Even though the pictures here are a bit older (march 2010), it is still a glimpse of what Inara has started to get herself into. As she is approaching a year an a half of age she is maturing into the toddler years quite nicely. She amazes me each day with how much she understands and how much already she acts like me or Don. Little things like nodding her head "no" when I ask her if she wants to go night-night. I always tell her no while shaking my head. Her "no" is a bit more emphatic however. She is certainly showing her strong will although some would argue she has had a strong will since her first week of life.

About 3 weeks ago, she suddenly decided it was okay to walk 95% of the time. One Monday afternoon it started and I have only seen her crawl a few times when she got tired. She has taken to circling around things or walking back and forth to chase the dogs who have learned quickly to use their evasive maneuvers from Inara.

Inara's vocabulary astounds me as well! She understands SO much more than she can say! She can point out her head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly button, feet, toes, hand, and we are currently working on her chin. She knows what the dragon says and also what the cow, dog, leopard and a certain political figure says. She also growls for MOST animals if she doesn't know the sound. The words she can speak include doggie, daddy, mama (or mamamamamama), food (foooooh), bath (baaaa in a whisper), cat, cheese, keys, shoes, gohome, tree, monkey, horse, and a few I'm probably forgetting! My favorite is cookie. When she sees her box of cookies, she replies "cookieoh-gee-oh--gee-oh-gee-oh-gee". Her recent obsession is Veggie Tales. I got her a songs DVD that was short and to play every once in awhile. Well, now she asks for it daily, so you can't even say Veggie Tales and you can't sing the songs, because at that moment, she will get the DVD and bring it to me to play. I guess I know why she knows the word "no" so well. :)

As you can see from this lovely eating photo, she is learning to feed herself. She is still quite clumsy so most of the time I take over, but I try to let her make progress every so often.

Her coordination is getting better as well! She enjoys helping with the diapering process too. She shows you were to put the diaper and so on. She also enjoys walking up and down the stairs like a big person (of course with help). Walking has been nice while shopping because she stays right by me the whole time! I'm sure that will change...

She is also obsessed with outside. These past two weeks have prevented us from going out as much because of rain and late spring snow, but as often as she thinks of it, she wants to be outside!

Other random thoughts: We got a free piano this last month and she LOVES to tinker. She is also becoming a monkey and wants to climb on everything! She got up on the couch by herself once and is used to falling back and playing, but I was in the kitchen. So she fell back and bounced onto the floor instead. Poor girl, but I have a feeling this will happen often as she DOES NOT want my help! Today, she wanted so much to have my slippers on her feet and walk around. They kept falling off, but it was cute to see.
I have also learned that being a girly-girl is an innate characteristic. She loves putting "necklaces" on her neck and "bracelets" on her wrists and looking down with adoration. She already enjoys dress-up and less than 18 months old! She is also starting to stack the blocks instead of knocking them down. She plays with puzzles and shape sorters appropriately. She also loves reading books. For about a week she was anti-book, but now it has come back full force and she will stay on a page for me to get most of the words out!

I'm sure I will have to add more to this late, but in closing, I am so thankful to have such a sweet little girl in my life. (even though the nursery workers at church claim she is the most strong-willed child they have seen). I can't wait to see how she continues to mature and grow into a sweet and kind young girl.