18 Months

Can you believe it? My baby is going to be 18 months on Monday. Where, I ask you, did the time go?? She goes to nursery this Sunday. It's a happy day in the Calaway household. I remember when she turned a year old, I kept thinking about how nursery was only 6 months away and I just couldn't fathom putting her in there. It was like I was going to be abandoning my baby! Well, after 6 months of wrestling her through sacrament meeting and Dallin wrestling with her through Sunday School and Priesthood, we are so ready to put her in. I just hope she doesn't beat up the other kids in the class. She gets kind of possessive with the toys she's playing with... It could be that she doesn't have anyone else to share her toys with. I'm sure you're all thinking, "well, she could have someone to share her toys with if you guys had another kid sometime soon", to which I would reply, "yes, someday there will be another one, but not yet. Give it time, Kevin." (Dominoes commercial reference).

Back to the topic. Claire isn't so keen on sharing, even with her stuffed animals. Dallin just delights in teasing our poor daughter (as well as me) and puts her shoes on her stuffed animals feet. Apparently that doesn't fly in Claire's book, so she immediately rips them off the unsuspecting feet of the poor Tigger, Polar Bear or Cabbage Patch Monkey. I'm trying to teach her to share, but Dallin seems to be thwarting my efforts by teasing relentlessly. Oh well, teasing makes her stronger, right? That or I am going to have to find a shrink in a few years to discuss her unstable mental health due to excessive teasing by her father. (Kidding. He's not THAT bad.)

Claire has recently taken a liking to My Little Pony, which just makes my heart happy. I was a My Little Pony girl growing up and though the newer version of the show is a little more Anime than I remember, it's still annoyingly cute. (Dallin thinks it's annoying, I think it's cute.) The other day, as we were watching, Claire yelled out, "APPLEJACK!" and I about fainted. It was clear as day. I think I might be getting her an Applejack pony for Easter...

Other words that have entered Claire's ever expanding vocabulary are, "go", "don't", "no", "mom", "dad", "hi dad", "what", "all done", "wow", "oh", and she sings all day. I've already contacted various recording studios telling them we have a budding star in our home. Strangely, we keep getting hung up on. (Kidding. Again. About the recording studio, I mean.)

Claire has recently gone from walking to running. Nothing can ever be done at a walking pace now. It's just running. And she's a pretty fast little lady too. I wish I could say my running to keep up with her has resulted in weight loss for me, but alas, my waistline remains unchanged. Ah well, that's the price of motherhood, I guess. Or the Daynight Donuts we got on Monday night for FHE...

All in all, the last 18 months of our lives have been just amazing. Full of ups and downs, love and laughter, tears and frustration and all other wonderful things. We love our baby girl (who looks more toddler now than baby) and love where we are.

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for... Or the place you have all just scrolled down to, in order to skip my weird antics above. The pictures! These are just a mish mash of pictures over the last month. Enjoy them all!