Alia is 17 Months old

This month has been a busy one. Getting through Thanksgiving and entering into the Christmas season all while entertaining and caring for two babies (while having gallstone attacks) has been crazy at times. But Alia? She just keeps on impressing us.

In this past month, Alia's Grandmother left us after being here for nearly 2 months. Alia's Aunt Chris also came for a visit, as well as Grandpa Mike. With all the coming and going, we realized that Alia is very well adjusted, but needs to know all the information. No more sneaking out the front door so she doesn't notice one of us has left. Yes, in the short term, it may upset her a bit when Daddy has to go somewhere, but after all her relatives came and went, she seemed to feel insecure, as if she felt one of us might sneak off and not come back.

This month I finally gave in and allowed Alia a little bit of television. I had hoped to keep it out of her life until she was two, but I decided watching Baby Signing Time was a good idea, since much of Alia's frustration is derived from her inability to express herself. So this month we turned on the TV, popped in a video, and now Alia signs away with the best of them. She can sign milk, juice, cracker, hat, shoes, socks, dog, cat, sleep, and baby, off the top of my head. And while she sometimes becomes relentless about watching Baby Signing Time, let's face it, the 5 minutes that the program has her attention allows me to pee from time to time.

Alia is still a pretty good eater. This month she found that she loves kiwis. She also loves string cheese and will do anything for orange juice.

Alia's favorite person in the world is her Daddy. She is very possessive of him and does not like when he holds Amelie. On the one hand, I want her to understand that Amelie is a part of our family and that Daddy will hold her from time to time, and on the other hand, she's still not even 1 1/2 years old, and her frustration is totally predictable. If anyone has any insight into integrating a new baby with an existing baby, I'm all ears!

Alia now wears shoes proudly since she is easily excited about them...all we have to do is sign "shoes" and ask if she wants to wear them and she responds with ooooooooh yeah! which is one of her new adorable expressions. Alia also loves her winter coat, and even napped in it one day because I just couldn't convince her to part with it.

Alia has enjoyed touring various libraries this month and loves to see other little people. She is sweet natured and is happy to share whatever she has with others.

All in all, it's been a fast and busy month. Some days we just scrape by and others are quite charmed. Now if I can just get through this gall bladder surgery tomorrow, we'll be in business!