So big!

Gabrielle is growing so fast. She is now officially 18 months old (on Thursday) and old enough for nursery. I don't know whether to be excited about all she is learning or sad that she has grown so quickly and really isn't a baby anymore. She has developed a strong sense of what she wants, she has a temper when she doesn't get her way, and she really thinks she can do everything her big sisters do.




And her language skills are exploding. Along with the 15 or so words that she had when she was a year old (dog, perro, Chester, momma, dada and so on), she can say many more, including but probably not limited to:

candy (Did I mention that she can find candy better than anyone? If there is candy anywhere in the house, she finds it! And eats it. We have to keep it hidden and way up high.)
puppy, No, up, down, want, cuckoo, book, this, comida (food in Spanish), poopoo, Jenni & Paco (neighbors across the street), dank oo (thank you), gracias (thank you in Spanish), cookie, Daf-ee (Daphne, a friend's daughter), Dante (our friend's son), mas (more in Spanish), luz (light in Spanish), baby, hot, hola (hello in Spanish), hello, bye bye, night-night, baw (ball), Milo (Alfredo's aunt's dog), and leche (milk in Spanish). She also knows poopoo, good night, thank you, more, milk, and food in sign language. Between her words and pointing, she can pretty well communicate what she wants now. At least most of the time.

She loves to say NO! She also says lots of gibberish. And she really does try to do whatever her sisters do. She runs and she now can climb the stairs standing up, although she still usually goes up and down on her hands and knees. She colors in coloring books just like her big sisters. And she knows how to turn the computer on. She loves to "talk" on the phone. And surprisingly, she is loving the Olympics. We watched some ski jumping (is that what it is even called?) and she kept clapping and squealing and jumping up and down. She was enthralled. Here are a couple of photos of her watching the Olympics.

Look at her smile!!