Sylvia is 20 months old!

Today, Sylvia weighs about 26 pounds and is about 32 inches tall. The other day, I counted about 45 words or phrases (like "all-gone!" and "where-go?") that she uses fairly reliably, and I know there are more.

At home, she has been more interested in her stuffed animals and her baby doll than her other toys. She walks around with them, gives them rides in my office chair, and puts them into "bed". She lays them down, tucks them into a blanket, says "night night", lays down next to them, and pretends to snore.

She's going through a defiant streak. "No!" is her favorite word, and she spends more time than she used to hovering around things she knows she's not supposed to touch, checking to see if we're watching, and inching closer and closer toward whatever she's not supposed to be doing. And she's gotten quite good at the tantrums when we get in her way. She's also really really sweet, though. She gives us hugs and kisses.

When weather permits, we go to a playground at least once a day. She can play by herself: she goes down the slide over and over and digs in the sand. But these days she's thrilled when she sees other people there. She has friends who she will run to and yell "hi" when she sees them, and she even sort of tries to play with them. Yesterday, her friend Alex was having a bad day, and she went to him and offered him a toy and tried to give him a hug. She cheered him up with the scruffy face that she made "smelling" flowers, and he taught her how to roll down a hill.

Since the previous post, the sun/moon has not consistently been effective at preventing early morning hysterics, but it generally does seem to be helping.

She amazes us every day.