Lily's Pad: 16 months

Dear Lily,

I wish there was a way I could slow down time...every month seems to go by faster and faster with you! I can't believe you are already this little kid, no longer a baby! You've become so independent lately! You like to help out around the house, and you love to sit and read by yourself now! But at the same time, this past month you've become cuddly all over again! You love to give great big hugs all the time now!

Over this month your words have exploded. I've lost count of how many words you know. Off the top of my head the news words you've learned this month are; ball, no, bye bye, up, all done, apple, happy, achoo, I do, ouch, meow and binky (though you say bebe for binky and appy for apple). You also started signing a little this month. You can sign more, eat and please. Usually you roll all three signs into one though. You do the more sign and the eat sign at the same time at your mouth, and then say please by rubbing both hands on your sides. At the say time you will say cheese while doing your signs. It's really cute to see you trying to communicate with us! It's nice that you can tell us when you want to eat, or when you need your binky, or when you want to be picked up, or when you are done eating!

Another cute thing you picked up this month was blowing when I say"ouch...it's hot!" I always says it's hot when your food is to warm, and I'll show you how to blow on it to cool it down, and this month you start blowing on your food yourself! In the past 2 weeks since we've been in our new home I've seen you transfer this to other things. When I told you one day to not touch the oven because it was hot (it wasn't really...I just am trying to teach you not to go near the oven door) you crouched down and started blowing on the door! Talk about cute! Then a couple days later I told you not to touch the space heaters fake fire (again trying to teach you not to go near fire...the space heater front doesn't actually get hot at all!) and you again got down and started blowing on it! Now I'll have to teach you to not get so close when it really is something that is hot, but for now it's really cute!

You've also started talking to your reflection in the dishwasher and oven doors since we've moved. You like to just sit there for a while and talk to the baby you see. I have to wonder if this is the beginning of an imaginary friend somewhere down the line. I'll have to wait and see, but you sure do like you're mirror friend!

Of course it was this month that we moved. You really seem to like all the extra space so far! The first couple of days here you were a little crankier than normal...but you've also been teething another molar (still hasn't broken through yet!) so that may be the cause. It's hard to keep track of you know though. Before at the apartment I could sit almost anywhere in the house and still see you or be within 3 steps of seeing you...now when you wonder off while I'm doing dishes or cooking dinner, I'll have to go hunt you down! Usually I'll find you terrorizing the cats. Last month I said how you like to give them hugs...well that of course has continued, but now you also like to grab at their tails and pull. Poor Ouija is usually your main target for tail pulling. For this reason I want to put off getting a dog. We always said once we were in the house we would start looking for a dog to join our family, but now I'm worried about having a strange pet in the house when you are being so rough with the cats already. We'll see how you treat the cats in the next month or so I think before we start looking.

It's still just incredible to me how far you've come from this time last year! This time last year you had just started eating solid foods (rice mush mostly) and were just starting to learn to sit up by yourself. Now you are eating mostly the same foods Daddy and I eat, and are running so fast it's hard to keep up with you! You are a full blown toddler now babe, with toddler tantrums and everything! I miss your baby days already, but look forward everything new that's in our future! We love you Lily!

Love,
Mommy

16 month Photo Shoot:

I discovered early on in this photo shoot that Lily was really intrigued by the candy canes on our tree. The only way I got her to keep still was let her play with one...of course it went straight to her mouth: