M is 20 months old today (I’m on time for a change)! M still sleeps great unless she loses that bink, but for the most part, she is doing much better about holding on to it. She sleeps 11-12 hours at night and 2.5-3.5 hours during the day when at home (1-2 hours during the day when at school). She LOVES sleeping in the same room with B, and will ask for her immediately if B is not in the same room with her when she wakes up.
She loves to talk and loves to repeat after people, especially B. Words/phrases include pineapple, go gators, Kenzie right back (Kenzie ra buk), small small world (explanation in next post), delicious (dee-ish-us), help please (hep peez), treat please (teet peez), Sky kitty come, basketball (which sounds remarkably like basketball), football, B-B school, Mommy come (complete with a little hand motion), etc.
I took her for her “18 month” checkup a couple of weeks ago, and she is currently 26 lbs, 11.5 oz (86%) and 32.75″ (60%). Growing so fast! She has even ventured out a little (very little) bit to try some more new foods. She ate rice last night – I know that seems innocuous enough, but she has always adamantly refused to eat it before. She is the most picky about meats, but she is growing and healthy, so we don’t worry too much about it. We just give her choices, making sure to use her baby food (“sauce”) to round out the fruits and veggies, and let her be.
As you can see in the photos, we can do pigtails (barely) now, so her hair is definitely growing. It is still fairly straight on top, but the curls in the back seem to be winning.
She is also full of adventure – we tease her that she is our little menace (think Dennis the Menace). She gets into EVERYTHING, and it takes her about 2 seconds to do so. I have to be extra careful to keep dangerous things (knives, pot handles, plates, etc.) away from the edge of the counter because she can and will try to grab them. I have to watch her super closely while cooking with the electric skillet or wok because she can and will try to unplug them. She likes to climb on things, and does NOT like to be helped!
M loves music – pretty much all kinds. For those of you who remember B’s obsession with “Single Ladies”…M heard it on the radio yesterday, and loved it! She kept saying “Mommy! Oh oh oh oh!” Speaking of music, we started her in a Kindermusik class (Our Time) and she LOVEs it! She doesn’t sing along, but she loves to do all the hand motions, play the instruments, and dance along with everyone else. Her favorite part is the bubbles part (this is pretty much the favorite of all the kids). She has even managed to blow some bubbles (when she’s not eating them)! I am so happy to see her in her own class, and enjoying Kindermusik (and Ms Susan!) as much as B did.
Favorite toys still include her stacking cups, books, cars, Pooh phone, toy computer, balls, and puppy. Favorite “lovies” include Mickey, Winnie the Pooh, and Nemo. We recently started picking movies for M to watch (instead of letting B pick all the time), and so we picked Finding Nemo – M is a HUGE fan. It is fun to watch her watch the movie. When Nemo is in trouble, she yells (in a very worried voice) NEMO! over and over again. With most of B’s movies, she watches for a minute or two and then moves on to something else. With Nemo (or Cars), she watches!
One interesting note about her – she seems to be leaning towards at least being ambidextrous. She colors and feeds herself with both hands, but shows a strong preference for using a spoon with her left hand. It will be interesting to see if this is just experimentation on her part, or if she is really left handed.
She had gotten better about following (not accepting) the rules – meaning she may scream the whole time if she is not interested in following instructions, but she generally will do what she is told. Baby steps…For the most part, however, she is very good – just quite curious and interested in everything around her, and doing everything B does, and trying anything and everything. Very few things intimidate her!
Right after we returned from the mountains, Mimi and Tatie Kat came to visit. Tatie Kat could only stay for a couple of days, but we had Mimi for a whole week!
She surprised the girls with these beautiful dresses:
While they were both here, B lost her first tooth!!
For some reason, I don’t have as many pictures as I thought I did – perhaps I relied on Mimi to take photos and then forgot to get them from her before she left. Anyway, we had fun during the week hanging out with Mimi while B was at school. And we celebrated Tatie Kat’s birthday (M pretty much looked like those cake photos from her 19 month post). And then came the weekend…an action packed weekend!
