sweet sixteen

...months, that is.

Charlotte continues to amaze me. The whole walking thing is old hat now, and she doesn't seem to care what sort of terrain she's on or if there's any kind of slope. She even tries to take the stairs with just her two feet, although about halfway up, she usually gives in and uses one knee and one foot. She won't even try to walk down stairs, or crawl down them. We're trying to teach her to slide down on her belly, but she'll only go down a step or two before heading back up again.

Baby Signing Time has been replaced by Elmo (pronounced "M'Elmo") as her entertainment of choice. She's utterly mesmerized by him. She can name several other Sesame Street characters too- Ernie, Abby, and Mr. Noodle being her other favorites. We still watch BST a couple of times each week, but now that she knows all the signs it doesn't seem to interest her as much as it used to. I'm trying to decide where to dive into the Signing Time series, since the first several videos re-cap the BST signs. Should I introduce her to the more "mature" format with signs she recognizes, or should I jump to new signs and hope the format isn't over her head? Either way, I love being able to communicate with her. She makes her wants known, with both signs and spoken words, and sometimes even tells me things ("grass wet" "milk cold").

New spoken words are sprouting up every day. Today's gem was "money." We have a wedding to attend on Saturday and needed a new shirt and tie for C, so we went shopping today. Charlotte brought her money (pillow-like coins in a clear vinyl change purse), and rode around in the cart waving it at everyone, saying "Hi! Money!" Another recent favorite is "lemon-emon-emon-ade" for her newly-discovered beverage of choice, lemonade. She's absolutely crazy about "bewwies (berries)," and is in for a rude awakening now that the last of the backyard blackberries have been picked. She loves to play "ah-ide (outside, simultaneously signed and spoken)," especially is we blow some "bubbles," which are fun to "pop, pop, pop!" She signs and says "ang oooo (thank you)" at appropriate times, completely unprompted, which makes me inordinately proud.

Physically, she's still on the small side but has gotten noticeably taller in the last month. Suddenly, she stretches her 12-month clothes to their vertical limits. The size 3 1/2 shoes that I bought on her birthday no longer fit. And my next diaper order is for size 4's because the 3's have become low-riders on her narrow hips.

We're still (happily) a 2-naps-a-day household, following a roughly 2-3-4 waking schedule- Up for 2 hours, then nap #1. Up for 3 hours, then nap #2. Up for 4 hours, then down for the night. She consistently goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 each night, and sleeps until 6-6:30. Sometimes, she goes willingly into her crib for a nap and then plays for an hour before falling asleep. But, as long as she's content and some napping takes place, I'm keeping both naps. I need them. I shower and clean up the breakfast dishes during nap #1, and take a nap myself during nap #2. I do look forward to losing the morning nap, though, because it will open up such a big chunk of the day for running errands or going out to play before it gets too hot. I'd love to take Charlotte to the zoo, aquarium, or children's museum, but it's tough to schedule such an outing between naps and meals.

Egad. It's late and I'm exhausted. More another time. Be well, all!