Well she was just seventeen (months) if you know what I mean... How could I dance with another...ohhh...when I saw her standing there!

Summer vacation has officially started and that means big things for our family. We have Dad around all the time and a Mom that is way more relaxed and easy going. Our family just seems to run so much better and easier when we are all here. Ahh..summer!

At seventeen months I worry about your verbal skills or more appropriate would probably be your lack of verbal skills. I know you understand everything I say to you - you just won't really talk. I know I will look back and cringe at these words someday when I would do anything to get you to be quiet. You may be on the verge of a language breakthrough. You say "ball" whenever you see a ball or anything round. Only you say it with extra "b's" like "B-B-Ball". It is pretty cute. I swear when we were on our walk today you learned the word "car" because you would say "car" or something that sounded a lot like it whenever a vehicle would go by. You love to carry around shoes and socks. You call them "goks" - pretty close.

When you see a dog, or any other animal for that matter, you start to make a barking noise. The boys can get you to make a growl sound when they ask you what a monster says.

We play this game called "Wake up Mommy" where I

lay on the floor on a pillow with my eyes closed and snore

and pretend to be sleeping. The other day you walked

over and layed next to me and shut your eyes and
started to make a snoring sound. It was so funny!

You love to play peek-a-boo when I put you down to

sleep. I pull the cover over you and ask "Where's Hailey?"

You will pull the cover down and smile your huge grin and

laugh and say "da -da -doo" in your sing songy voice- your interpretation of peek-a-boo. This will go on for minutes. When I blow you a kiss and tell you goodnight, you will usually lookat me with a grouchy face and start to cry -totally bummed that the game is over.

I worry about your disdain for books and being read to. I feel like maybe we missed our window of opportunity. As a third baby, we never really took the time to sit you down and read to you. I know it sounds bad but it was really just such a relief to get you down to sleep at night. Going from two kids to three, even for a few hours, is like a whole new world. Evan was and still is such a bookworm. He can't get enough. When Spencer was younger he never liked being read to during the day, but his nightly routine always included many books. The last two he always wanted to hear before he went to sleep were Goodnight Moon and A Child's Goodnight Prayer. He would always say "moon and prayer" in his cute little baby voice. You are not a book loving little girl at all and I worry that is part of the reason for you not being extremely verbose. We are trying to do better with the reading. You like books with animal pictures that you can point to and bark at, but particularly wordy stories...no way, no how. You squirm like a worm to get away.

I believe we have said goodbye to bottles. You have been drinking from your sippy like a champ! It took a while for you to get the hang of it and stop choking yourself, but I think you have it mastered! What a big girl! I should have put the bottles away at a year but with you being my last baby, I guess I wanted to keep you little as long as possible and it also didn't even occur to me to think of switching over. Three kids make you tired!

I can't believe the next monthly update you will be a year and a half! We will also be home from our family truckster roadtrip to Maryland. That should be good.

Photo note: She owed me big time and she delivered. She wouldn't sit or stand still of course, so I had to do the best with what I had. Which is the most adorable seventeen month old girl in the world playing in the sand table. Do I sound like a biased Mommy or what? The dress she is wearing is another little vintage number - worn by me, saved by Gramma, made by my Aunt - long ago. I know this last photo is a little blurry, that is just how she is...always on the move.