Our perpetual motion machine...

Well Lucienne is almost 18 months old and a lot has changed! She's running now and is interested in everything. She loves to see how things work and is extremely social. It's rare that we take a walk now and don't make a friend along the way. I think she thinks she's part of a parade, waving at people from her stroller. Lu has quite a vocabulary now too. She says 'puppy' and 'kitty' and will point when she sees one. A favorite role play that she's picked up is talking on the phone. She will use anything as a phone; a bookmark, remote control, or of course her play phone. Another playtime activity is putting together puzzles, stacking things or filling items in a cup. Lucienne loves books and will bring me a book and say 'story' which is asking me to read it to her.

It's especially amazing to us now how much she understands. We can tell her it's time for a walk and she'll crawl into her stroller. A favorite thing for her to do is put money in her piggybank. Lu has developed an attachment to her soft green blankie and likes to take it to the créche.

Apparently she's learning some French at the créche too. The other day at le Pain Quotidien she repeated 'bonjour' back to the woman at the counter. She also will say 'caca' about her poopy diapers. Lu loves to give kisses too. She will kiss the women at the créche goodbye for the day and loves to kiss mama and dada good night.

One of Lu's antics that really make us laugh is when she wants a bite of something we're eating she'll open her mouth as wide as she can and stand right in front of us. She also tells us she's hungry by moving her fingers to her mouth in a sign language motion.

As a baby of the 21st century, Lu loves Skyping. She know the ring and runs over to the computer and wants to talk and see who's calling. DVDs are another favorite. She will walk over to the TV and tell me that she wants to watch a particular movie. Lucienne is very responsive to music. She can turn on the iPod herself and likes to dance. We've signed her up for Music Together classes, which we're really looking forward too. Lu especially likes songs with hand motions like 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and 'Pattycake, Pattycake'.

Kevin and I are having so much fun with her now. She is such a bright, smiling ray of sunshine.