Saturday afternoon, we finally got a chance to go out on the new boat with B’s good buddy Hawke and his parents. It is a fantastic boat and we had a great time!! The faster we went the happier B and Hawke were. The louder Mr. Steve made the boat, the happier M was.
We cruised around and then dropped anchor for some water fun. Here are the kids enjoying the view.
Some inner tube fun…
After we cruised around for a bit, and played in the water, the kids got to try out the EZ Ski trainer. Hawke went first to show of his skills and to give B an idea of how it works. Ms. Alecia took all the ski pictures as I only had my phone with me.
Then B gave it a try (one of my favorite pictures ever!).
Before she got on, B assured us she had no interest in standing up…she was just going to sit. We told her that was fine, but if she felt like it, she could give it a try. About 30 seconds into the ride, up she popped!
She got the hang of it fairly quickly – faster Mr. Steve!
Turning…
After we finished skiing, it was time to head in. Mr. Steve let the kids drive a little (well, M got to pretend to drive and beep the horn).
The water was a tad chilly, but it was a beautiful afternoon/evening. We can’t wait to go again!
Sunday, we had two activities planned – afternoon tea for the girls (except M, who was napping), and baseball for everyone! We got all dressed up and headed to the snazzy part of town for High Tea. I forgot to take pictures of our table, but here we are afterwards, enjoying the beautiful view and weather.
Right after tea, we met up with J and M for the baseball game.
High fives when the home team scored!
We had a great visit, and of course, it ended way too soon!
Poppa surprised Nana with a trip to the Smokey Mountains, and all of the kids, grandkids, and most of her siblings came along for the ride. We were only able to go for a couple of days, but we had a great time! Here are some pictures from our trip!
The drive there was fairly uneventful…until our directions took us onto a road Jason called “Deliverance” Road. 
It was a windy road through the hills that theoretically could handle two cars, but really only looked like it was wide enough for one. We can confirm, however, that it is actually wide enough for two cars, as long as one of the cars is driven by a crazy local.
Don rented a beautiful (and huge) house that required some pretty tall poles to build. Whether I was standing on the top floor balcony or the basement balcony, I could not see the ground – too far down and all covered in foliage. It felt like we were in a tree house! I tried to capture the effect with a photo, but it really doesn’t translate. So you’ll have to settle for a photo of the view outside our bedroom.
On Sunday, we mostly hung out with everyone and just relaxed. Delightful! As a bonus, we had lots of help with the girls!
Monday we headed into Ober Gatlinburg to check out the amusements/rides, ride the gondola, and generally enjoy the beautiful weather. Before they fully opened, the girls decided this bear looked friendly enough to hang out with.
B pretty much rode every ride available, and M rode every ride she was big enough for…they had a great time!
We also headed into downtown Gatlinburg for lunch. While there, we stumbled upon “the Gibbs mobile” – Jason and I are huge fans of the show, so we had to take a picture…
After we dropped M off at the house for a nap, Jason and I went back to do more stuff with B. The slide was finally open, so we quickly headed that way before the weather stopped us, and before B changed her mind. She wasn’t too sure about the lift ride up to the top, but she did it!
She rode down with Tia, so I wasn’t really able to get pics, but they had a sample slide to check out at the bottom.
B and Tia also successfully made it through the maze!
That night we had fun playing various games with the family. B had fun with the Wii.
M seemed particularly enamored with the arcade machine.
Poppa tried to show her foosball…
but she quickly got down and pushed her stool back to the arcade to make it clear which game she preferred!
Jason also enjoyed the arcade b/c it had his favorite game – Galaga! He was determined to beat the high score…and he succeeded!
On the day we left, we headed back into Gatlinburg. Both girls loved the gondola, and M was particularly fond of being able to reach the straps.
While in Gatlinburg, we did an Old Timey photo (per Tia’s request). They turned out great! And B loved dressing up!
We had a great time, and the drive home was thankfully uneventful. There was even a rainbow to greet us as we arrived home. 
