17 months.

I'm not sure when I'm going to stop doing this month by month overview of Kylan-happenings (since I basically document everything at least once a week), but here we go for this month. I sent out a 17-month e-mail to some people, so in the interest of time (which I certainly never have enough of), I will just take the text from that and use it here for this month's update:

Kylan is now 17 months old.  This is quite possibly the most fun we've had with her
thus far.  She is talking and laughing and running around all day, every day.

Her vocabulary is expanding every single day and it's so fun to hear her talk and babble
in that little voice of hers.  Also, it seems that because of her ability to say most
things, she's become less frustrated in general, and in turn less angry/disobedient
(knock on wood).  Not to say that it's by any means gone, but just that it's a bit
lessened for the time being.  Though, just this week she has learned the word
"no" and certainly likes to use it- a lot.  However, it has been put to some
good use, letting us know when she dislikes or does not want to do something, preventing
the usual frustrated tantrums and/or throwing of the nearest object as her means of
expressing her feelings.  Another thing that Kylan has learned is the word "me"
and she understands that it means her.  She can see a picture of herself, point to
herself and say "Me!", understanding that she is the person in the picture.
The same goes for if she sees herself in the mirror.

Another fun thing Kylan has started in the last month is pretend play.  She has really
taken to "mothering" her baby dolls by wanting to feed them milk from her sippy
cup, hugging them, kissing them, making them clap and/or dance, etc.  I also found her
the other day "talking" to her rocking horse and then trying to share her sippy
cup with him, too.  She's also taken interest in backpacks and loves to play with the 2
she has that are her size.  She fills them up, puts them on, and walks around like a
little school girl.  Cell phones are a continued point of interest (whether one of our
real ones or her play ones).  She walks around with the phone to her ear (usually
backwards) and pretends she's calling someone.  It's fun to watch her imagination grow,
learn, and expand.

If you notice in one of the pictures I've sent, Kylan had quite an episode with mosquito
bites recently.  We were at a church picnic outside in a field and, even through bug
spray, she was apparently too sweet for the mosquitoes to resist.  She ended up with
about 8 or 9 bites on her face, 5 or 6 on her arms, one on her back and a couple on her
legs.  We really thought nothing of them at the time, until a couple days later they were
getting worse instead of better and even a few more days later the redness around them
was spreading and getting worse.  They looked more like chicken pox than mosquito bites.
After calling the doctor and then talking to my friend who's a Physician's Assistant we
came to the conclusion that she's probably allergic, but that they weren't necessarily
harming her.  Some Benadryl and Calamine lotion lessened them by the next day and now you
can hardly tell they were there.

Kylan is continuing her sign language even though she can say most words that she signs.
There are still multiple words/instances that make me glad we use the signs.  With words
that she can't say yet, signs are our only form of communication.  In other instances,
she can't speak the word clear enough for me to understand what she means or she's too
impatient to try and work at saying the word, so she resorts to the sign in those cases.
Even though she already knows so many signs and is learning to talk now, she likes to
learn new signs, or old ones that she never really did quite right.  Now that she's older
and has better fine motor skills, she can usually pick up a new sign in no time flat.
She watches me do it a time or two, then wants me to help her do it.  After that she
usually has it down pat.  It really has been an amazing communication tool for us over
the course of her first year, and now.

Well, we could go on and on about all that she's into these days, but we've taken enough
of your time already.  Hope you find the pictures and update enjoyable.

Love,
Ryan, Sarita and Kylan