twenty.

Twenty months old.
Not even kidding.

She is starting to do a million things that I don't want to forget.
So this is long.

Carly is currently in a phase where she likes to identify everything. When we go outside it goes something like this: "rock! tree! sun! car! hi car! *blow kisses* bye car! rock! rock! rock! tree! towel! mama! carly! carly towel! mama! dog! *blow kisses* park! swing! slide! carly slide!". Its completely exhausting. She does the same thing with books. With many of her books, she can open it and identify most things on the page.

[a true sports fan]

Whether she is really looking for something or she is playing a game, she puts her little hands up palms-up and gets her questioning look on her face and says "where towel?", "where dada?", "where book?". When she is playing, she'll often look for herself: "where carly?". Then she points to herself and says, "Oh, ici!". Now, if you're a francophone, you'll know "ici" means "here". I didn't teach her "ici". I have no idea why she says it. But she says "ici!" whenever she finds whatever she is looking for. Born genius, I suppose.

She is obsessed with saying "hi" and "bye" and giving/blowing kisses. Every morning we come down the stairs and she sees my car keys hanging and she says "Oh, hi keys!" and leans over in my arms and gives them kisses. She blows kisses to cars and puppies and slides and the mailbox. She hugs trees (literally). She is a loving girl.

[changing baby's diaper]

I've said this before, but words are pouring out of her mouth faster than I can keep track. The other day, we were reading a book and the first word on the next page was "quick". I was turning the page and she said "Quick!". She calls hair "hairs", which I l-o-v-e. She picks things up so quick. When she falls, I say "are you ok, Carly?". Her bear fell out of her stroller today and she said "k, bear?".

She can also identify all her stuffed animals. She takes them out of her bin one at a time: "David. Bear. AhAh [monkey]. Hip [hippo]. Ribt [frog]." I said "David" out of the blue, after we had not played with him in quite a while. I was surprised. I suppose she knew his name in her head, and now has the ability to say it out loud.

[its exhausting being her]

She loves books. She recently decided to change bedtime a bit. She now sits in the glider, while I sit in front of her on the floor, facing her. I read a book, while she looks at another book. Sometimes in the middle of the book, she will switch with me, and a little later she will switch back. It keeps my brain active, and hers too, I suppose. We have also gone from reading two books at bedtime to about five. Even then she is usually requesting more. She also likes to bring books to bed with her, and she is particular about which book she wants each night. I usually have to show her 3 or 4 before she is happy with the one (or two) that she sleeps with. Every morning her crib is littered with towels and books.

[we heart the library]

When she says "shirt", she leaves the 'r' out. I try to be mature and not giggle.

We are just starting to be able to have mini conversations with her. And she is expressing her opinion more. The other day she insisted on wearing her star pants (nevermind that she had a polka dot shirt on, yikes). And yesterday morning she wanted more pancakes ("pa-cake! pa-cake!") but we were fresh out, so I made her a piece of bread with peanut butter on it. I sometimes make her little pizzas on bread, so she must have gotten confused. I put the pb bread on her tray and she cried "No pizza! No pizza!". Oh, I laughed so hard.

[carly and backpack headed in to the library]

Kisses heal all wounds for Carly. When she gets hurt, I kiss her owie, so now she holds whatever part is injured out to me. She will cry, and the second I kiss it, she smiles and squeals and its all better. I hope this works long-term.

One of the funniest but most frustrating things she is doing right now is how she wants to take everything with us when we go somewhere. I open the door and say Let's go!. She starts handing me things: "towel! book! bear! backpack! ball!". I've got my arms full of stuff, then she reaches her arms up for me to pick her up and says "Carly!". I've been trying to casually put one thing down while she picks up another, but she will notice: "oh, no. ball!". Finally, I put her outside, drop everything in the living room (except towel, of course) and make a run for it. I often make it out, but sometimes backpack, bear, and/or ball make the trip too.

[diva chillin' in the shopping cart]

I've been mentioning it, but the girl says "mama" consistently now! Its so fun. She said "mama" for the first time a month ago, and then went back to not saying it. I was a secondary "dada" or she just didn't call me anything. We would point to Chris and she would say "dada", then we would point to me and she would just smile and put her head down or something. I wanted to say, Come on, girl, show me some love! But about a week or so ago, she started calling me mama. I love it. When I put her down at night, she looks up at me and waves and whispers "bye, mama." Melts my heart.

Oh, and bonus for you. I caught the big 'N-O' on camera. Five seconds before this, Carly was identifying everything in a book, so I wanted to get it on camera. But she only does things when she wants to:

I especially enjoy the look of pure defiance on her face when she screams 'no'. Except when its in the grocery store.

She is the coolest 20-month-old I know.