Riley at almost 16 months

My sweet baby you are 15 months + 22 days today and more and more I see a big girl in place of my baby when I look at you! You fill our house with laughter whether it's you laughing or you making us laugh. I can't wait to see what the next few months bring as you become more and more independent and aware of this big world around you.

You are Miss Independent, no doubt about it. You rarely want our help these days and you let us hear it when we try to help you with a loud "AHHH!" which we take to mean that "I'll do it thank you".

In that same note, you are feeding yourself with a spoon and fork (quite messily), but still. You started that at Gigi and Papa's over Spring Break, but you've definitely become more successful at it.

You LOVE to climb things and gave us a scare a few weeks ago when you scaled your highchair all by yourself. We weren't sure how you did it, but I observed it with my own eyes last night as you stood on the bottom rail, grabbed the foot rest and pulled your self up to it one knee at a time. From the foot rest it was easy, you just had to stand up and crawl into your seat. You wanted to do it over and over again, but once was enough for me to see and your highchair is now folded down after every meal.

Speaking of the highchair you still love eating and yogurt, pretzels, tomatoes and cheese sticks are your favorite. You've also discovered Horizon Organic Vanilla Milk and while Mommy has her Starbucks iced coffee you enjoy your milk box.

As our best good friend Linds says, you are quite verbal. You are trying so hard to talk and you really like to babble and everyday your babbles are sounding more and more like words. This month you've picked up "Shoooor" for sure (which you use instead of yes) and you can say "doh" for go when we're going bye bye. You call trains "choooooo" and the little train at Wegmans delights you to no end. You have also started bringing me your shoes when you want to wear them and saying "shoooooooo". You love saying "doooon" when you go down steps and "pppp" when you go up. You can count to three, say I did it, and got it; but I think Daddy and I are the only ones who know when you're trying to say those things. You still say thank you all the time which I've grown to love and I'll be so sad when you dont' do that anymore.

Although your speech isn't always that clear you understand us very well. You can sit down if we tell you to and point to your belly when we ask where it is. This past week you started jumping when we asked if you can jump. You also learned how to spin around in a circle while you're standing and it is TOO CUTE.

You can communicate with us non-verbally too. You have been known to start heading up the stairs yourself if you decide that you are ready for your nap and if we're already up there you will try to climb into your crib if you're tired. These days you will also ahem grab your little diaper area and come running to one of us if you have left us a surprise. If you're hungry or thirsty you stand and fuss at the fridge. You love pointing at things and saying "id ooooh eee at" or "id oooh rrr at" for did you see that and did you hear that.

You've got a little temper and lately if we tell you no you'll throw whatever you're holding on the ground as you let out a shriek. We're working with you on that. However, you are almost always happy and smiling and you love coming up to us and burying your face into our legs and giving us a little squeeze. Just this afternoon you came over and laid your head in my lap for a second which of course melts my heart.

You are starting to recognize familiar places. When we pull into our neighborhood you start to clap and you squeal when we hit our street and start to turn into the driveway. Everyday when we go to pick up Daddy I'll tell you we are going and you will just screech his name over and over again until I've got you in the car. You know exactly where we're going and everytime the school comes into view you start to wiggle, giggle and squeal.

Mickey is still your main man, but you appreciate Handy Manny too. My sweet classroom mother donated all her old cds to us this month and you really like listening to Barney and The Wiggles cds when we're in the car. Music makes you laugh and smile and when it stops, even just as it's switching between songs you always say "Uh Oh".

You don't have stranger anxiety these days, just man anxiety. Men that aren't your Daddy will send you running and crying for one of us. This makes Daddy a little embarassed especially when we bring you into work and you run screaming from the men there.

Imitaton is still your most sincere from of flattery and you love pushing the mop and broom around the house. You take loving care of your baby doll and have been known to try and share your bottle and paci with her from time to time.

No doctor check up lately, but we do know that you weighed 28.8 lbs at your sick visit over a month ago. I'd guess you're probably hovering near 30 lbs by now since size 2T clothes fit you perfectly.

6 more days to go until we reach the big 16! There's never a dull moment around here and we're loving every minute of it. We love you Riley!