All My Children

Ok, so I figured I'd start with the baby. We had our 20 week ultrasound on Monday (our third and final ultrasound, that we know of). The baby looked beautiful and was perfectly formed as it should be. We got to fully inspect the heart ventricles and cavities, brain, spine, legs, kidneys, arms... etc. Pretty much everything except the genitalia. If you missed it when we were pregnant with Liara, they don't tell you the sex of the baby here. If you ask, they tend to get really grumpy about it and point out the numerous signs on the wall saying that they don't determine the sex of the baby and they'd prefer if you didn't ask about it (we found this out when we asked WHERE we could go to find out the sex if we so desired with Liara. We didn't even ask her specifically if she would tell us, just where we could go to find out). There are private clinics here that you can go to, they normally charge around 60 pounds (100 dollars) for a 2D sexing scan, or around 120 pounds for a 3D one. We decided not to with Liara since it didn't really matter and we aren't sure whether we'll find out with this one either. Again, it doesn't really matter what sex the baby is (and we have a feeling it's a girl anyway) and we'll find out in 20 weeks anyway! The tech this time was pretty nice and gave us 6 pictures to take home (usually it's 3-4) including these two which were my favorites. I have all of them on facebook if you're interested in seeing the others.

This one is our sweet baby waving it's hand at us. We told Liara that the baby was waving at her and she seemed to like that. She didn't really understand what was going on while we were there (and was a little more impatient this time than the other two, but they were shorter than this one was so I guess that was expected). I love how you can see each little finger so well... such a nice little hand print to keep :)
This one (pardon the huge spaces... Nic scanned the pictures in at work and I haven't taken the time to crop off the extra space around the edges) is our baby's face. The baby kept sucking it's thumb and then for this picture pulled it out and yelled a little. I think it was tired of the tech trying to get it to move around so that she could see all the valves in the heart. I like how it looks like it's smiling though... even if it isn't.

Ok. Onto our first sweet baby, or toddler that is. I can't believe she's already 18 months! She's growing like a weed and it seems like every day she's saying more and more (because she is... she's learning about 10 new words a day I swear) and doing more and more (again... she is). She's such a joy and I can't even express in words how much I love that girl! We loved her name because it meant "my light" in Hebrew and to be honest, I think it's perfect for her. She definitely lights up my life and I'm not sure how I faced the world without her. She has made me so unbelievably happy. Anyway, enough about how she makes me feel... on to the good stuff: what's been going on for her.

Height: 31.5"

Weight: According to our scale (which is probably wrong) 23 lbs

Likes: Playing with Mommy, building towers with blocks, climbing on any chairs or object that will get her higher than she's supposed to be, playing with playdoh, doing puzzles, re-organizing our movie drawers, reading (Li LOVES to read), bath time, playing with her sand table, playing with the kitties across the street, visiting the ponies/horses, helping Mommy with laundry, swinging, playing with her friends, jumping on the couch/trampoline/floor... dancing, singing and painting.

Dislikes: Being away from Mommy...

Favorite Foods: Shepard's pie, carrots, peas, potatoes, candy, cookies, pizza, cheese, milk, water (this girl LOVES water... especially if it's flavored), blueberries, strawberries, plums, nectarines. She likes pretty much anything though.

Foods she doesn't care for: Raspberries

Animal Sounds: Cow (moo), Cat (meow), Dog (woof and aoooo for howling), Donkey (hee-haw), Owl (who who), Sheep (baa), Goat (maa), Horse (she whinnies, SO cute), Goose (honk), Bee (bzz), Snake (ssss), Duck (quack)

Words she says (this isn't a complete list, as I can't remember them all... but I figure ~150 will give you a general idea): Mommy/Mama, Daddy, Book, More, Oh no, Uh oh, Bike, Shoes, Cheese, Banana, Belly Button, Nose, Black, Red, Green, Purple, Go, Sock, Out, Shirt, Dink (pacifier), Teeth, Booby, Milk, Bob (Godfather), Grandpa, Mick (Mickey Mouse), Yeah, Cat, Tea, Bye, No, Good, Girl, Hello, Hi, Ball, Wow, Drink, Juice, Broke, Cow, Pringle, Please, Rock, Up, Weee!, Awww!, Man, Back (both for the back of the body and coming back from somewhere), Toes, Come, Night, Pee, Phone, Cookie, Help, At, Paint, Work, Bath, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Snack, Duck, House, Kite, Dog, Nap, Big, Sorry, Hot, Pretty, Ring, In, Minnie, Water, Mat, Bug, Birdie, Bum, Car, Money, Home, Horse, Manny, Plum, Candy, Poky, Puppy, Giggle, Tickle, Best, Sister, Friend, Bottle, Walk, Carry, Ella (her friend), Brush, Bite, Bus, Bee, Shower, Potty, What's That, Clothes, Bed, Morning, Trash, TV, Chair, Cold, Lotion, Airplane, Pizza, Dinner, Eye, Ear, Mouth, Read, Honey, Movie, Wet, Baby, Sleeping, Windy, Heavy, Booger, Mess, Dressed, Running, Bag, Play, Swing, Slide, Park, Ride, Moon, Tay Tay (her cousin), Dax (her cousin), Cup, Tower, Swim, Hair, Boots, Puzzle, Glasses, Build, Ta (Scottish way of saying thank you), Toys... you get the idea.

She can combine those words in strings... usually up to three words (like "mommy build tower", or "daddy at work?" "more pringles please" etc...). I'm certainly proud of her and am so pleased that we're communicating enough now to actually really understand each other. It's so nice!

She's growing so fast and becoming such a big girl. She's polite and helpful and wonderful in every way. Yes, she throws a mean fit every now and then, but it's very few and far between them, so that's understandable. Most of the time it's when she's overly hungry or tired anyway...

She's more beautiful than I ever imagined. I think she looks so much like her Daddy, but every now and then I see myself in her (or more often, my father... which makes me happy). She's very funny too, I'm glad she has a sense of humor! Oh, I am so in love with this girl it hurts sometimes.

Anyway, here are a few pictures for you. This first one is one of my favorites, despite the bit of cereal still on her face from breakfast :)

She's very inquisitive... here, she's looking for the cats at the neighbor's house. She knows they live in that barn and was checking to see if they were home (yep!).
Here's Li playing in one of the ball pits/bouncy castles at Fugro's family bbq from the 3rd of July. She had a lot of fun.
I think that about wraps it up... I can't think of anything else (but that's not to say there isn't more!). I'm off to bed now! Goodnight :)