Bridget at 18 Months

It's time for an update on the feistiest girl in the family! 

(And for those of you who know our family, that's saying a lot.)

Bridget's doing a lot more reading these days. Her favorite books are When I Go to the Supermarket; Itsy Bitsy Spider; Freight Train; and any book I can condense to a few words per page, since her attention span is brief to say the least.

Her favorite activity is going outside, or "at-siiiiigh!" as she demands on an hourly basis. Here she is swinging with older friend Casey (Ryan's little sister) and same-age bud Grace:

She loves baths, and we love how she looks after a bath:

At about the 18-month mark, her strawberry-ish blonde hair got long enough to secure with clips and hairbands:

She's just as mischievous as she looks with those pigtails; the only saving grace discipline-wise is that (for now, knock wood) she responds to time-outs--she even tries to cut them short by calling out "Saw-ee! Saw-ee!" before the timer lets her get up.

She knows what she wants, even if she doesn't want it for very long: she's constantly asking to "sit" or announcing, "I want cack-uh" (cracker) or "Smoo-mie peeez!" (smoothie please), and the other day she shook her head when I tried to give her a kiss and insisted, "I KISS!" before planting one on my cheek.

She still loves babies and thinks everyone has them in their bellies. 

Here she is with the baby brother of one of Will's friends:

Bridget's by far my wariest kid when it comes to doctor's visits, but she made it through her checkup just fine. Her stats were (mumblemumble third child syndrome) squarely in the 75th percentile for height and weight.

And most importantly, she is still positively in love with her brothers. She calls them The Boys ("da boy-ees," as in "Where da boy-ees?") and can only be talked into sitting still for a movie if she's set up with a) Will and Finn and b) some movie popcorn. (Even then, it only lasts a few minutes.)

The interactions between Bridge and her boy-ees are undoubtedly part of the reason she's had a verbal jump in the last month as well. Here she is in the grocery store parking lot asking for me to unbuckle (bunbuckle) her:

She asks for "choo-choo" (Thomas) and Elmo on TV/iPad/iPhone, immediately asking for the other when the first starts to play, and only ever makes the requests because she wants to hear the opening song:

Another consequence of having two big brothers and a genetic predisposition to growing up fast is this:

What can I say? The girl loves her potty. (She also loves to yell "Pee!" and then leans down to touch it before we can stop her.) (She is NOT potty-training; just trying out big-kid behaviors per usual.)

She's a handful and a menace and a total joy--her older siblings and soon-to-arrive younger ones are so, so lucky to have her around, and so are we.