Sixteen

Tomorrow--my baby girl, my first born, my tiny little bundle of joy--my sweet child turns 16 months old. She's closer to a year and a half than to a year. She's a toddler now, not an infant. Everyone says time flies with your children. It's hard to express in words how true that is. How you are excited to see your baby reach new milestones, but how much you wish to keep them little for just a little while longer. Still, time marches on, and nothing is holding my girl back.

She has 16 teeth for her 16 months. She's running everywhere. She is into everything. She can reach and tries to climb and opens all the doors and is just generally curious. And funny. Oh, she makes the funniest faces and copies what we do and talks gibberish all the time. She also says "real" words too: mama, dada, hi, socks, oh no, up, bow, da (dollie), whoa, shh, vroom, what is it, who is it, where is it, lololo (lola), woof woof, chee (cheese), stroll (stroller), knee, uh oh, and neigh (horse). She's said eyes, toes, juice, duck, and shoes, but not as regularly as the others.

My baby girl still takes two naps a day but sometimes skips one if she just isn't up to it. She's become a much picky eater, but still eats 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. She doesn't love her milk, but she'll drink lots of water. She loves Lola, her real dog, as well as her stuffed dog, Doggie. She waves at all the dogs we see on the street, and she waves at strangers and doormen and trees. She gives high fives to our building's doormen. She knows lots of words and will point to things when you ask her where they are.

She follows instructions (sometimes). This little one is very independent and knows what she wants to do (or not). She likes seeing her friends at playgroup, but she's fine just playing on her own too. She loves pushing her baby stroller around and loves looking out our window to see construction across the street. She takes an art class (and eats the paint), a music class (and dances and claps), and a gym class (where she chases after toy balls most of the class).

Obviously, our little girl is a handful, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Happy 16 months!