15 months

Since Lucy is well on her way to being 16 months old now, I almost skipped this post. But then I remembered how much I forget about all the ways she is changing even after just a few months have passed so I decided to be a good mom and just get it done before more memories escape.

Dear Lucy,

 You are my sweet baby, but I fear you are also becoming a daddy's girl. Daddy was away from us for a couple weeks this month and every morning you woke up asking for him, and every time you saw my camera or the computer, you would ask and ask to see pictures of him and every time the phone rang, you would get so exciting thinking it was him. The night after we got home, you woke up after just a little while and the only thing that consoled you was being held by your daddy. And several times since then, you have rejected my snuggles and just wanted him. Its so sweet to see you two together that I can't really be hurt though.

Walkin' in daddy's shoes

 You've added a few more signs to your vocabulary plus you've made up quite a few of your own signs like cold, phone, quiet (you say this when we go to watch the birds eat, you will make lots of noise but if I say anything, you turn to me and put your finger to your lips). But more than the number is the quality. You're moving beyond just basic nouns like dog and cat to more abstract concepts like cold, sad, hurt, wind, wait. Your actually kind of obsessed with things being sad or hurt.

 You've started telling "stories". You will repeat a group of 3-5 signs over and over and over again to relate something that happened earlier. Like when I hit my head on a shelf one morning, that night at dinner you kept signing "hurt, head, sad, then pointing to me and the shelf." When we went to the petting zoo, you spent the rest of the week telling me "horse, pig, sheep, outside" and when the caterpillar you and daddy used to go visit on the bush out back disappeared, every time we went outside it was "caterpillar, outside, daddy, all-gone, sad." And sometimes you will intentionally hurt your baby so you can tell us all about how she is hurt and sad.

The top one shows your sweet smile, but this one shows your squinty smile. Both are cute!

 But you are also sweet and love love to snuggle with your baby. She is a constant part of our life now and it is so much fun to see you act our your life through her. Now that you are a big girl, you get to walk sometimes instead of always being carried. A few days after I started being intentional about letting you walk, you started taking your baby by her hand and walking with her her instead of just carrying her. You like to have your legs stroked/scratched with the snappi and I've caught you sitting with baby in your lap, stroking her legs with the snappi too. You always make sure to share your snack and water with "baby," she often sits on your lap during story time, and you love to make your baby dance when I put on some music.

You and your dolly are dancing along to Wicked. 

One of the few things you love as much as your baby is frogs. I don't even remember where you first learned about frogs but they became an instant hit.You love books about frogs. You love it when we make froggie noises. When I tell you it is time for pajamas, you sign frog and unfortunately, have been known to throw a fit if your frog pajamas are not clean. We saw a couple frogs last week at Grandpa and Bubbies house and you just got so excited. I love seeing you develop your own interests and this one is definitely your own since neither your dad or I did anything to encourage your froggie fixation. Who knows, maybe you will grow up to be a herpatoligist!

Another thing you currently love is nursery rhymes. You can sit for 30 minutes listening to me read your nursery rhyme book and you even have signs to describe your favorite ones so I know which one you would prefer next, like "Doggy, Eat, All-done, Sad" (Old Mother Hubbard),"Fishy" (Little Tommy Tittle-mouse), and "Mama, Daddy, Baby" (The Lion and the Unicorn - the illustration for that one shows a man, woman and little girl watching the fight). "Sad" could mean The Old Women Who Lived in a Shoe, Little Boy Blue or The Queen of Hearts, all of which, much to your delight, involve some sort of sadness. Its funny how much sad things interest you, because you aren't normally sad my happy little girl!