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22 months on the 22nd: I swear I just wrote one of these for 21 months.

• I'd say this past month was Az's real month of learning to talk. She went from a handful of words to freaking sentences.
• This may also have been her month of learning to actually run. Miguel and I haven't come to an agreement about whether both of her feet leave the ground at the same time or not. 
• Az has adopted a growly, monstery voice that she uses to express unhappiness. As in if someone does something that displeases her she growls at them. It's very cute now at 22 months but I suspect it will quickly become less and less adorable, so we're going to go ahead and keep working on learning how to put together sentences.
• On a related note I'm sure, Az has picked up screaming when unhappy. She's not screaming all the time or consistently, but she's definitely learned the value of a short, piercing scream to express her unhappiness. She has a lot of thoughts and feelings these days, but not the words to express them. I'm hoping this will work itself out as her vocabulary increases.
• On the more pleasant side of that, Az does a lot of gesticulating and babbling away of sentences that are only partially decipherable, but you can tell she knows what she's saying. I can't wait until I'm able to understand more of what she is trying to tell us.

I'm borrowing today's official photo from my mom's Facebook album. In keeping up with our weekend of enjoying local businesses and events the kids and I met my mom at the Apple Blossom Festival in Sebastopol. I've been meaning to go for years but something has always come up. Sebastopol was once the home of acres and acres of apple orchards, but about a decade or so ago the orchards were almost completely removed to make way for yet more vineyards. I assume the Apple Blossom Festival was originally created to celebrate local products but as there are now no apples, there wasn't a single apple product there. There wasn't even a single picture of an apple blossom. Apparently I waited too many years to come.

It was still fun though. The popular day for the public was the day before so when we went it was pleasantly vacant and free of crowds. Z had been invited to march in a parade the day before that ended at the site of the festival but he couldn't decide whether he wanted to do it or not and by the time he decided that he did want to the deadline to RSVP had passed. The festival that was left for us on Sunday was mostly a few craft booths and food stands, but there were also baby animals to be seen. Az and I even got to hold a couple of the baby ducks and turkeys. I was happy to see how gentle Az was with the animals. We don't have any pets and are not around a lot of small animals but it seemed instinctual for Az to pet the animals softly and carefully. I'm thinking we're going to have to find more opportunities to hold fluffy baby animals.