17 months

Dearest Kylie,
This month, you have gained confidence in walking. You learned how to walk on level changes (such as the carpet to the hardwood floors or the Gymobree mats to the carpet) without falling. You can hold my hand and take a step up the sidewalk and then back down the sidewalk. You can squat to examine something or to pick up a toy or two and then stand up and continue walking. You still scooter feet first down the stairs. You like proving your strength by picking up your heavier toys and moving them around.

You have learned to twirl. When you hear music, you will turn in a circle. This delights your Moms and you get lots of claps when you do it. You’ve also learned to stand on my feet while I hold your hands and dance you around. You learned how to drop a basketball through a basketball hoop. And you like to climb my back and have me jiggle and bounce you.

We’ve started working on some simple manners such as setting your sippy cup next to your plate and not on your food, wiping your hands with a napkin during meals, and picking one book for us to read and lot grabbing handfuls of books and raking them to the floor. You are using your fork and spoon more effectively; you are learning to turn your wrist correctly. You still eat about half of your meals with your fingers.

This month, you added six more words to your vocabulary bringing our total to 24 words. The five words you learned were rock, beep (you love to say this when the microwave beeps), mole (while pointing to a mole on Momma Karen’s leg), tickle, and when they were visiting you learned to say Nana and Pap.

Some other milestones include:

You can scribble with magic markers without getting marks all over your clothes.

You are interested in cartoons and The Wiggles on TV. Before now, you would glance at the Baby Einstein DVDs we would have on for you at night while you continued to play. Now, you will actually sit and watch about 20 minutes of a children’s program.

When I’m cleaning, you like to grab a paper towel and help me clean.

You continue to be very organized. You are constantly organizing your toys into various groups and you would rather put toys into a basket than dump them out.

You cut your right top and bottom incisors, your left top molar and right top and bottom molars.