18 months

18 months is like magic to me. I remember it with Lucas and I am watching it with Wren. Lucas turned 18 months at Christmas time. He had this sudden out pouring of language and social skills. However, with him all of this was somewhat muted because he had a fever, then an ear infection, then a cold, then another cold...all of this made him less eager to full engage the world around him.



However, Wren hit 18 months at full stride in the rich warmth of the summer sun. Or, at least in a summer month. Summer this year in Seattle has been a real disappointment with a surprising lack of "rich warmth" or "summer sun." We've been in long pants and long sleeves much too often for this southern girl's tastes. Anyway, Wren now names every bus, car, and bike we pass. She loves to point to Lucas's things and say, "Lucas's bed! Lucas's shoes!" She makes me pick her up and then says, "Walk!!!" as she points the way like a princess. She loves saying, "Hair!" and then working her way around the room attempting to touch everyone's hair. She is saying more phrases and clearly lets us know what she wants (Go! Car!...More! Book!). Last week she decided she didn't want help on the stairs outside anymore and very deliberately proceeded to learn how to walk up and down them without holding onto anything. She and Lucas have a great time laughing at each other, imitating each other, and chasing each other. Watching them together, I am grateful Wren showed up to make us a family of four earlier than I had planned. It has been a good summer together. I look forward to more times this fall.

Hopefully we'll actually manage to archive some more of our summer photos here soon. We're still navigating having 2 cameras and photos on 2 different computers. That's the problem with digital. You can take a ton of pictures!!! Then you have to figure out how the heck to organize them all...