18 Months and What a helper!!

So its been a while since my past post. I have been doing a better job with facebook than the blog. Anyway, another moth has gone by and Sam is now 18 Months old - WOW! She had her 18 month check up today and all is well. Her are her latest Stats:
Height - 32 1/2 inches - 60%
Weight - 25lbs - 25%

She is as active as ever. Climbing on everything. She has now mastered the rock wall on her swing set, and she prefers the big girl swing to the baby swing - Lord help us. She is so daring in some ways and such a chicken in others. Whatever she sees big kids doing is what she wants to do. She is working on climbing the stairs like one. We have been working daily to keep her going up and down safely.

She is becoming such a helper. She likes to help me with the laundry. We load up the basket and then she helps me load the dryer if I drop the clothes on the floor. She also takes all of her dirty diapers out to the garage and puts them in the pail - see video below. It is so cute. She is getting better about helping clean up when you ask her. Although she is still better at making a big mess than she is cleaning:) SHe loves to brush her teeth, and is getting better at modeling what we do. She used to just suck on it. Now she scrubs like we do. She comes in the bathroom and stands in front of the sink, saying "tee tee tee"

She definately, knows what she wants and doesn't. While she may not be able to tell you exactly what it is, she can definately tell you "NO" she doesn't want it. And yes, she knows what that means and doesn't just say no for everything. She never really got that into the sign language, even though we tried from about 6 months on, but they have been working with them a lot at school, and now she can do more. She prefers to just say please(peas) and thank you(ank ooo). We know all our body parts - eyes (she blinks) fingers, toes, nose, mouth, tounge, teeth, ears, head and hair. (Almost belly button) We are going to start working on elbows and knees. She has been expanding her vocabulary(to many to list now and alot we are not sure yet what they mean), and she is now making animal sounds(dog, monkey and elephant).
She loves to bring you books to read. We are working on putting one back before getting out a new one.
In the last month she has become quite the little ham for the camera. Now everytime she sees a camera she starts saying - CHEESE, CHEESE....
We started music at school, and after 4 weeks, we are finally starting to get it - sort of. At least last week she marched with the other kids in a circle.

Here are a few pics to enjoy:

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