Sweet 16

16 months. 16 months! Wow!!! It has been sweet, too. Elyse is growing like a weed and I am enjoying all of the new fun! She has been progressing so much in her mobility, which has strangely started/accelerated with the arrival of the cute pink glasses... ?? I don't know enough to correlate the two, but it definitely has made me think about what the vast living room floor looked like with very poor vision: a bit intimidating, perhaps? Either way, in the last two months, Elyse has been doing all of the things that babies do between 6-12 months. I think it's adorable to see her actually care about the toys that sit in the next room, explore the house like there's no tomorrow, and giggle when she achieves something she's worked hard for. It's mostly adorable because she still adopts crawling and scooting, and although we know she can cruise around on furniture, she has deemed that it's just not for her right now. Let's just say Jordan and I do a lot of chuckling at our little miss lazy pants :)

She will try to repeat just about anything you ask her to say, and it usually comes out in a one syllable grunt. She loves her books more than ever and is often found in her room at the base of her bookshelf "reading" Jordan's old collection of Sugar Creek Gang books. I'm amazed they aren't shredded to pieces. She is very passionate about grapes, peas, yogurt, and jam (we blame Daddy for that one). She is pretty independent in her eating these days, but cannot master the fork to save her life! Silly forks. Who needs 'em? She does have moments when her bowl of cereal and milk is just TOO tempting not to tip. Ugh. I feel in the last few weeks, something has REALLY clicked in much of her understanding of what I'm saying regarding sometimes "poor" behavior :) For that, I am thankful, but it hasn't exactly made this new phase a piece of cake! She enjoys testing us more than ever, and it does keep us on our toes! Here are some of my fun's and not-so-fun's for this stage:

fun's:

* She will repeat "mommy, daddy, mommy, daddy, mommy, daddy" until she has to literally catch her breath. This is usually done while plowing down the hallway as quickly as she can move (which isn't that quick).

* She adds new inflections to the words she says: "baby" & "happy" can be said in about 10 different ways as if she's telling a really dramatic story :)

* She's as bad as a puppy with the phrase "bye-bye"

* She is VERY chatty.

* Her animal noises are hilarious, but they all sound about the same :)

* She now pushes her glasses up if they start to droop by smashing her hand against the lenses

* She likes to clap along with "If You're Happy..."

* The word "banana" comes out "nanana"

* She will dig up the smallest specks of lint on the carpet and hunt me down in the house to "give" them to me. I wish she would pay more attention to the big stuff. :)

* Waiting for daddy to come home as we sit on the porch steps. LOVE seeing her face light up when he pulls into the driveway!

* She still lets me rock her, despite the growing sister between us :)

not-so-fun's:

* watching Elyse beat a toy to death trying to get it to "cooperate" in some way.

* seeing her little "practice" baby experience head trauma in her crib repeatedly...

* playtime in her crib before bed and naps can sometimes last almost 2 hours since she has officially figured out her baby and animals can keep her company!

* she knows how to remove her diapers

* she knows how to weasel out of her strap that should keep her confined to her changing table

* Her "sign" for "all done" is evolving into speaking the word "done." Sadly, it comes out "die, die, die."

* Disobedience has a brand new intentionality :-/

* I've known girls are moodier than boys, but WOW! This girl can go from sobbing to giggling in a split-second!

I've cherished these months with Elyse, and I'm so excited that her little playmate is on the way in a few weeks. I can't wait to see how she will interact with Emily and learn to love her :)