20 Months

Marley is 20 months old today! Well, actually I am writing this later, because I forgot on the day she turned 20 months. I got really sad that I forgot, because her month starts with a 2 now! That's a big step! I can't believe how old she is... I keep thinking that one day it will hit me. Here are a few things she doing this month.

She talks so much now! If she doesn't know what the word is for something, she will usually make something up. When I ask her to say a few words that she doesn't know, she just jabbers for a few seconds like she knows exactly what I'm saying! Asa and I crack up all the time listening to her talk about things. She will even grab a book and talk like she's reading it to us.

Marley created her own sign for "open." It came from this plastic ball that is a shape sorter that she got for Christmas. To open it and get the shapes out, you have to pull these little handles on each side of the ball and pull it apart. So, she made that the universal sign for "open." She pulls her hands away from each other and makes a "uh uh" noise. It's really cute and amazing that she made it up herself!

One of her new favorite things to do is make lion sounds. For a few days, everything had to do with lions. When she was eating, she made lion noises ans wanted us to also. We called her our lion and said that she was the cutest lion ever. She had fun with it, but I guess she forgot and now she has moved on to elephant noises!

I previously wrote about how Marley was sleeping on a pallet on the floor before we got our furniture here. But, since we moved up here, she is now sleeping in her own full size bed! I think she really likes having her own bed though! When we are getting ready to go to sleep, I tell her to go get in her bed and she walks right up there and lays down in bed! She's a little bit independent now! I think soon I am going to try and get her to sleep with some stuffed animals. Maybe she will feel a little more comfortable in there throughout the night. It makes me a little bit sad though that she is sleeping on her own for a little while. I know she is ready for it, but it still breaks my heart that that means she is growing up. That phase of our lives is over, and we can't ever go back to when she was a little baby sleeping in between us.

I know there are more things, but I can't think of them right now. I need to do a better job of keeping up with them during the month. She just keeps me so busy! We are having so much fun during the day, that I forget to get out the video camera and record things! But I need to start remembering, because it is going to break my heart in a few years if I can't remember this time we have together. I feel like every month when I write these, I get to emotional and sentimental about how fast Marley is growing up. But it's really how I feel! She means so much to me and I want her to learn and grow and become a big girl. But at the same time I want her to stay my baby and I want to have this time together forever. I worry all the time that I am not enjoying her enough and I will look back one day and wish I had done more. But she is such a beautiful, sweet, smart little girl. I must be doing something right. I will miss this terribly when it's gone, just like I miss all the stages that have passed. But i know there are many more exciting stages to come!