17 months old!

Before Inga gets too far beyond 17 months, I wanted to write an update. I've probably said this before, but she's filled with sheer joy and exuberance and contentment. Such a contrast from her intense brother! She's added several words to her vocabulary, although they're pretty hard to discern if you're not part of the family: to mama, papa, uh oh, & eeewww, she has added shoes ("oosh"), poop, fish ("ish"), bird ("teet teet"), airplane (zooming sound) and yes ("yeah"). She is adept with signing and probably has a good 20-30 under her belt.

She adores her siblings and mimics everything they do. Including hitting (mostly from Dio). We're working on "soft" to counteract the hitting. She's fearless and will climb far and high. Today I was playing the piano for Primary, my church children's class. She climbed onto the piano bench and took a running dive across my lap. I had to stop mid-song to catch her. I caught up a few measures later and everyone had a good laugh.

She's an enthusiastic eater. I take some pride that my kids eat pretty much anything and everything, although Dio needs more coaxing than the others. Lunch was beets, watermelon, and artisan bread with natural peanut butter & Bonne Maman preserves. Dinner was cantaloupe (free from the farmer's market, since it was almost past ripe!), country tomato bisque with brown basmati rice, and crepes with more of the yummy preserves. Everything went down with gusto. She has been known to fall asleep eating if lunch is late enough...

We've done EC with her, as with the other kids, but the last few weeks we've had no luck. She used to go pee almost every time if I stuck her in the bathtub and ran a little water. But now she's totally forgotten how to pee! Oh well...she recognizes it when she sees the rest of us going. And she'll tell me when she's gone poop by pulling at her diaper and saying "eeewww." But no luck getting her to go.

Some favorite pastimes include nursing, clomping around in everyone else's shoes, wearing her siblings' clothes (usually on top of her head or around her neck), pushing her doll stroller around and around the attic, and pulling books off the bookshelf. She loves to run away when I'm getting her dressed or changing her diaper. "Uh oh, naked bum!" I shout after her as she squeals and streaks down the hallway, her little curls bouncing.

Picture from a recent Freeze family reunion in Alberta. Dio is crying. Classic.