17 months

Bella passed her 17 month mark last Saturday, but we've been a little busy around here so I haven't had time to post anything about her. She is growing by leaps and bounds. It seems that she has decided that she is no longer the baby, but instead is a big girl now. She loves living here in Portland with her friends so close (we still miss those friends we left in Corvallis, but at least Bella has someone here to distract her). She loves going to play or go shopping with Maddy. If I tell her we're going to see Maddy, she automatically goes to the back door (the fastest route to their apartment) and says over and over MAAA, MAAA (that's Maddy in Bella). Even though she can't quite keep up with Maddy she certainly loves to hang out with her.
She is becoming quite the talker. She believes that she is saying actual words and will say them over and over until you figure out what she is telling you. She has gotten pretty good at showing me what she wants. So if I can't figure out what she is saying, I can say 'show me' and she'll do it. It works out pretty well until she wants something that she isn't supposed to have and she won't give it up. This seems to happen most often when she gets out a snack that she wants that she can't have (like four or five packs of fruit snacks... I don't think so). All of her snacks are in a low cupboard so she can get to them. Which works out most of the time, but every once in a while it's a pain. She new favorite snack is rasins and grapes. I'm glad that she likes things that are healthy, but if it were up to her she would eat rasins all day long (maybe not so healthy after all). We got her a fish this last month and she loves it! It's a Beta fish, which the lady at the store said are very easy to take care of, so we'll see if I can NOT kill it. She loves to look at him swim around and say 'shish, shish, shish' over and over.
I don't think there are too many new words that she has learned, but I can't really remember whay she was saying a month ago. She has learned how to ask for more and she knows that she won't get anymore until she asks. She can say please, but it doesn't happen every time she should be saying it. She is more and more aware of things she does that she isn't supposed to do. She says 'no no no', but then usually does it anyway. We're working on this and hopefully it'll get better.
We think that she is starting early with the terrible twos. When she doesn't get her way she really doesn't like it and she definately lets you know. I don't know if this early transition is due to the fact that all of the kids that she plays with are going through this same stage or if she's got something else going on (like a new tooth coming in). We'll see if it goes away soon or if we can get this transition over with early.