15 Months

Happy 15 month birthday sweet baby girl - you are becoming so independent and self-sufficient these days - Mommy and Daddy think it's bittersweet - how much fun it is to watch you grow and then how sad it is sometimes to realize how FAST you are becoming a little lady! You are SO much FUN! We think this is by far the most fun we've had in our lives - thank you for blessing us!

July 9, 2010 - 15 months

In blog tradition, here are 15 AMAZING things you're accomplishing with one to grow on:

• You are officially a walker! You hardly ever crawl and walk well - you've also learned how to pick yourself up when you fall down.
  
• You are transitioning well from bottles to a sippy cup - you still drink more bottles than sippies (who doesn't love a bottle - its like having a passie and food at the same time!) but you drink with ease from your cup. We have just started sending only one bottle to school and the rest of your beverages are from your cup.
• We just thought your vocabulary was bigger last month - over the past month you have added so many words to your vocabulary that I've lost count - new words are: please (peas), puppy dog (pup dog), no no (yoyo and shake your head no), mine (my), baby (sounds like like baby!), hot (ot), Meme (Meme says this is the most important word!) Emma (emya).
• You point to things and say (uh uh) until we either give you the item you're pointing for or perform the action you want us to perform - lifting you up on the couch, winding your mobile to play music, etc.
• You still love books but now read them and jabber up a storm as you turn the pages easily. You love to point and try to say the names of the pictures on the pages.
• When we ask you where your belly or belly button is you show us with ease and laugh really hard.
• You do not leave home without your sunglasses - you wear them indoors and outdoors. We think this is funny because other than your sunglasses you refuse to have anything on your head or face. Hopefully this means you'll have 20/20 like your Daddy (and Mommy - but hers are artificially 20/20 thanks to Lasik).
• TEETH TEETH TEETH - you only have about 6-8 more teeth to go before you have a full mouth of teeth. You chew and bite with ease (even people, which isn't so lovely!)
• You can climb in and out of a chair with ease - a little person chair - and have learned to slide off the couch safely.
• You high five and love it!
• You are VERY busy - always something to be done - and hardly ever have time to sit still and let Mommy and Daddy love on you (sad sad for Mommy and Daddy).
• You are in the Toddler classroom next door almost every day now for large periods of time. You almost prefer the Toddler room over your baby room - you've outgrown it and the babies left are no fun - all they know how to do is cry and sleep:)
• Your napping at school has gotten a bit better - at least 3-4 days a week you will sleep for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Better than nothing.
• You are sleeping like a champ at night - you rarely cry out and if you do you've learned to soothe yourself back to sleep. You have also been sleeping later in the mornings (not every morning but at least 2-4 times a week) and we sometimes have to wake you up at 7:30 a.m. so we can get to work and school on time. So, at 15 months you're sleeping consistently from 8:00 p.m. to 6:30-7:3o a.m. and sometimes until 8:30 a.m. on the weekends. I'll be honest, we thought this day would NEVER come:) But we are so thankful that it has -keep up the good work kiddo!
• You mimic most everything (or attempt to) that you see Mommy and Daddy doing - this means Mommy and Daddy are working hard to be great role models!
• You wear shoes every day now - Mommy was resistant to putting shoes on you but once you started trying to walk we learned you needed them - you like your shoes and say shoooooooo and bring them to us to put on for you. The only downside is that your precious, adorable, sweet feet now stink! But we love those stinky feet too!

We are blessed beyond our measure and pray daily that we are the Christian parents God wants us to be - I'll leave this post with a prayer from The Book of Common Prayer - I think it states well what all parents pray vigorously for as they raise their children:

Almighty God, heavenly Father, you have blessed us with the joy and care of children: Give us calm strength and patient wisdom as we bring them up, that we may teach them to love whatever is just and true and good, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.