6 months now

I feel like I'm repeating myself but I can't believe that we've been home with Kylie for 6 months now. Our visit to China feels so distant and some memories that I thought I would always cherish and never forget about our trip seems to be fading away as if it were so long ago. Kylie is now 18 months old and thriving! I can't get enough of her beautiful face and I love watching her interactions. Although we are trying not to spoil her too much or treat her like a little baby, it is tough at times. Recently, daycare informed me that they worked with her on drinking from a regular cup and my immediate reaction was "no way". Is she really ready for that? I would not have known at what stages to start transitioning her to try certain things. She did quite well apparently. Kylie is also becoming very independant and throws a fit if we try to 'spoon' feed her. She is trying to figure out how to put socks and shoes on (with much difficulty). Wow, she is barely two years old! She seems to understand colors and almost everything we tell her. She communicates well with us through sign language. She still gets really irritable if we can't figure out what she wants and starts going through all of the hand signals she knows. Whenever she wants us to sing a certain song to her, she tries to motion with her hands successfully although we never taught her those. She is just starting to learn shapes and so far everything round/circles is a bubble. I think its just adorable. Kylie is starting to repeat certain words she hears us say although she will not say it again if we ask her to. This is very comforting as one of my concerns was that she would be a little delayed coming into a new language at 12 months old.

In January, she finally started calling me Mama. It was like music to my ears. She was saying mama prior to that but it was mostly babbling and learning her sounds. Now she clearly yells MAMA when she wants something. Oh the joys of parenting. She has been saying Da-da from the very beginning and she clearly loves her Dada. When I go to get her from the crib in the morning, she looks around or points to the door and says Dada? When she hears the door chime, she says Dada? I can't say that I blame her for having such admiration for her dad. Sean is an absolutely wonderful father to Kylie. He has demonstrated patience I never knew he had. He is the most wonderful, loving and unbelievable supportive guy I know.Whenever she says the word Dada, it is in a very soft and sweet tone. When she says Mama however, it is in a more demanding strong tone. It's actually quite funny. I'll try to catch it on video to share.

I've had some friends ask me if we got rid of our first baby because I have not posted pictures of him. He is still part of our family and we love him very much. We just have to keep them apart at times because depending on Kylie's mood he is either friend or foe. I'm happy to say Kylie is finally starting to warm up to Bruiser although she still tends to be a bit rough with him. That is why I barely have pictures of the two of them together. Bruiser on the other hand seems to love Kylie because she is an unlimited source for food supply:-)

Our little ham:-)

Where on earth did she learn this from? I'm not telling:-) And no she is not potty trained...yet.

Kylie LOVES guacamole!

Kylie was napping while Daddy was putting together her new climber/slide. This is her sleepy/happy face with lots o' drool.
Kylie taking tips from mommy on how to go down the slide:-)

Mini bouncy house which she absolutely loves.

On the phone with Grammy

And finally...Bruiser w/ Kylie! By the way, she thinks that 'thing' under Bruiser's belly is his belly button.

This is an older pic of the two of them together. Kylie was going for a kiss and Bruiser was going after the chewey fruit smell coming from her mouth. I probably shouldn't ruin the moment. Let's just say this was their first kiss!