16 months

Vivienne Ruth is now 16 months old! This was her biggest month yet as she is now a BIG SISTER!

Viv is a busy bee these days.

• She is running, squatting, climbing, and getting into everything! 
• Her favorite room in the house is the bathroom (ugh!). Her favorite things in the bathroom are the "potty", the toilet paper roll, and the shampoo bottles.
• She loves her little kitchen and is always making little things for us to pretend "bite" or "sip". 
• She is a Chatty Cathy! I estimated that she could say 40-50 words, so Mom and I started a list because we were curious. We ended up counting more than 200 words! Wow! And that's not even counting the words that she repeats when asked, just the one's that she says on her own.
• She continues to be super social and says "hi", "hello", or "hola" to everyone we see. She also says "hi people" while we drive around and always makes sure to say "bye bye".
• She's a polite little girl and says "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome". 
• She is sleeping in her big girl bed all the time! The transition happened so fast I haven't even done any pics or blog posts about it yet... more to come!
• She has her own "Vivi words" for a few things: nonny = water/sippy cup, nice = lotion, mina = banana.
• She understands and knows how to follow simple commands and instructions. One of her favorite games is help mommy "pick-up" and she goes around and picks up the items I tell her to go get as we clean.
• She can answer a few questions: What is your name? Vien (Vivienne). How old are you? One! (usually while holding up one finger). What color is this? Yellow! (The only color she knows haha).
• She LOVES to sing. She sings along with music in the car (la la la) and also has some favorite songs that she sings and does motions for: Jesus loves me, If you're happy and you know it, Oh Happy Day, Itsy Bitsy Spider, The B-I-B-L-E and the Doxology (we sing that as a family before bed).
• We are working on listening and obeying. Our discipline usually goes like this: She gets three warnings and we ask her to obey each time to which she says "okay. obey." If she does it again, she will get either a time out or a spanking depending on what she did. Then we talk to her about how what she did was wrong or disobedient and in her tears she says/repeats, "okay. obey. sorry. forgive me?" and we hug. Then we go back to playing :) It's pretty adorable, but I sure hate to discipline her!
• She LOVES being a big sister. She used to say "Mommy!" when I would come get her up from naps. Now she yells, "Lulu!". I've been replaced :) She also loves to "gug" (hug), "kiss", and "hold it" when it comes to her baby. We also love to start our days with snuggle girls when Vivi snuggles Lulu in her bed. It lasts about 20 seconds before Vivi says "All done" and rolls poor Lulu off her arm haha. I have a feeling they will be great buddies and that Lucielle will be a super tolerant baby haha.