Fifteen months.

Can you tell it’s busy season for events? I’ve been so swamped with work & life that I haven’t had the chance to keep up with blogging. My girl is fifteen months old this week. Fifteen. Why is it that time goes faster once you have a child? Someone explain it to me, cause I just don’t get it. But it sure is true.

She’s changed so much since I last posted an update on her birthday. I know I’m biased, but she’s so smart, like scary smart sometimes. For instance, she loves to try to eat the pup’s dog food {no, that’s not the smart part…obviously}. So we’ve been working on teaching her that the food is the dog’s. The story goes like this:

Little One: picks up dog food and hovers it over her mouth while looking at me with a smile,  waiting for me to tell her no.
Me: “We don’t eat dog food, do we? Whose food is that?”
Little One: “Dahg! Dahg!”
Me: “Right! So put it back for the dog.”
Little One: carries the piece of dog food to the coffee table, and places it on a magazine – right on the mouth of the golden retriever pictured on the cover of the magazine. “Dahg!”

She cracks me up!

She is very observant. She’s always mimicking us. Eugene puts a hat on; she reaches and takes it off his head and puts it on hers. I write out to-do lists; she grabs a pen and starts scribbling on her paper. Nana washes her hands; she climbs up the step stool and holds her hands under the faucet. She doesn’t miss a beat.

She uses sign language very often – thank you, more, please, eat, same, bath, help, water, I love you {my favorite}. I’m really thankful we taught her some signs. Especially “more.” It has come in incredibly handy to know when she wants something in particular.

She’s also talking more words. She says “yah” so often. Every question I ask her prompts a quick, “Yah!” and a very assertive nod of her head. She says, “hereyago” every time she hands me something. She also still says “ut oh” constantly. All. The. Time. She says: hello, hot, ball, dog, Nana, Mama, Dada, Papa, banana. She’s just starting to try to repeat new words more this week.

She likes to do meticulous, orderly activities like putting lids on Tupperware containers, taking toy eggs out of a crate and putting them back in, or stacking her shoes in a basket. Oh, and she’s obsessed with shoes. Always handing people their shoes. It’s so bad that my niece hides her shoes when she comes to my house because she doesn’t want the little one to mess with them!

She’s still right around 90 percentile in height and 50 in weight. She’s my long & lean girl {no surprise there.} She’s also a pretty good eater. She loves carbs – pretzels, cereal, crackers. She also loves bananas, yogurt, veggie chicken patties, and cottage cheese. She’s pretty good at trying new stuff, but doesn’t necessarily eat a variety of foods. She just sticks with her favorites, but I’m working on her. ;)

Oh, and praise the Lord, we’ve finally reached the point where she will fall asleep on her own {without me holding her!} in her crib. YAYAYA! I love cuddling her, but it’s so nice not to have an hour and a half bedtime routine.

She loves walks, swinging, running, and getting dirty outside. Girl’s not afraid of a mess, that’s for sure! Oh, and I think she will potty train early. She actually tells me sometimes when she has a dirty diaper and loves sitting on the potty. She hates hates hates the church nursery. It’s about 90% of the time that I get paged to come get her. And this is usually the face I see…

Poor girl is persistent, which can certainly be a good and bad/challenging trait. She’s inquisitive, kindhearted, sweet, loving, silly, and smart.

She’s chock full of personality – makes our lives so much fun! We’re beyond blessed with each month spent watching our little one grow.

She is joy!