22 months old!

I think I have missed a few months' updates, so here's the latest on Lucia, before she's soon 2!!

(this is more for my "scrapbooking" purposes than your reading pleasure, but feel free to read)

• This kiddo is a funny one.  She cracks herself and everyone else up.
• We left story time at the library early a few weeks ago because Lucia refused to keep her dress on.  She was running around in socks and undies - and loving it!
• She likes to play "baby bird" based on the mama robin and eggs we had in our bush out front.  I cradle her in my arms and put her in her nest (crib) and sing "baby bird, baby bird" and then we tweet.  She likes to talk a lot about baby birds.
• She also likes to have some kind of laugh in her crib before bed.  This can be accomplished by smelling her "poopy" feet and making a sour face (hilarious to her), or by telling her no running in her crib, to which she responds by pumping her legs up and down crazily and laughing and saying "More!"  Pretty much any kind of physical comedy works; sometimes it's hard to not get her too wound up because her laugh is so contagious.
• She is very into one particular blankie.  The blankie was missing for 36 hours and we nearly had a crisis (it was found behind the chair in Isabelle's room, wrapped in a comforter).  Other unlikely places where we have found blankie: in the back of the baby stroller; on the sidewalk on the way home from the park; in the fruit bowl.  She has about six other blankies also knit by Gigi, but this one in particular has the right yarn, pattern, and smell I guess.  It's getting very dingy.
• She is also into one particular baby, though she's liking babies and dolls in general now.  She carries this particular (nameless) baby around and says, "Baby crying," or "Baby no cry, baby happy!"  She was into putting all the babies in her crib to sleep, but as of today she prefers to chuck them out of her crib, and tonight she didn't want any in with her.
• She likes to sing and dance.  Often together.
• She is stringing all kinds of words together.  The cutest right now are "Oh my goodness!", "Thank you, Mama/Papa/Isabelle", (the full name "Isabelle" has replaced the former "Izzie" in most cases) and her favorite is "Bonk the ear!"
• "Bonk the ear" is her standing joke at the moment.  It is a go-to phrase when nothing else will do, or when she wants to make something funny.  For instance, the lyrics of Baby Beluga are now, "Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea.  Swims so wild and BONK THE EAR!"  Isabelle is very into whispering to us these days, so whenever she does, Lucia comes up to the other ear and whispers "Bonk the ear!" then looks at you like she's just told you the funniest thing and can't wait for you to laugh.
• Along with the funny have come the tantrums.  Major screaming and kicking and clenching and throwing incited by mundane things like putting clothes on, getting in the car seat, getting out of the car, being told "No," etc.
• This girl can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.  She has all kinds of brushburns and scrapes that look like they really hurt, and she'll usually say, "Ow!" and maybe cry for two seconds, and then say "'Nother boo boo."  She and Isabelle get into some good wrestling matches and Lucia definitely holds her own.
• She really likes the "HUG" book from Uncle Soupy right now.  She wants to know the emotion of the chimp on every page and is so happy when the chimp finds his mama and gets happy.  She's also starting to fill in the words on some of the rhyming board books.
• She can count to 10 and sometimes 13, but is most likely to do this (correctly) when she has her blankie over her head, as if she's counting for someone to hide for hide-and-seek.
• She and Isabelle love to play hide-and-seek.  Lucia is at that hilarious stage where she can't keep quiet and calls out for people to find her.  This makes Isabelle very mad when they are hiding together.  If you ask, "Where could they be?" you'll hear "In 'der!" from the closet.
• She is very independent, wanting to dress herself, go potty herself, climb into her seat herself...pretty much do everything herself, or at least try.  "Me do!" and "No, me!" are two frequent refrains.
• She hates brushing her teeth. Or having anyone come close to her with a toothbrush.
• She knows about 40% of her ABCs.  Those also devolve into "Bonk the ear!" often.
• She loves to color and draw alongside Isabelle, and has a pretty good hold on her markers.
• Her favorite color to say is pink, which comes out with a tongue-click for the "k", as if she's a San bushman from Southern Africa.  Love it.  This happens to the "k" in "drink" as well sometimes.
• She has picked up the Spanish "Mira!" for "Look!" from Isabelle.
• She says her name "'Cia", but usually refers to herself as just "me."
• She is still pretty cuddly, wanting to always hold my hand when we're walking or pulling me to where she wants me to sit, telling me to sit, and then plopping in my lap.