16 months

I am genuinely amazed at how fast our little one is growing up. I know, I have done this twice before, but it seems like she is daily changing before my eyes. In this past month, especially, she has seemed to change from a baby to a toddler. Partly this is because she started walking exclusively a month ago, so her new vertical status has made her seem older. She is also communicating with us more. Notice I did not say "talking" because her vocabulary is still pretty limited to the "ma" sound, in various intonation and volume to mean different things. "Meh, meh?", asked in increasingly higher pitches and insistency while patting her chest means, "I want that" (food or cup, usually). "Ma! Ma!" usually means she is talking to me, and wants me to hold her. The singular "Ma!" has meant she wants Ed to pick her up and hold her, although she is saying "Da-da" now, but not neccesarily in association with him. And she would say ,"Hi" as well. Surprisingly, she came out with, "Ewoh Goggy!" (Hello Doggy!) a few weeks ago when she was excited about a bunch of dogs. And she just learned to make the "Woof" sound for dogs. That is the extent of her verbal skills right now, but like I said, she is communicating more through pointing (a new thing), and various "eh, eh" noises to let us know she wants to us to do something- open the door, pick her up, give her a toy. She is also following directions better. I can tell her what I want to do, and she will go do it (get a toy, stand somewhere, smile for a picture, etc.). It is exciting to watch her understanding of the world grow, as well as her desire to let us know what she is thinking.

One of her favorite things to do right now is to go for walks outside. Given the chance, she will go out the front door, and immediately make her way down the front walk and driveway. She is pretty fast, so I have to send E after her to make sure she doesn't go out into the street while I am locking up and grabbing her stroller.

She is also intent on doing everything that she sees her older siblings do. When I am making peanut butter sandwiches E and N will stick out their fingers for "A lick" of peanut butter. K was watching them do this last week and came over, looked up at me, and stuck out her little finger for "a lick" as well. She is determined not to be left out of any fun or treats. Also, now that she has mastered going down steps backwards, she tries to walk down the steps like everyone else, holding onto the railing and stepping down. This makes me a little nervous because it is hard for a little person to balance on one foot while taking a big step down, and I don't want her to fall down a flight of stairs when I am not there to steady her. She has already taken a couple of tumbles, and fortunately hasn't been too hurt in them.

As I watch all this my heart both swells with pride at how my little one is growing and learning, and then constricts as I think wistfully about how quickly I will no longer have a baby.