The babe turned 18 months last week. It’s one of those age milestones you can’t fully fathom before you get there. Or at least I couldn’t. It was just really hard to imagine what the year-and-a-half mark would look like, you know? Each new month brings so many surprises. It seems like she’s now a legit toddler. Here are some of her favourite activities of late:

1. Reading. Leni loves looking through her books, but very rarely wants them read to her anymore. Hopefully she’ll enjoy that again soon though! Or it could be time for a couple new titles? She now likes to flip the pages at random using the same gestures I once employed while reading to her, babbling away about what she sees. Among her top picks these days:

     

2. Colouring. One of her regular morning activities since we got her a little table and chairs for her play area. She’ll take out her art drawer filled with colouring books, crayons and those brilliant no mess markers, have a seat at her table and proceed to draw haphazardly (to the untrained eye) across the pages, usually all over the table as well. She likes to try out her left and right hand, but does seem to do a tad better with her right. She takes this task very seriously.

3. Going on walks. We go on walks everyday, whether it’s to take our dog out, to do an errand nearby or to simply get out. Some days when we have a bit more time to spare, we go out without the stroller or carrier. Leni loves to collect leaves and rocks as we walk and point out things she sees. Train! Squirrel! Doggy! Apples! Poop! It often takes us upwards of an hour to do a circuit of a few blocks, but we’re lucky enough to have a path that connects us to a big local park just at the top of the street where she can walk freely without worry of cars.

4. The playground. Lately she’s been especially keen on the seesaw and the swings. It’s hard to get her off either and usually ends in a bit of a meltdown, but it’s worth the joy it brings her (prior to said meltdown).

5. Music, always music. And dancing. We are taking a music class and she’s actually starting to follow and remember the actions, which has been amazing to watch. She loves to sing, hum, dance, play with instruments (her harmonica and the shakers and drums from her class) and seems to really have some built-in rhythm.

6. Water, in all forms. For starters, it’s her top beverage choice. She also loves swimming, which we do every week at our Guardian Swim class. She enjoys playing in the bath and wants to be outside splashing on rainy days. It’s sort of a broad fixation. Oh and she loves boats so I guess that’s kind of related.

7. Chatting. Her top subjects include her family, animals and the sounds they make, facial features, food and I guess just about anything she observes on a given day. She’s gone from testing out words to occasionally acting out the things she sees. They’ve all been positive so far, like saying “ready?” before attempting to throw the ball for our dog, just like her Daddy.

And before this list gets out of control, I’m going to cut myself off. I could seriously go on endlessly.