My sweet little 19 month old

Caroline is 19 months old today. How is time flying by so fast? I just don't know where it goes.

She's up to her usual tricks... Lots of running and playing, dancing and jabbering. She's actually just started to sing, kind-of. She goes E-I-E-I (can't seem to get that "O") and will sort of just sing a note or two randomly (not even when music is on, necessarily). She does lots of hand movements with songs- like the chicken dance and twinkle twinkle. She's been doing that for a while, but can do more movements now.

She continues to learn new words all the time, and new sounds too. She just started with the "L" sound, and goes around going LeLuLabadaba and other such nonsense. Seems like there is more nonsense talk now than before, but I think she's just practicing her new sounds. She doesn't really know many colors or numbers, but will surprise us sometimes. Like in the car today she kept saying "Orange" (or whatever her equivalent for that is) about my mom's orange scarf. And I think she knows the number two, because often when she gets two things, she'll say "two", but she doesn't really get the concept of counting or anything. She's also learning how to say "thank you" pretty well. But it is funny, because she won't say please- she'll just sign for it. Oh well. At least she is getting the idea. No putting words together yet, but I don't think we're too far off from that.

She's getting really good at puzzles and the shape sorter. But she still gets frustrated if it doesn't go in on the first or second try. She loves to stack things and play make believe with her dolly. And she's a huge fan of playing in the leaves, which we're doing a lot of lately, when it isn't raining... (too much of that lately).

She has been a bit whiny lately, and quick to throw tantrums. I think part of that has been that she was sick, and part is that she's just at the whiny stage of development. It is the easiest way for her to get our attention. I am trying to teach her to say "mama, please" when she wants something, but that hasn't caught on. At least, sometimes, when she wants to get out of her crib, she'll say "mama, mama!" It is too cute.

We continue working on the potty. She did pretty well after the first event- going both pee and poo several times in the potty, though never telling us she had to go. Mostly just us asking her. Well, my mom came to visit and was convinced we should go for the gold on the potty training. Alas, I think it was a little soon. We tried to reward her with m&m's and stickers, but I think that just confused her. She didn't want just one and would just cry. And we've been staying at Mike's parent's house, so the change of location might be throwing her off too. My mom bought her all sorts of panties and training pants and potties and potty books and such, so we're all ready to go, but I think we're going to just hold off for a little while until she gets interested again.