18 months old

It's hard to believe that today Susanna is 18 months old and that in 3 days she will have been with us for 6 months. Where has the time gone? Each and every day with Susanna is a blessing to us. From the minute she gets up, until she goes to bed, she is a ball of energy and personality. Just a week ago, we met with our social worker for our 6 month post-placement report and it is amazing to me how well this little girl is doing with all the changes in her life. In the last few weeks she has had roseola, gotten in 4 more teeth and learned to climb. One day, I walked into the dining room to find her sitting in the middle of the table eating oreos, with a look on her face as if to say "well, if you won't get them for me, I'll get them myself". Now that we keep the chairs pushed up to the table so she can't climb, she's looked for alternatives to scale. She can climb up the arm of the couch and sit on top of the boys' game table and also can climb up on my white bench by the front door to sit on top of the table next to it that I have in the hallway. She tried to climb her changing table today, but her dad caught her before she got very far. She is very funny and loves to imitate. If you do something once, she'll try it. Yesterday she saw me snapping my fingers to a song and she tried very hard to do it also (which of course, she couldn't, but I thought that it was pretty good to even try). She's quite a good little dancer and loves music of any kind, she seems to be a Hank Williams fan, although she also loves that commercial for phones that plays ACDC's Back in Black. She's started getting very excited when she sees things in the stores, particularly balloons and toys. She ooohs and aaahhhs over them very loudly (which of course got her a ball of her very own this week). :-) She has a little plastic tea set that she loves to play with. She will take the fork and plate and pretend that she is feeding herself and also take a cup and pretend she is drinking from it. She doesn't have a whole lot of words yet, although she is very vocal. She can say mama, dada, Joe, J.J., more mama, and ButtButt (for our dog Buttons). Our other dog Duncan doesn't have a name, he's just "arf, arf". "Arf, arf" is also what all dogs, kitties and horses say. Sanna really loves being outdoors and races for her shoes when asked if she wants to go outside. She loves to pick up rocks and sticks and particularly loves to climb onto our riding lawn mower and pretend she's driving.