Violet is now 17 months old. We have been doing physical therapy for four weeks, and she is getting used to it. She likes the fun toys they have, but she throws a fit when they (or we) make her do any “work.” I’ve started bringing special treats for rewards which improves her motivation greatly. Despite her objections, she is showing good improvement and has started pulling up onto her knees and onto her feet. She is much closer to crawling and definitely shows that she knows what to do, it’s just a matter of motivating her to try it more.

We can see her progress as she plays, and I’ve even seen her make her dolls do her physical therapy exercises. She is also going through a verbal explosion. It is developmentally typical for this age to be saying 2-3 new words per week. Violet is saying 2-3 new words per day. As in saying them by herself in “conversation,” not just repeating them after us. I was curious about her vocabulary, so I made a list, roughly alphabetized.

Apple
All gone
All done
Baby
Back
Ball
Bird
Book
Bump
Bear
Bunny
Bed
Balloon
Bath
Bubble
Bowl
Brrrrr
Bow
Boat
Box
Brush
Bounce
Backpack
Blankie
Cow
Cookie
Cup
Clothes
Chicken
Cheese
Car
Daddy
Doggie
Ducky
Down
Dip
Fish
Fork
Flower
Horse
Hair
Hannah
Hat
Jacket
Juice
Kitty
Mommy
Monkey
More
Night night
Owl
Orange
Off
Outside
Pray
Plate
Please
Rock
Stool
Socks
Shoes
Spoon
Shadow
Swing
Teeth
Thank you
Up
Walk
Water bottle
Where is…

That’s around 70. By the time I post this there will probably be more.

Still only four teeth. This girl is on a funny schedule.

Hannah is excited her dance class will be doing some sort of performance. I don’t have any details, but I’m sure it will be cute. Rodeo day is coming up at preschool, so that’s another event to look forward to.

Last week, I took Hannah to her first movie at a movie theater. Everyone gave Frozen such good reviews, I thought it would be a great first-time experience. And it was!

It’s hard to take pictures in a movie theater. Especially when the littler person only wants to eat her weight in popcorn before the movie even starts. It really was good popcorn. We went to Alamo Drafthouse Cinema which has nice seats, tables and food service. So they had fresh popcorn with real butter. Mmmmm.

I’ll admit Frozen fever has hit Hannah just like every other four-yr-old girl in America, and she is often asking to listen to the songs and asking when the DVD I pre-ordered will arrive. I honestly thought it was a great movie, too, probably the best Disney movie since Beauty and the Beast. It has good songs and great messages of sister-ness, the unconditional love of family and the real meaning of true love.

So that’s what the girls have been up to!