Binky Mania!

Jake has long since given up on the pacifier, but his sister has picked up the habit. And every once in a while, when there are spare binkies laying around, Jake will pretend to be a baby and pop one in his mouth. Tonight however, he was up to his old tricks again and sported multiple binkies. Alex is mostly allowed to have her binkies ("bee-bee") at naptime and bedtime, but she uses her skinny little arms to reach between the slats of her crib to procure additional binkies as needed. She refers to bedtime as "ah, ah, baybee" and calls her blankets "ahbees".

She is talking quite a bit lately. Today she was wishing Ralphie a "Happy!" (birthday). She says all of our names: Mommy, Daddy, Jake ("DAY!!"), Geedah, Peepa, Danny, Mema, Papa, "Cuh" (Uncle Chris), "Guh" (Uncle Greg), "La" (Aunt Laura), and of course Ru.

She also says hi and bye, love you, thank you, yes and no, dog, up, out, gotta go ("Gaaah GO!"), please, hat, shoes, belly, and many others. She will repeat many words for you if you ask.

Alex is incredibly smart (in my humble non-biased opinion) and has amazing fine motor skills. She is strong and capable and extremely independent and strong-willed. She's a fearless dare devil and an absolute handful. She drives me completely bonkers and I love her like crazy. She is sweet and cuddly and absolutely Mommy's little girl.

Seventeen months have gone by in a flash, and they have been such a joy and a blessing. I love watching my two beautiful babies grow up together.