18 months!

This Friday (the 28th) my little girl will "turn" 18 months!  It's really crazy to think how fast time passes.  She's such a funny little girl & I'm so glad she's in our lives.  Here's what's been happening with Sofia lately.
-I won't know until Friday exactly how much she weighs & how tall she is, but she's still a fairly petit little girl.  She generally eats more than Steven, though, & drinks milk like it's going out of style, so I'm really not too worried ;)  (Seriously, she drinks a TON of milk.  I'll buy the 2-gallon pack at Costco & we'll easily go through it in about 10 days.  Not much of that milk is used by the rest of the family. Milk-aholic.)
-She loves her big brother, even though they don't always get along.  Steven is usually the one to start fights or hit her, but she's learned that if she pulls his hair he will stop bugging her.  They generally play pretty nicely together, though.  Steven is really good about getting making sure she gets a treat if he's getting one or he'll get her milk out of the fridge if I ask him to.  Sofia, in turn, loves to give Steven hugs & kisses when they're going to bed, even though Steven doesn't always like this.  They love "dancing" in the car together to the music on the radio ("dancing" mostly includes flailing the arms about...but it's cute!).  This afternoon, they were chasing each other around the house & having a great time doing it.  It was a bit challenging at first, but I'm really glad they are so close in age because I think they'll be great friends growing up.
-Sofia definitely gets more & more of her own little personality as time goes on.  She can definitely be a little diva & will stick her lower lip out & pout if she doesn't get what she wants.  Most of the time, though, she is a happy little girl.  She likes to give kisses, which are still mostly just her putting her open mouth on your cheek for a while, but now she's got the sound to go with it.  She'll say "mwaaahhhh" as she does it - very cute! 
-She's starting to get to the "helpful" stage, which I love.  She knows how to throw stuff away & loves to help put the silverware from the dishwasher into the drawer.  In fact, she loves doing that so much that if she notices me doing the dishes, she will take the dirty silverware from the dishwasher & put those away.  That gets a little annoying but I'm glad she likes to help!  I need to savor it while it lasts, right?
-She isn't really talking much yet, she's much more of a grunter.  Her affirmative answer is just a very muddled "uh-huh".  However, she does sign some words like "please", "thank you", "more", "milk".  She can usually get what she wants without talking, though, so I don't think she really sees a need yet.  She does say the words, "Hi" & "bye" (both while waving which is very cute), "mommy", "daddy" & "papa" (grandpa) & a very muddled version of "grandma" which sounds very similar to "papa".  I'm trying to get her to say "Fifi" for her name because I think it would be much easier than "Sofia" but it's really just two "F" sounds.  Like I said before, if she gets what she wants without talking, in her mind, where's the incentive?
Sofia LOVES whipped cream...but really, who doesn't?  She was just using this strawberry as a vehicle to get her more whipped cream.  She's definitely my daughter ;)

Sofia's our little artist.  She loves to color & I will find her on her stomach on the floor coloring like this.  It's fun to see because Steven never did this. 

Notice she's got her milk that she carries with her everywhere...

 Both Steven & Sofia love our neighbors' cats.  Whenever we are outside & see any of the cats, both of the kids get really excited.  The cats are usually pretty patient with them, too, which is great.

 Sofia's really excited face

 This was at a little carnival at our condo.  The goal was to throw these little ping-pong balls & get them into the bowls that were floating in the little kiddie pool.  Sofia was actually pretty good at it but she seriously stood like this for a full minute before throwing.  She did this each time she threw the ball...

 Ah, sibling love.  Sofia sharing her cereal with Steven

 Sometimes Sofia will wake up & you can tell she could really use more sleep.  This usually only happens in the morning because Steven is not quiet when he gets up.  This was in the afternoon, though, after she'd gotten up from her nap.  I was in the kitchen doing something when I noticed Sofia had been really quiet for a while.  I looked in the living room & found her like this.  I didn't want to move her & wake her up, so I left her there & tried to be fairly quiet.  Fortunately, Steven was still asleep this whole time & she actually slept for about an hour like this.