celebrating 18 months and 32 hot ones... to paris!

in celebration of my 32nd birthday and lela's 18 wild months of life, we headed to the city of lights... brant and i ran the half marathon and lela spent some time hanging out with her buddy, camden, who was also in for the weekend.  :)  despite no quality sleep (lela equates sleeping in a foreign crib to being dipped in hot acid) and lazy training, we did fine... and our bodies survived!  the french fry stands at the finish were the best!  we ate our piping hot plate of fries so fast, i'm surprised we didn't choke.  deliciousness.

we attempted a night on the town, but received yet another parental defeat when lela (after screaming for an extended amount of time) hopped out of her crib and came walking into the living room where we were all hanging out (waiting for her to go to sleep so we could got out to a nice dinner... our friend tommy's parents so graciously volunteered to watch the babes)!  it was crazy!!!  we heard her crying getting closer and all of a sudden she was standing in the living room, after having walked from her secluded crib area, down the hall to where we were... too bad.  we ended up going home, putting her to sleep (she fell asleep in my arms) and getting take-out sushi.  it ended up being a sweet night after all... but still a bummer we couldn't hit the town.  comes with the territory though.... :)

lela is now...

• responding when we ask her "how are you?" with a quiet "good" under her breath... then "happy" and tilts her head smiling
• tapping on doors and saying "knock knock" and "beep.  beep.  beep." when she closes them
• saying 2-3 word phrases, started with "hi mama"
• saying her name a lot, sounds like "weeeewa"
• saying "tractor" every time she hears one go by outside
• saying "outside", but sounds like "haji"
• coughing into her sleeve
• pointing to something (mostly her eye) and saying "eye hurt" and then requiring a kiss on it to make it better, then smiling  :)
• in the tub while putting her toys back in the bucket, i hear her quietly counting... "4, 5, 6... then 1, 2, 4, 8, 9"
• feeding everything else while she is eating to include her cup, a paper, her sleeve, and people that aren't even in the room... to include all her grandparents
• saying many adjectives in the correct contexts - heavy, tired, sleepy, big, tiny...
• saying "oopsie-daisy", but it sounds like "oh daisy"

18 month check-up:

weight: 25.9 lbs. (75th percentile)

length: 33.5 in. (94th percentile)

head circumference: 19 in. (87th percentile)