Elizabeth is 14 ½ months old now. She has added a few words to her list – she can now say Mama, Dada, