Tracey Ann -- 17 Months

Well our beautiful bubbly baby girl is 17 months old today.  She is keeping us so busy:

• She is walking and running everywhere possible.  She still will trip and fall when she runs, but she keeps running any chance she gets.
• She is signing a little less and talking a little more -- she knows A LOT of words a combination of talking and signing, but she doesn't always use them.  She will go through phases when all she wants to talk about are her bath toy animals (giraffe, lion, bear, tiger) and make the sounds that they make... but then a few days later, she doesn't want to talk about them and has moved on to talking about something else.

• She has begun putting a few words together, with help -- like "More please", "Yes please", and "Good girl"
• She loves playing the piano -- we acquired a piano a few weeks ago and Tracey Ann LOVES to pound the keys, loves to direct my hands in playing, and just laughs and laughs at the music we make

• Speaking of music, she loves to sing and dance.  Any time music is playing, she is swaying back and forth, stomping her feet, waving her arms, and saying "Do-do-do-do...dee-do-do-do."
• She is such a destructive force... she can clear a shelf, that I didn't think she could reach, in seconds, she can climb up on things I didn't think she could reach... and I often call her 'Destructo-Girl'

• With Cardinal baseball in full swing, Hubby has taught Tracey Ann how to say, "We're number 1!" with one finger up in the air.  She sort of says, "Num one! Num one!"
• She LOVES to giggle -- she laughs at herself, at other people, at jokes, when she's tickled, when other people are laughing... this girl loves to laugh
• She has discovered the ice maker at my parents' house -- and she apparently loves ice cubes

• We are officially done breastfeeding.  I breastfed her through 16 months, but the past three weeks we have ended nursing.
• Of all the words she uses on the daily basis, "No" is probably the most frequent.  When we ask her questions, the answer is usually "no" -- which means, we have to be careful and not ask her questions that she does not have a "no" option.  When she gets into something she's not supposed to touch, I run over to her and say, "No, no, no, no, no"... and then Tracey Ann immediately copies and says, "no, no, no, no, no."

• Speaking of copying, she does everything we do... especially my mom.  She is in love with Grammie, and Grammie is so animated in everything she says and does, the Tracey Ann follows her around like a little puppy.