17 Months

Abby's still not saying too many words. She'll sometimes make word-like sounds, but they rarely mean what you think they mean. Like "cheese" (tees). Sure she opens up the drawer where the string cheese is kept and says tees, but she also constantly points at her feet and calls them tees too. Abby's recently been pointing to her nose and saying "nananana." She loves this, and says it constantly. Sometimes, though, when I tell her no and she gets upset about it, she'll point to her nose and say "nananana" in between crying fits.




Damon and I are becoming quite fluent in "Abby speak," which makes her so happy. Yesterday, we signed the contract in the sales office in the community we're going to build in, which was the garage of the builder's model home turned into an office. If you've walked through models you know what I'm talking about. Since there was a big opening to the house with so many things to see and look at, it was impossible to keep Abby occupied in the sales office. When it came time to actually sign the paperwork, our realtor and the new realtor who'd tagged along with him babysat Abby down in the finished basement. She loved every minute of it. During one of my shifts, she and I were crawling down the stairs to the basement and she kept pointing at something and saying something completely indecipherable. At first, I gave her the "sure honey, whatever you say" treatment, but then I figured out she was pointing to the light fixture. She was so thrilled to be understood when I said "light." It was such a great moment for the both of us to realize that even though she may not be able to say what she means, we can still understand her.




While she may not be saying much, she undertands everything we say to her. If we ask her where something is, she'll find it and bring it to us. She understands when we tell her we're going out, and she'll pace by the door like an excited puppy. We ask her is she wants to go "night night" or if she needs her diaper changed, and she'll walk into her room. If she's hungry she hangs out in front of the fridge and her high chair.


Abby has developed a new skill this month: she loves to sing. She has this little Elmo radio that her aunt Paula gave her for her birthday, and it plays about 5 different songs. One of them is the "Elmo's World" song. She loves to "la la la" along with it, but she can't actually sing along with it yet, so she just makes up her own "la la la" song. We often catch her singing some nonsensical little ditty while in the car. Sometimes when she's playing by herself, she'll break into song. She doesn't dance very often, but she loves to twirl around in circles until she gets dizzy and falls.




Lately, she's becoming such a GIRL! She is obsessed with shoes. When she's not bringing us one of her shoes to put on her, she's stepping into our shoes or trying to put our shoes on our feet. In the mornings, when she sees Damon in his suit, she brings him his dress shoes. She gets it right every time, even when I actually get around to putting the shoes away so they're all together. When she gets comfortable with strangers, she loves to squat down and touch their shoes. She's also starting to show a love for clothes. A couple times when it's been warm enough for her to run around in a onesie, she's gone through her dirty clothes and brought me a pair of her pants to put on. A few weeks ago, we were in Target and I saw a cute sweater for her, but it was only available in a 2T or 4T. The 24-month zip-up hoodie she'd been wearing was getting a little snug, so I put the 4T on her to see how it would fit. Luckily, it wasn't too bad because she refused to take it off. I did manage to get it off her eventually, but then she wanted to hold it and love it, so I had to rip the tag off so the cashier could scan it.