that she has picked up in the last couple months):

• She could identify her letters and numbers several months ago, but now she says them all clearly (most of the time) and can use them. What I mean is that she counts things (only sometimes correctly because she often counts things more than once, but she is pointing and counting items!). She often says “Two Elmos” or two of whatever she finds. She likes matching things. She also sings her ABCs. She often skips some letters (I don’t know where LMN went half the time), but sometimes she gets them all right, with or without me singing along. Wow.

• She understands sharing and only sometimes uses this to her advantage. Haha! She says “Layna share” and gives a toy to someone. Every once in a while I catch her telling Joaquin to “share” and then swiping his toy though! Then I have to make her share it back to him. Sneeeeaky!

• She says “please” and “thank you” (often without prompting) and at the right time. She will walk over to the fridge and say “Juice please” or bring me something and say “open please” (sounds like ope peas). She also cracks us up with the way she goes about asking. Sometimes she looks all cute and smiles and says “(insert item) please. Okay.” like she is answering for us! Hahaha!

• She uses the word “and” correctly. “Mommy and Daddy,” etc.

• Uses possessives. “Layna’s Bear.”

• Compares things and matches them. “Mommy shirt blue.” “Layna pink.” Or she finds two things that match and shows us the match, holding it up and saying “Two Elmos!” or whatever.

• Tells stories about people when they aren’t here (and about toys sometimes). The best example of this was a long story (with some real and some made up words) about Mimi that she told the other day.

• She groups things that belong together. She will sort through her shapes and put all the yellows, blues, etc together… and then get other toys those colors and include them in the sorting! She talks about them, too. The other day we were coloring and she pointed at the crayons and said “colors,” then pointed to the blanket we use to color on and said “colors blanket,” then pointed to the coloring book and said “colors book!”

• Still gives lots of hugs and kisses. Sometimes without prompting. And she can actually hug now… when she wants to. Today I think E and J gave each other about 5 kisses for no reason except they love each other. Too sweet.

• Says hi to people when they show up. Always smiles and says “Hi T.P. when he shows up.” – By the way, we have no idea why she calls Joaquin that… she can say his name and chooses to call him T.P.! Hahha!

• Loves to swing and often says “Swing!” if we say we are going to the park.

• Can ask for more of something with the word and with the sign (sign language) – she saw a friend do it one day and picked it up.
  

• Tells you when she did something (ie. yawn, sneeze, toot, poo). She tells me just after she does it.

• Sings along with “our songs.” This one is amazing to me. There are a few songs that Jake or I (or both of us) have sang to her since she was a bitty baby, and she now sings some of them along with us. Often its just the last word of each line of the song, but sometimes it almost the whole song!! So sweet.

• Tries to hum along with me when I hum a song. Her version is not as quiet or soothing. HA!

• Says “love you.”

• Uses lots of 2-3 word phrases – “stay here,” “daddy home,” “mommy’s phone,” “black car,” “oh man,” “Layna allfall (fall down),” etc.

• Seriously must have over 1,000 words now. I counted 200 or so several months ago, and now she talks non stop about everything! 🙂

• Most recently, she said her first real sentences. On the 4th she said “I like colors.” Meg was here with me and we totally thought we heard her, but weren’t sure. The next morning she told Jake and I, “I like Mommies. I like shows.” Wow!

• The other recent one was that she told Jake, “Elmo red. Layna peach.” What?!? We have no idea where she learned peach!! Before then she knew red, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, brown and white… but not peach. She has said it a few times since then. Oh, and you will all love to know that she told Meg that she was white. Hahaha!