Sweet Sixteen (months)

You've successfully crawled your way into your 16th month, buddy. It's been a good one. Here's what we loved about the last month with you:

1) You've gotten even more communicative with us. It's so much fun when you "tell" us you want to go outside or spend time in your crib. You point and do the "more" sign which has now seems to mean "I want". When we ask if you want something, you sign and say "yes!"

2) You play hide and seek. Nanny K showed us this last week. She points to her eye and says "watch" then you watch her hide Lovie. She says "where's Lovie?" and you go get her. You love this game and often ask to play it several times a day. You ask for it by getting Lovie and then pointing to your nose. (We have no idea why you point to your nose instead of your eye, so it took us a while to catch on).

3) You have a new schedule. Actually the times haven't changed much, but I've added more structure to your day. We started having specific times for free play, book time, structured play (where the grown-ups decide what you do) and pack 'n play time. The latter was the toughest for you. That's when we put you in the playpen and you play by yourself. You did not like that idea AT ALL. We started with just five minutes at a time. You cried the whole time for the first week. After two weeks though, you began to like it. You are now up to seven minutes (our goal is 15-20 minutes twice a day) and no crying. You actually ask to get in at other times of the day. We hope this will teach you to play independently and to sit still. This will really come in handy when you start school! For now, it helps mommy to get your lunch ready without tripping over you.

4) You really like your crib. You often ask to go in it during the day, and think it's fun for us to have to chase you to get you out in the morning and after naps.

5) You are enjoying your books more. You like to pick out what we read during book time. Sometimes you have a favorite we read over and over. You enjoy the books about Maisy the mouse, mostly because you like to lift the flaps. In the last few days you've begun to knock on the flaps like they are doors, then lift them. You also like your alphabet book. You are especially fond of the letter "K". You begin to make the "k" sound before you get the book, then flip past all the pages until you get to that one. You point to the pictures of kites and say the sound. Other books are known by sounds too. "The Lonely Firefly" is "pow-pow-pow" for the sounds of the fireworks on one of the pages, "The Very Busy Spider" is "doodle-doo" because of the rooster in it, and "Dear Zoo" is a sound you make by popping your lips (the sound I make for the camel picture).

6) You love to shake your head "no," even when you mean "yes."

7) You have a lot of words for your age: boob (thanks DH for that), bye, yes, dis is actually sounding more like "this" now, dat, tay-too (thank you), poop (maybe), dude, dada, mama, uh-oh, woof, doodle-doo, and baa (sheep sound). You are working on "k" and "g" sounds. I bought you this leap frog alphabet toy because it had safe magnetic letters that I hoped would encourage you to stand more and maybe help with balance. I'm not sure it has done that, but you enjoy it and have started making more letter sounds when you play with it. I like the song it sings and often sing it to you when we look at books.

8) You've been more effusive with blowing kisses and clapping whenever you like something. You commonly pause during play or mealtime to blow me a kiss. So sweet!

We haven't loved your few attempts at throwing tantrums, but you seem to be learning quickly that we won't tolerate them.

Since you've been better able to tell us what you love, here are some of your favorite things right now. You love playing with doors, especially the one to your bedroom. I can't believe I haven't mentioned this before; you've been doing this for months. We pop the panda door protector in the door and you can spend forever closing and opening it. You really like it if we are on the other side and you close us out. You also like to pass a book under the door to us or play with our fingers underneath. Some days you play with the door longer than you play with some of the toys. You also enjoy getting back in your crib and playing "catch." This really consists of me throwing the ball into your crib and you throwing it out and laughing while I chase it all over the room. Your Dad pretends a blanket is a train and says "all aboard! leaving ___ station" and you rush to climb on the blanket so he'll pull you around the house. We got a(n) (amazing) vacuum cleaner recently and you think it is not only a great new push toy, but all the attachments are so fun to put on and off the machine. Now, if we could just find a safe way for you to use it!

It's been so much fun to begin to really understand your wants and interests. It is hard when we have to teach you that, even though you are asking nicely for something, you can't always have it. There are more tough lessons just ahead, but also so much more learning for all of us. Looking forward to (most) of that. We love you!