Layla - 17 Months

Yesterday was Layla's 17 month birthday! Before I jump into her post, here's a quick (scary) thought...when Landon was this age, I gave birth to Layla about 2 weeks from now. YIKES!! I can not even imagine if that was the case again this time around. Phew.

Way to look happy for your 17 month mugshot, Layla.

After her refusal to smile by the wall we tried the chair, but she was too distracted to smile nicely.

Then she needed a water break.

This modeling stuff is tiring work

Then I finally got an almost decent picture

Her outfit is very telling of 17 Month Old Layla...she's just getting girlier and girlier. (my computer is trying to tell me that girlier is not a word, but it clearly hasn't met Layla).

Literally everyday Layla puts on her necklaces of her own volition. First thing in the morning she comes out and searches for them and puts them on with her jammies, and then after breakfast when we change her into her clothes she immediately puts them on again. It's delightfully cute watching her do it.

 Here's the sequence of pictures of her accessorizing:

 One at a time...

That's  better!!

 And some of the many pictures of her wearing her pretties:

 Her day gets even better when she hooks her purse on her elbow and carries it around. "Grandma, shopping?"

We embraced the girlieness this month and I gave Layla her first pedicure:

Look at those cute little toes. She held so still (why won't she sit that still when I'm trimming her nails?!)

Layla's other major milestone in the beauty department was her VERY FIRST BOW being clipped into her hair sans hairband!

This was a big day, folks. If I'm honest, clipping the bow was kind of a stretch...it still looked a little bit like an island of pink on her head instead of actually functionally clipping back hair, but her hairs kind of getting to an awkward in between phase where it's way too long in the back to use the wrap around head bands, but the "bangs" are still too short to clip. Oh well.

 

In addition to the girlieness, Layla's sassy side continues to grow. Girlfriend has some attitude when she wants to. Specifically when she's being told no, especially when it's being told no from going into the kitchen. She can throw a fit with the best of them. Although she's had to adapt her temper tantrum routine a bit since getting here...she thankfully figured out very quickly that these floors are marble, so she can't just fling herself backwards onto the floor like she used to. So she sits down and kind of cries and whines and crouches down on her stomach and then looks up at me and just yells. I'm pretty sure she's saying, "And you brought me to a country with hard floors where I can't even throw myself over in a fit of rage properly!"

But, we still love Layla, even in all of her sassiness, because she's just so stinkin cute. 

Layla has gained a couple of new nicknames since getting here. One is "octopus" because she's constantly walking around just waving and flailing her arms around. We really have no idea what she's doing, but she seems happy doing it.

The other nickname Rick and Christina gave her is "Vacuum" because she eats and eats and eats. All the time. So much food. It's kind of ridiculous actually. She's always hungry and always begging people for bites of their food. She's also become very adventurous and quite the budding foodie.

 Dipping red peppers in hummus. She loooooved it. As a sidenote, anyone who likes hummus, come visit us here in India, because a Lebanese restaurant just down the street delivers the best hummus I've ever tasted. Now, I'm not normally the world's biggest hummus fan, but this stuff...WOW it's good. I've been craving it ever since we last had it, and that's saying a lot.

 Layla's new favorite food: naan!

It's India's version of a tortilla and so, so yummy. 

Here are some facts about Layla:

* Wearing 18 month cloths most of the time, but mostly because I haven't gotten the suitcase of 24 month clothes that we sent over early yet. She fits better in the 24 month/2T clothes we have.

* Maybe it's just me, but I think that Layla has very short legs and a very long torso for her height. Like, noticeably so. We'll see if that changes over time.

* Layla is still taking two naps a day, for about two hours each. The kiddos still aren't sleeping quite as long at night, but there have been two mornings this week that they slept till 8, so there is hope!!

* Layla is talking SO much more than Landon at 17 Months. She repeats most things you ask her to say, and says a lot of words consistently on her own. Her latest one she picked up is "No touch." She hears that a lot. She also just babbles away all the time telling stories, and we love to listen.

* She loves to read and has a couple of books "memorized." When we get to certain pages in The Little Blue Truck road she starts saying the sound effects as I'm turning the page. 

* She loves to climb on chairs, furniture, people, anything.

* Layla loves to get into anything that she's not supposed to get into. That's probably pretty typical for any toddler.

* Layla loves music and dancing. She loves to go into Christina's room when there's music playing and have dance parties with Christina.

She is loads of fun and we love our little 17 month old!