Lila at 16 months!

This is going out of order of my intended catch up blogging, but I just wanted to take a minute to record some of the things Lila has been up to lately before I forget. I know if I don't record it the months will just blur together and I won't remember all the cute things she was doing and when she was doing them. It seems like lately she's been learning at super-speed pace. I'm sure every kid goes through spurts where it seems like they're growing up really fast all of a sudden.

Here's a little bit about Lila as of late:

VOCABULARY:

Mama, dada, grandpa/grandma (sound the same), baby, dog, duck, ball, balloon, bird, bye-bye, hello, stuck, all gone, all done, amen, Elmo, Big Bird, cracker, popcorn (well just "pop" really), egg, shoe, bow, eye, cheese, hot, cold, uh-oh, night-night, bumbo. There are a lot more things she imitates after I say them, but I think these are most of the ones she comes up with on her own on a regular basis.

***Of note is one key word that is still missing: NO. Yay! If only that could last forever. She still shakes her head a lot meaning "no" but it's a lot better than hearing her say it every second like some kids do. I guess that's probably just a developmental stage we'll reach a little later! I'm also dreading the "my" phase that I know is soon in coming.

LILA-ISMS:

• If we haven't left the house by around 9 am, she heads to the door and starts pounding her hands on it saying "bye-bye" over and over again. She doesn't like being cooped up in the house for long and she knows how to let us know she's ready for an outing.
• She is OBSESSED with Elmo. We watch Sesame Street together every morning but the only part she really cares about is Elmo's World. If she hears the song playing from the other room she comes running in like her life depended on reaching the TV asap. I showed her some Elmo video clips on sesamestreet.org once and now anytime she sees one of us on the computer she comes rushing over saying "Emo, Emo" in a super distraught/desperate voice that basically forces you to let her watch Elmo on the computer for a few minutes.
• She's still using the binky, but mostly just when she goes to sleep and in the car. I pretty much had her weaned from it (except for sleeping) until she started teething. The binky comforts her more than anything and I knew chomping on it really helped soothe her teeth so I started letting her have it more often. She ended up getting way reattached to it for a few weeks until her teeth came in and now she's doing better without it again. I don't know when I'm going to wean her from it completely. I'm afraid to try before our flight out to Maryland because I know it will save us a lot of grief on the plane, then when we get back we'll have a new baby around and I know that's not the best time for a traumatic change in her life. Maybe when she's 13?
• She loves putting anything that resembles a phone to her ear (calculators included) and saying "hewo."
• If she doesn't want me around or wants to do something I don't want her to do, she starts waving at me and says "buh-bye." Translation: Mom get out of here.
• If she needs help with something, can't get something open, can't figure out a toy, etc. she starts repeating "guck" (stuck) over and over again. I honestly have no clue how she even learned that word.
• She's basically over it now, but for at least a month or more she was infatuated with stairs. The funny part is that she doesn't crawl up them like most babies do, she just wants to hold on to your fingers and walk up like a regular person (she even did this when she could barely lift her leg high enough to reach the next step). If she saw stairs anywhere, you could guarantee she'd make a run for them. We probably walked up the three flights stairs outside our complex 3-4 times a day for several weeks.
• She loves blowing her nose. We never taught her to do it, she just started doing it. I always just wiped her nose because I figured you couldn't teach a baby to blow. Then one day she just started randomly picking up tissues, putting them to her nose, and blowing. She's pretty talented at it and she does it all the time.
• There are times when she insists on being set on the toilet seat (with it closed). She loves to pull the toilet paper off the roll and pretend to wipe and then throw the toilet paper in the bowl. It's amazing how much babies really do watch and learn because we never showed her anything about that (despite my one random attempt to put her on her little potty a few months ago), she just imitates what she's seen me do.
• She rediscovered her bumbo and loves sitting in it. It's been stored under her crib all this time and she saw it one day and spent quite a while trying to figure out how to sit in it. The problem is her bum is a bit too big for it now so although she can fit in it, she gets stuck every time she does. She sits in it, gets stuck, asks for help to get out, sits in it again, etc... the cycle goes on and on until I force her to put the bumbo away.
• She insists on feeding herself with an adult-sized fork and spoon. Even when she doesn't get any food to her mouth (which happens most of the time), she isn't concerned and still proceeds to chew the air.
• We went to a Christmas concert on Sunday that was held in a church building. Apparently she's been paying attention in church because she said "amen" after every song. Maybe she just wanted it to be over?
• At her 15 month check-up she was 50th% for height (22 lbs. 12 oz.) and weight (30 1/2 in.) and 90th% for head (18 3/4 in.). She's just got a big brain, that's all.
• She knows two animal sounds on cue: lion and duck.
• She can point to a lot of her body parts (she learned from the "Your Baby Can Read" videos my mom bought her) including: head, nose, eyes, ears, mouth, tongue, hands, fingers, belly button, foot, and toes.
• She loves finding other people's belly buttons and sometimes demands that I lift up my shirt so she can touch mine. That doesn't go over so well when we're in public places like storytime at the library. She's VERY persistent.
• She can kick, "jump" (not much air if any), and dance on cue. She LOVES dancing. I need to post a video of her dancing soon.

FAVORITE FOODS:

Peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, plain noodles, toast, bagels (especially with cream cheese), waffles, pancakes, apple sauce, grapes, bananas, raisins, cheese, goldfish, pirate booty, chicken nuggets, yogurt, boiled eggs (disgusting!!!).

I think we need to work on more variety in her diet. Notice any food group missing? Does everyone have as hard of a time feeding their toddler veggies as I do? I even bought special baby yogurt that has veggies mixed in to try to get her to be a little healthier. She did eat peas one time. That was a miracle.