15 Months

I think this past month has been my favorite of the non-tiny-baby months.

Emerson is the sweetest mix of baby and toddler (even though she's just not looking like a baby these days). She's developing her independence yet still wants momma very close by. I love having her toddle along beside me or after me, sitting next to me 'helping' while I accomplish tasks. She can 'read' to herself in her car seat (she used to just throw the books) and it's the cutest thing ever. She has been a little more clingy lately (teething!), so while she has gained some independence, she sure doesn't assert it very often. Sometimes though, she'll sit down and play with her toys or read a book all by herself, talking or singing and kissing something every few minutes. It's so sweet.

My favorite thing though, after watching her play so sweetly by herself, is that she always comes over - usually with a toy or book - hugs my leg, kisses it, hands me the treasure and goes back to playing. It's the kiss that gets me. She does it at different times too, just doing her own thing, leans over and kisses my arm, leg, cheek, whatever is closest.. and continues on with what she was doing.
Melt.

She's been working hard off and on this month on her molars and canine teeth on the bottom (and possibly the top too), a few of which just broke the skin today. Whew. Those suckers have been tough on all of us.

Her vocabulary continues to expand (as I'm writing this over a week later, it's really exploding now!). She has started really demonstrating her receptive language too. She used to just say 'yes' (da) when I asked where the duck (etc) was, now she's finding most of the things I ask about. During this month she started using the following new words:

• Oh-oh. Uh-oh. She starting to say 'uh-oh' more but this started out for the first several weeks as 'oh-oh'. First she'd drop things on purpose to say it, then she found other situations like a toy that is stuck, when she needs help, when she gets hurt or when she did something she wasn't supposed to. One night I had socks on her when she fell asleep in the car and I'd put her into bed. When she stirred later and I tried to get her back to sleep, one of her socks fell off. She was only half awake but she starts saying, 'oh... oh... oh...oh'. It was so cute. 
• Hot. Whispered, of course. At first anything that wasn't bone cold was 'hot' and had to be blown on several times. Now she's better about accepting things that are warm after just one blow. 
• 'open' sign. She learned this just after I wrote the last post. At first she used it almost universally for anything she wanted. Probably because we reinforced it because it was so darn cute. 
• 'more' sign. She finally started using this appropriately, accurately and consistently. I think the reinforcement of her open sign caused her to use her other signs more often. 
• Animal sounds: puffs cheeks (Puffer fish); chomp/bite sound (shark); roar (bear, tiger, hippo...basically universal noise for all animal sounds she doesn't really know).
• Bubble. She says the whole word these days. 
• Oww. This one is slowly emerging. She usually says uh-oh when she gets hurt but she just started saying owww too. Especially when she's genuinely hurt - like when she wakes up from her teeth or when I accidentally spray hand sanitizer on her bottom instead of bottom spray (oops! I felt pretty bad about that one!).  

She's just so fun and full of wonder and soaking up everything she can learn. I love spending my days with her. Sometimes, when I'm trying to get the dishes done or breakfast made or laundry folded and she comes up with a book that we've already read ten times that day and says, 'da, da, da. mama. buh' I just have smile, dry my hands/put things down, pull her close and read the book again. A hint of exasperation blows by my mind but as soon as I look at her sweet face I realize, this is what life is about, right here. This time is so fleeting but I'll be making breakfast/dishes/laundry for the rest of my life. I feel so lucky to be the one who gets to read the same books to her over and over and over. To be the one that puts her to bed three times a day (and lately several times a night). It's a little exhausting, I'll admit it, but so worth it when I snuggle her close and teach her about animals and vegetables and talking to God. Whenever exhaustion creeps in, I'm quickly reminded of how soon she'll be taking care of herself and boy will I miss these days!

Aaand I'm done.

She sure loves her books (and her daddy)