Lyla Grace Ann is 18 months old!

Today is Lyla's 18 month old birthday! I can't believe that she is a year and a half! Where in the heck did the time go!! In 6 months we will be celebrating her 2nd birthday! How can that be?!?

I want to document some of Lyla's milestones but first of all here is a little letter to my daughter. My pride, my joy and my love...

Dear Lyla,

Today you are 18 months old!! A whole year and a half!! You are such a little girl now. Or as you say 'Big Girl' and of course you are a 'Good Girl' too! You continue to amaze both Daddy and I as every day you are learning something new.

You are continuously on the go and experiencing new things daily. You love to be outside. Right now you are loving the leaves and helping Mama and Daddy 'rake' leaves. You ask for the 'rake' before we even get outside. We have a smaller rake that we let you use. You pick up leaves and help put them in the leaf bag. You cry when you have to come in from outside.

When outside you love to 'walk'. You will hold out your hand for me to hold and say'come walk'. We walk down the side walk and you like to look around. You find stop signs and you tell me about the 'stop'. You will crouch down and check things out on peoples lawn. As people are starting to put up their Christmas decorations you are getting really excited. Mama bought you a small plush deer a couple of weeks ago and you love this 'a deer'. You saw some lighted deer this weekend and ran up to the house in excitement. So Mama bought you a lighted deer that is in our living room right now. You get so excited when you see it when we come down the stairs.

You continue to be on the smaller size for weight. We think you are about 22. something pounds but we cant get a good weight on you because you are always trying to turn the scale on and off when you are on it. You are tall though and you recently went through a growth spert and your pants are all now too short. It looks like you are going to be tall and thin - watch out world!

You have 15 teeth. You are presently getting your last 'i' tooth. Eating has been somewhat difficult with you lately. You want to feed yourself and you do a pretty good job at it too. You like to eat Cheerios at breakfast, and currently you are enjoying spaghetti-os, grilled cheese and anything sweet. You love when mama makes a cake and you love icing. You look in the oven and see things baking and always say'cake' even it is a roast of beef.

You are a good talker. You are trying to put sentences together now. You are trying to count and say your alphabet. You can count '1 -2!" Like today when I gave you two stickers you counted 1-2! And when you dropped one you told me 1-2! You are trying to say the alphabet and you always start with A,D and then start stringing along other letters. You can say pretty much anything you hear us say. Last week you started to say 'window' and today when we were driving you told me 'window truck' when you saw the garbage truck out the window.

Speaking of trucks you love trucks. You can spot them a mile away and hear them and know it is truck. Same goes for the sound of a bike, car or airplane. You can differentiate between the sound and tell me what you hear and you are pretty much always right!

You love animals. I would say that your favorite animal is a Neigh-neigh. When we got to Nana and Papas you see Neigh -neighs and you are obsessed with them. You will walk up to the fence where the neigh-neighs are and we have a hard time getting you to leave.

You love your Nana and Papa and Gama and Gampa very much. YOu can say Nana and Papa very well and we are working on Gama and Gampa. You often call Gampa 'car' and Gama 'Nana'. You love to talk to them on the phone.

You still love your teddy he is your number one go to guy. You are very much a mama and daddy's girl and love to be with us all the time. When I am cooking dinner you often want to be held so you can see what I am doing. If I don't pick you up you pull on my pants and cry.

Your favorite television show is 'Little Bear' by far! You will sit on the couch and watch Little Bear after your nap. Than I would say you like Sesame Street second best. Speaking of naps you have one afternoon nap that generally ranges between 1.5 hours to 3 hours depending on the day. You typically go to bed around 8:30 -9:00 and sleep about 12 hours.

You are a sweet little girl who loves to cuddle with me. You will climb up on my lap and just sit with me and you give the best hugs and kisses. You have made my world such a happy place and I can't imagine it any other way than with you!

I love you Lyla!
xoxox