I Am 18 Months Old!

Happy New Year!

I am 18 months old now! I sure have been busy over the past few months. Mostly, I've been busy celebrating.

First, I celebrated Halloween by going trick-or-treating with my cousins. Here we are all ready to go:

And here I am with Mommy and Daddy beforehand: 

Most of our group walked from house to house, but I still think walking is a bit overrated, so I made Daddy push me around in my princess car. It was a blast!

After celebrating Halloween, I celebrated my cousin Gracie's birthday! I got to ride a real pony named Peanut. Yeehaw!

And then, I celebrated Thanksgiving. I just loved eating turkey! Here I am all ready to eat on the big day:

As soon as I was finished celebrating Thanksgiving, I got busy celebrating Christmas! This year, I kicked off my Christmas celebration by hopping a train to the North Pole with my Virginia family. It was a really long train ride, but we passed the time by eating cookies. It's like I always say, time flies when you're eating cookies!

There were all sorts of characters on the train, like this fire dog, who I really liked!

And of course, Santa was there! At first, I was really excited to see Santa...

But then, I changed my mind...

Oh, well. There's always next year!

The next day, I got to help make Christmas cookies.

And, more importantly, I got to help eat Christmas cookies.

A few weeks later, I celebrated by going on a special Christmas Hayride at Johnson's Farm. Here I am all excited before the Hayride.

My cousin Josh got to come, too. That made the celebration even more special!

I also went to the aquarium to celebrate Christmas, or as they like to call it, Fishmas. I saw Santa again there. This time, he was scuba diving (and at a safe distance) so I didn't think he was too scary. Here are some of my pictures from the Fishmas celebration. (And from my lunch date with Mommy afterward, because celebrating makes me hungry!)

As the big day got closer, I also celebrated by:

Playing with my nativity set...

Playing by the Christmas tree...

Napping by the Christmas tree...

Wearing all my Christmas outfits...

And posing for Christmas photos!

Finally it was Christmas Eve! We celebrated by going to the Christmas Eve service at my church. Then, we spent some time celebrating at home before we headed to our big family party at my Grandparents' house. 

On Christmas Day, we celebrated by heading to my Virginia Grandparents' house:

And then, before I knew it, it was time to celebrate the New Year! (Of course, we celebrated during the day because my bedtime is 7.)

I just LOVE to celebrate! But I don't need a holiday in order to celebrate. I celebrate all kinds of things.

Like snow days...

And unusually warm winter days at the park...

And sometimes I just celebrate being me!

Whenever I can, I try to combine celebrations. Here I am insisting on wearing my Halloween costume over my Christmas pajamas.

And here I am opening some of my Christmas presents on New Year's.

What can I say? I like to be a little bit unpredictable. That's what being a toddler is all about.

One minute you're smiling...

and the next you're fightin' mad!

One minute you're happy...

and the next you're really sad!

One minute you're shopping...

and the next you're dropping!

I could go on, but you get the idea. 

When I'm not busy being unpredictable, I love to:

Pack suitcases... 

Read books...

Play with my toys...

Look at family pictures...

Eat...

Climb on the big leather chair...

Practice my acting...

Explore outside...

And "help" Mommy in the kitchen!

(You don't have to help TOO much when you're cute!)

See?

Now that I'm 18 months, I'm learning a lot. 

Like how to count... (sort of)

And how to make animal sounds...

And how to say my ABC's... (sort of)

And how to make letter sounds...

And how to negotiate a good deal...

I'm sure this one will come in handy someday.

Whew! All this learning makes me really tired. 

Time to catch up on my sleep! Until next time...

Love, Estie