18 months

Teresa turned the big 1-8...in months that is.  A year and a half and busy as can be.  The first word to pop into my head when I think about Teresa is animal. Not that she acts like an animal just that she is an animal lover.  She constantly hounds you to read her Animal Baby magazine.  She is rarely found without some sort of animal in her hand.  She is learning to play pretend with her various animals.  They eat and drink and even talk to Timothy's cars.  She has an eye for animals and can spot pictures of them just about anywhere! 

Her language is still a bit sparse.  Dog of course is a favorite word.  She has learned 'again' which is helpful when reading a book over and over.  She can say hug, up, and Da.  Teresa can add a baa at the end of Baa Baa Black Sheep. Although she may not speak many words, she certainly understands lots!  I have commented to Troy that it was time for Teresa's "nighttime beverage of choice" and she knows we are talking about her night-night milk!

Her speed is picking up and soon she will be running.  She likes to climb up on the couch and copy all the things Timothy does. Today, at gym class, she really got into walking on the balance beam--with help! Teresa likes to copy actions to finger plays too.

She has some definite opinions now.  She does not like putting her coat on.  She protests loudly when Timothy takes a toy away.  She will not eat vegetables or anything that cannot easily be identified as familiar.  She likes books with animals.

She can be shy around people--often times men.  Although it appears that she will tolerate anyone if they read animal books to her.  Her poor Uncle Jeff has been trying to win his way into her heart and right now animal books are the key to getting close.  Stop reading and she is done with him!

We look forward to all the days ahead and learning more and more about our precious little girl.  Here are a few 18 month pictures...

Showing off her horse.

Timothy wanted in on the pictures.

Hugging her horse.

A glimpse of what they love

  Tonight we were playing and I took a few pictures.  What I caught Timothy and Teresa doing gives a perfect glimpse of what each one loves.

Timothy loves all things physical...jumping, falling, climbing, running, bouncing...you get the idea.  The following pictures are not of the same falling sequence, but they sort of look that way.  This is Timothy's favorite game...launching himself off of the couch on to the cushions.  Do you see that happy face?  That happy face is why Troy and I gave up on trying to protect the couch cushions from too much jumping.  We compromised--no jumping like a trampoline, but a landing pad is fine.  Seems fair?!

 And then there is Teresa our animal lover.  She is rarely without some sort of animal--small plastic animal, stuffed animal, bath sponge animal, animal book--you name it, she carries it around the house.  Thus this picture fits her perfectly.  Why would you want to toss balls through the hoop when you have stuffed animals.  Yes, that is a bunny tumbling to the ground and a dog soon to follow.

A final celebration

We celebrated Christmas with Troy's mom on New Years Day.  We went up after church, had a nice dinner of grilled steaks (Troy likes this grilling in the winter thing now!) and opened gifts.  We stayed the night and spent part of Monday soaking up some Grandma time.  Since returning home Timothy usually asks how many sleeps until we go again and then informs us that it is three.  We just agree with him. :-)

Timothy's big surprise was a new Lightning McQueen bike.  And lucky for him Grandma Judy let him ride it in the house a little.  It promptly went in the garage at home!

Teresa being the animal (and specifically dog) lover found that Grandma Judy's dog Simon had a very cozy little bed.  And notice in her lap is a small pile of animals from the nativity set that Teresa took a liking to.

Teresa got some new animal books for Christmas...she loves animals and she loves books, so it doesn't get much better.  Except when she has someone willing to read to her.  Here she used her sweet charm to get Troy's uncle Davey to read!

It wouldn't be a complete trip to Grandma Judy's without some time playing on the kitchen counter and trying to wear her glasses!

This past week Timothy did get a chance to ride his bike outside.  Crazy winter we are having--bike riding in the middle of January!