16 Months

I'm interrupting the mommy-focus of this blog because my shrimpie is turning 16 months old today.  16 months.  (Wait, is she 16 months?  Or is she only 15 months?  Why when I'm counting it on my fingers is it only 15 months?  Did I really somewhere add a month??  HOLY CRAP, if she is only 15 months, she is UBER-advanced.)

Restarting: I'm interrupting the mommy-focus of this blog because my shrimpie is aging up a month today.  Not sure what month, but she definitely got older.  Today.

I think she is 15 months old.

We counted her words last weekend, and she had 114.  Words.  At 15 months.  At 12 months she had 15.  At 13 months she had maybe 20.  At 14 months she had 40ish.  And then she had some kind of mental breakthrough.  This morning I said, "Here's your medicine!"  And she said, "Med-i-cin".  And she knew what it meant because she got excited (because it is yummy, and mommy doesn't allow sugar except in medicine).  And the other night she pointed at the dinosaurs on her sleeper (not gender-stereotyping this squishy!) and said, "di-nu-suh".  For reals.  Also, the words that she has known for a while are suddenly becoming MUCH clearer.  Like milk.  The other day she went down for a nap, and milk was pronounced "muh!"  and when she woke up, it was pronounced "mi-L-K".  Slowly, with an emphasis on the "lk".  And "mo-mee" turned into a very clear "monkey" overnight last week.  It is crazy!  Crazy, I tell you.

Her favorite book, well, there are several, but this is a nice segue, is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See" by Eric Carle.  For those of you who don't know, it basically repeats that phrase with "I see a ___ ___ looking at me."  Over and over.  Last week, she was repeating "See" and "At me" at appropriate points in the formula.  This week sounds like this: "Bru bea, Bru bea......SEE!  Iiiiiiii.... seeeeeee....a...... AT ME!"  All that she is missing is "what do you" and the name of the thing being seen + "looking".  It is INSANE.  She asks for that one to be read over and over by signing "again" and saying "Agi, agi!".  Another book that she's loving is "Baby Beluga" by Raffi.  Let me tell you the back story on this one.  I listened to Raffi when I was a kid, and loved him.  When I had the baby, I knew I wanted her to have those songs, and I've been singing a lot of them to her.  The other day we wandered into the used book store, a and what do I find but that Raffi has made a book to go with the song.  I was *so* excited.  It is also pretty neat because it has a lot of sea creatures that she hasn't seen before for her to learn the names of .  Anyways, she calles it "GA" now (as in beluGA), and she asks for it "agi, agi" and again and again and again...

Oh, and speaking of songs, she totally E-I-E-I-Ooooooooos for "Old MacDonald" now, so cute!  And sings a good number of letters in the Alphabet Song.  And finishes off with a rousing "TOWN" at the end of every "Wheels on the Bus" chorus.  My baby loves her some music!

In other non-verbal developmental news, she's moved pretty solidly from two naps a day to 1, around 11 (but can be pushed back sometimes to 12)ish.  Usually around 90 minutes long.  Momma like.

She's developing quite a personality, too.  While I like the development, I'm not sure I always like the asserting of the personality.  Because it usually involves telling me no.  A lot.  And yelling at me when I don't comply with whatever she wants.  Which I don't do, because I'm the Momma, ghuy'cha'!

She had her second Christmas this last month, and boy, did she ever enjoy opening presents!  We'd make a little tear and she'd grab on and just pull and pull.  She helped everyone open their presents!  She also had her second New Year's, and once again, thank goodness, slept through the fireworks.

We went through a little period of fussy associated with a cold that eventually became a sinus infection, but even when little girl doesn't feel well, she's super-sweet. 

We've settled into a nice evening routine.  Home from daycare, make dinner (cookie! = cooking), eat dinner, read books while Daddy gets the shower ready, shower, a little play while getting the sleeper on, boobie, and bed.  The boobie still puts her to sleep more than half the time, but sometimes Daddy has to pat her down, still.

We've also got a lovely little morning routine.  Wake at 5:30, Daddy changes the diaper and gets her dressed while I get ready to nurse, breastfeeding (while Mommy watches Star Trek), then she sits in my lap and we share my oatmeal (O meeh!), then we move to the bedroom where she plays while I dress, then I brush my teeth (buh ti ti!) and hers, then put on my shoes (shoe!) and hers, then we grab her lunch and put on her jacket (ja kee) and head to daycare (school).

Love my little talking squishy.  15 months old and the time is flying!