Camilla at 15 months

Running. Throwing tantrums. Picking and choosing what she wants to eat. Repeating things you say, though not always. Those are some of our highlights from the last three months with Camilla.

Here are some of the things I've absolutely loved.

Sunday I was walking down the hall at church with Camilla in my arms. We passed one of the portraits on the wall and I heard "Je-a" as she was looking at the picture of Christ. I think that's the youngest any of the girls have been when they've named him from a picture without being prompted.

A few weeks ago I told Camilla "Good job" for something (I think it was putting something away) and I heard "Ga ja" right afterwards. When I told Todd I thought she said Good Job, she nodded and grinned. Coincidence?

She now loves baths. At one year, it was like she was a cat the way she acted in the bathtub. Now, she actually wants baths and will try and take off her clothes to get in the tub herself. I know the change happened while we were on vacation but I'm not sure exactly what contributed to it. My best guess was the time we spent in pools on vacation solidified her love of water and she was willing to accept it in tub form as well as pool. I'm grateful--it's nice not leaving the bathroom soaked from head to toe now.

Kayla and her Charisma

I wish I had pictures, but with the craziness of the last few months and my overall dissatisfaction with my photo skills, I've seen the past few months go by in a haze that has no remnants on my digital photo cartridge or photo file. So, I decided to at least salvage my photographic failure with an attempt to catalog some remembrances with words--you know, the old-fashioned way of keeping histories.

Kayla, now three, has made me laugh a lot lately. She's really expanded her repertoire of vocal skills. Here are some of my favorites that made me laugh at the time. They may be lost in the retelling, but I figured it was worth trying.

Very matter of factly: "I have ex-ze-ma" while talking about how the dry patches on her legs were feeling that day. (This has been a battle for us for the past yr & a 1/2 to control the patches, with bouts of redness, bleeding, but the latest flare-up is getting better so we're putting up a good fight.)

Said with a smile and shiver: "It's chil-ly this morning"

Said of her clover Care Bear with pink sunglasses: "She looks sty-lish"

Putting a bunch of cards in the card holder together instead of one at a time: "I had to put them in one at a time because a whole bunch was dif-fi-cult."

Part of her charm is the way she ennuciates everything. She's very careful about her pronunciation and so her actual sentence doesn't come out quickly, but she thinks about what is going on and observes things that surprises me.

For instance, last night I got a call on my cell phone that was a wrong no., followed by a text from the same no, saying Linh, its allyssa, call me. I related the incident to Todd, with Kayla listening. Kayla then matter of factly repeated the situation a few minutes later: "That was Linh and Alyssa calling."

She loves reading, repeating whatever Abri or Emma is learning on their homework. She loves counting and singing the ABC song. Her favorite book is probably One Fish, two fish. What a cutie.