17 months

McKinley is almost a year and a half old! At 17 months, McKinley is more full of energy and life than ever and is constantly making us laugh and smile!

She loves to climb on EVERYTHING! Unfortunately, her new love for climbing has led to a few new bumps and bruises along the way. She is very adventurous, has no fear and is a tough little bugger! She is in her element when she's climbing and exploring!

Some of McKinley's favorite places to go are to the park to play, the child watch at the YMCA, story time at the library, and The Children's Museum! She loves to play and be around other kids!

Now that she's a little older and able to play a little more she loves going to the Children's Museum. She loves playing with all of the fun toys in the toddler room, carrying around the puppies at the vet's office, playing in the water at the water tables, and playing in the grocery store pushing around the shopping cart and picking up food.

One day, in the grocery store area, McKinley was pushing around the shopping cart and I was helping her pick out food to put in it. I'd put some food in the cart and she'd immediately throw it out. She put a sausage link in her cart and kept it in there. She started to put more and more sausage links in her cart. If I put anyother type of food in her cart she'd throw it away. I guess she only wanted to buy sausage that day! Me and a couple with their daughter in the grocery store area were cracking up at her little personality!

But, McKinley's favorite place to be is with her cousins Mya and Madison! She gets so excited when she see's them and start to squeal a high-pitched squeal (I think she got this from Mya, because that's what Mya does when she sees McKinley too). When she sees Madison she goes up to her and says, "Hi" over and over. She loves to give them both hugs and says, "Aww..." while she's hugging them. Her and Mya like to play together and enjoy being around each other. It's fun to have cousins who live so close and that we get to see regularly for them to be such great friends!

She is such a sweetheart and likes to snuggle with me every once in a while! I love my snuggles and take full advantage of them when I get them! When we sing the "I love you" song from Barney, she goes around giving everyone in the room a hug and saying, "Aww.." while she's hugging us.

McKinley is finally getting some hair in, but it isn't coming in evenly all around her head! It's long over her ears and getting long in the back, but still short on top! So to try and fix it, I put it in pig tails over her ears (since that's where most of her hair is). I think it turned out quite cute, and is a solution to making her crazy, growing her look presentable.

As McKinley becomes more of a toddler, she is becoming a pickier eater! Luckily her favorites foods are fruits, so at least she likes to eat healthy when she does want to eat! Her favorite fruits to eat are bananas, apples, oranges and strawberries! Something she's being doing at her high chair lately is throwing her food off on to the floor. When we see her about to throw the food on to the floor we say no and shake our heads at her. So now she'll hold the food off of her high chair about to drop her food on to the floor and shake her head no, but still drop it anyway!! Little stinker!

One more funny store about McKinley is about her blue sailboat pacifier pictured above! At my baby shower, my friend thought I was having a boy, so she made me some super-cute boy themed pacifier clips complete with boy pacifiers to go with them :) Over the last 17 months, every other pacifier we've given McKinley has been lost! Even the pacifiers that are newer have been lost along the way, but this sailboat pacifier has been there since day one, and it's the only one that we've held on to! All her cute girly one are long gone!! Probably about 5 or 6 times I've left the pacifier somewhere, or it's been lost in the house or the car, but without fail someone finds it for me or it magically shows up! So we joke about her boy sailboat pacifier that can't be lost!

Lastly, here is a picture of my sweet family out bowling on family date night :)