You are 21 months old! You are growing up so fast these days. I think everyone thinks of you as a sweet little girl and not a baby. At 21 months old your favorite things are swinging, swimming, baby dolls, ice cream, bows, your sister, princesses, and books.
You love to play outside and especially love swinging. You like to climb and slide too and love having anyone play with you. You also have a new love for the pool. You ask to go to the pool everyday and then run and find your swimsuit and fishy diaper. You love to play with cups and our little turtles, jump in the water, and get horsey rides from daddy. You obviously require constant supervision in the water which wears us out a little, but I love how much you enjoy being at the pool- it makes the hard work worth it.
You are talking so much and starting to say two or three word phrases. You can pretty much repeat any word we ask you to- in your own version of course. It's so cute to hear your little thoughts. You say things like "hair, eyes" which translates- "Can you please fix my hair, it's getting in my eyes?" Or "more pacis floor" which translates. "Look, there's pacifiers on the floor by my crib. I need them all!" You ask for more of lots of things- milk, pacis, swinging, drinks, ice cream, books. I'll never get enough of your sweet little voice. You've also started saying Mommy and Daddy instead of Momma and Dadda which sounds so grown up.
You have started to love playing with baby dolls. You like to push them around in the stroller, carry them by their necks, put them night night and feed them your food and drinks. You and your sister play with them every single day. It's so sweet to watch you carrying around your baby dolls. You also like to play with your kitchen and ice cream cart. You serve me ice cream almost every day. It's delicious :)
You also are still infatuated with princesses. You ask to watch our Disney World videos every single day and exclaim "Ella" anytime you see a princess. You want to read all the princess books too. You are actually starting to differentiate them and say "Ariel" and "Elsa." Everyone else is just "Ella." You also love to sing "Let it Go" and belt out "Goooo" anytime you see Elsa or hear the song. You also say "here you go!" all the time especially in the bathtub when you're serving me "tea"
You and your sister have bonded so much this summer. You love playing with each other. I think Elisabeth loves it because she gets to be the big sister and be in charge, and you love it because she's so fun to be around. You two like to play baby dolls, pretend you're going on a trip, and pretend you're going to bed. You two are such sweet friends right now. It melts my heart to watch how much you love her (and your brothers too)
You continue to be a bit of a picky eater. I don't worry about it as much anymore since you're my fourth and I know that you'll eventually reach an age where I can force you to eat vegetables, ha! You've been liking toast with butter for breakfast, and you like your sister's princess soup for lunches. Anytime I ask if you want to eat, you usually always say, "soup" You also like cheese, almost any kind of fruit, yogurt, veggie straws, graham crackers, and ice cream of course. You love your ice cream.
You love to read books. We always read a handful of them before bed each day. You've been liking princess books, bizzy bear books, and bubble guppies books. You also like those "that's not my- train, elephant, books. After I tell you we're all done reading books, then you always grab another handful and put them in your crib so you can read them before you go to sleep. You also have to have a handful of pacifiers, a blanket, a couple of baby dolls or stuffed animals and a cup of water to go to sleep. But you're sleeping really great at night and wake up happy playing in your crib every morning, so you can have whatever you want in there, ha! Occasionally you'll need something at night- a refill of water or pacifiers that fell on the floor, but you're able to tell me what you need and as soon as I get it for you, you lay right back down.
You're starting to learn colors. You say most things are "lello" but I've seen you also differentiate between blue (boo) and green (gee). You always ask for a lello bow in the mornings and then had me a purple one, ha!
You love to give Huggies adn kisses. You'll say, "Huggie huggie" and run up to us and wrap your arms around our legs. There's nothing better in the world. And I've recently hear you say, "Hold you" when you want to be held.
You want to be big just like your siblings and do everything that they do. You are always watching and imitating them. I tell them all the time to be a good example to you. They're your heroes for sure. You're going to miss them so much in the Fall.
You are almost always a happy, giggly girl. You never walk, you're always running or skipping, or jumping/skipping. You randomly dance and twirl and live life with such joy. You brighten our lives so much, Sweet Girl. Goodness, we love you!
We had a huge rainstorm one evening, and we took the kids outside to jump in puddles. They had fun!
We had a fun summer night with our good friends. These girls are becoming the best of friends. I love that they painted each other's fingernails and then ran outside to play in the mud.
Matt's big summer project was building a pergola on our porch. He was very thankful for help from good friends that made his building time go so much faster.
While the men worked, the kids played outside. It was the perfect summer night.
We've also made an effort to schedule play dates with all our friends. It seems harder to get together during the school year, so we make up for it during the summer.
And the kids have had lots of fun playing together. It's sweet to watch them happily all playing together (in between the fighting and arguing)
They've been working on their dance moves this summer
The kids spent an afternoon coloring new decorations for our art wall upstairs. They all worked really hard and were very proud of their art.
We spent a morning feeding the ducks at Rhema. It was Katherine's first time. The kids also had fun exploring and walking around the park and blowing bubbles.
The boys are working on their building skills while Daddy worked on the pergola.
He built it so fast, and I was super impressed with his work.
All the late summer nights wore this girl out. Naps are rare for her these days, but every once in a while she turns into a sleeping beauty.
Katherine has been very interested in playing baby dolls lately. And it's renewed a love in Elisabeth for dolls. Those girls are playing together so well this summer. It's been one of my favorite things about the summer watching them grow closer and have so much fun together.
We all gave Daddy extra love on Father's Day. He's our hero, and the greatest Daddy. I love how Katherine won't even look at the camera. She only has eyes for her Daddy.
We made him a special dessert for Father's Day. And Elisabeth insisted that he have a candle in it :)
The kids earned their summer reading program prizes. The insisted on getting their prizes on the first day they arrived. We've been reading more chapter books this summer at bedtime, and so they hadn't read all 20 books by the time the prizes arrived, so they all sat upstairs for an hour reading all the books to record on their logs.
We took advantage of our movie theater's dollar movies this summer and watched the Grinch. Katherine did about as well as I thought she would at the movies. Thankfully the theater was full of lots of kids and her noise/activity didn't seem to bother anyone, except me, ha!
We spent a fun morning at the aquarium with friends.
Elisabeth and Emma have become good friends lately. It's neat to see how the friendships have evolved among our kids. The big kids used to always play together, but now they usually separate, and the girls play together and the boys play together. But at the end of the day, they all love each other, and we love their family.
I ordered some water beads for the kids as a summer surprise and they've been a big hit! They made water bead restaurants with soup, smoothies, and snow cones.
And of course we've been frequenting our pool a lot this summer. The three big kids are all little fish, and Katherine is figuring it out and asking daily to go to the pool.
