16 months!

Dear Lucy,

This month was all about independence. You made huge strides with potty training but I see it in other ways too.

We went to the park last week and you wanted to do all the activities by yourself too. I was a bit nervous at first but you can go down the slide all by yourself – and if I didn’t stop you, you’d go up it too!
 
You can run now. You used to think you could but now you actually can!
You also like to walk on whatever balance beam you can find, whether it is a brick wall (scary for mommy!), a piece of leftover 2x4 lying on the ground or a rolled up rug (not quite so scary for mommy).
And I shouldn’t even think about helping you with stairs. You can walk up and down them on your own, thank you very much! Sometimes if they are really big ones, you might let me hold your hand, but you have to ask, I can’t offer or you get quite offended.

You have an amazing memory. You still “talk” (sign) about alligator you got to pet last weekend and the ducks you saw last week and the caterpillar that used to live in our backyard that we haven’t seen for over a month!

You will play with your trays and put them up by yourself too. Last week you carried your tray over to your playdough spot, then layed out your tools before bringing the playdough over and opening it up. I watched you play for a few minutes then got distracted but when I looked back, you had picked everything up and it was all back on your shelf! If I wasn’t positive I had seen you playing with it, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Of course, you have your messy moments as well but in general, you like things neat and tidy. In fact, you’ve decided a couple weeks ago that you don’t like anything dirty or sticky on your hands. You were given a donut treat after church this past Sunday and wouldn’t eat it at first because you didn’t want to touch the stickiness. You finally gave in and picked it up but every other bite you would hold out your hands for me to wipe them down. And if your spot at the dinner table gets messy, you ask for a rag so you can wipe it down. I call you my little helper and you nod and smile and point to yourself.

You don’t want help eating. You would rather me just hand you your utensil and plate/bowl and let you go to town. It is really nice to be able to give you a bowl of yogurt and leave you there for a few minutes while I put other things away or do dishes and not have a yogurt explosion waiting for me when I turn back around.
Overall, you're just getting to be such a big girl!