Helena is 1 1/2!

When I think of the last 18 months with Helena, I can't believe how much a child changes in such a short time!  She's gone from being absolutely dependent on us to now wanting to be independent absolutely as much as possible!

Here are some details of her life:

1) She's talking!  Her current words are mommy, daddy, no, baby, me, taxi, uh-oh, please, hi, bye, home, Nani and Papa.  Plus a bunch of random animal noises like baa(sheep), tee taw (donkey), ah ah ah (monkey), ssss (snake), arf (dog), oooo (owl), moo (cow), and a sound that reminds us of constipation (elephant).
2) She loves reading.  She loves reading.  She loves reading.  I can't repeat that enough.
3) Bikes are her favorite thing in the world.  We went for an afternoon in the park yesterday, and much of the afternoon was spent pointing at bikes, waving at bikes, watching people get on or off their bikes, or walking with her tricycle.  
4) She loves playing with rocks.  She'll get off her trike to pick up a rock, hold it while steering, bring it inside and then play with it once inside.
5) She is quite the little mommy.  She pushes her baby in her stroller, she sleeps with her baby, she kisses her baby, she reads books to her baby, she reminds me to change her baby's diaper.
6) Helena is just about recovered from hand, foot & mouth disease.  What a horrible virus to catch!
7) With regards to art, she's much more interested in playing with the materials than making art.  So when using watercolors, she likes to play with the water.  If you put the brush in the paint, she gets frustrated :)  Or with markers, it's much more fun to take caps on & off than it is to put color on the paper.  At the library, however, she colors.