18 Month Update + Victoria Zoo

Hello folks!! Another month has come and gone and my - what a busy one it has been. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas surrounded by a house full of family. It was so much fun watching Charlotte open up her gifts. She would slowly tear the paper off and get more and more excited with each new peek. By the time the gift was totally unwrapped, she could barely contain herself and would start dancing around asking us to open up the new toy. Took forever for her to finally get through everything! She's still fascinated with Christmas and asks where the decorations are every time we walk into Target or Hobby Lobby :) Our precious little girl turned 18 months early this week so I thought I would give y'all a bit of an update.




- Is absolutely obsessed with cooking. She runs around the house screaming "I Cook" and proceeds to empty the pantry and pull out every tupperware bowl we own. My mom and I are currently scanning Pinterest and making her a ton of felt food. I'll share pics of our first project soon!

- I know I say this every month, but her vocabulary has exploded once again. It just amazes us how quickly she picks things up and fully understands what they mean and when to use them. Her newest words include: stop (says this when you ask her what a red light means), rock (the motion), where is, please (peas), go, hide, letters, outside (ow-side), coffee (cough), moustache (stache - she got a Mr. Potato head for Christmas), eat, lunch (unch), circle, cat, again (gan), gas, barn, clothes (cose), run, and race. She also puts "I" in front of verbs and "a" in front of nouns. Ross and I have already started spelling out things to each other.




- Learned to count - somewhat. We were driving home one morning and all of the sudden heard Charlotte counting. Turned around and she was counting her toes! She says 2 and then counts from 5-10 perfectly. It makes me beam every time she does it.

- Can pick out a lot of different letters. We were at the Dr. office the other day and she looked up and said X pointing to the Exit sign. I also got her to repeat the alphabet after me on the way home from the Waco zoo a few weeks ago. It was sooooo cute. My favorite is when she says Q - coo.

- Started singing Ei-Ei-O when you sing Old McDonald. She still loves to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Wheels on the Bus too.

- Mastered using a fork. She wants a grown-up fork for each and every meal and she's quite good at using it. She even uses a fork to poke and eat her Cheerios!




- Has a strong arm :) When you ask her where her strong arm is, she holds up her right arm and flexes it while giving you a little tough face.

- Became a football fan. After observing DaddyO'(grandpa) and Uncle Martin watch a football game, she picked up on one of their habits. Every time she sees a game on T.V. she gets very serious and starts yelling Go-Goo-Goooooo at the screen.

- Gained 3 new teeth. Yep, fun month - not. Teething is tough! This month Charlotte got 3 canine teeth all at once. She kept begging for crushed ice while they were coming in and chewing on everything in sight!

- Became the world's best leg hugger. She loves to run up and wrap herself around you leg and squeeze it. It pretty much makes you melt each and every single time!

- Developed fear. We took her to the airport to watch the planes landing on the runway and she LOVED it. She would yell woosh and wave hi to them as they came by. We took her there hoping to cure her of her airplane fear. Apparently, she loves them close up and crazy loud, but if she hears them flying high in the sky she runs to you and wants a hug until it passes. She also HATES printers. Not sure why, but she goes crazy when the printer is working. She runs to it screaming noooooo and proceeds to rip the paper out of the machine. DRA-MA!

Is obsessed with hiding. It was become our new family game before our bed routine every night. Charlotte screams "hide" and proceeds to hide in the exact same place every single time - the corner of the dining room. Ross and I then scramble to hide and she runs out to find us. I love hearing her yell out Mommy .... Poppi as she searching. Then the look of sheer joy when she sees us is the best sight in the world.




Ross had some vacations days last week so we packed up and headed down to visit my parents in Victoria. While there, we enjoyed our first ever picnic lunch and then took Charlotte to the Victoria zoo. It was a neat experience because that was the zoo that Ross and I grew up visiting as kids ourselves. It's changed a lot since those days. Back then it only included native Texas animals, but now it also has a variety of monkeys and wild cats. Charlotte got most excited when she saw the petting zoo. She immediately started screaming "Barn" and ran to the fence. We weren't sure how she would react to the animals, but she loved them. She petted a sheep and her face lit up and she squealed with delight. She kept running back to the barn every chance she got for one last view.



After the zoo, we drove over and visited the duck pond. Ross and I use to meet there after school during our courting days :) Charlotte loved seeing the ducks, but had a different idea when it came to feeding them. We kept giving her bread to feed to them and she kept popping each and every piece in her mouth. You would think we never feed her at the rate she was going. It gave us a good chuckle.

We are enjoying exploring new things now that the days are starting to get a tad warmer. Can't wait to see what another month brings our way. Thanks for checking in!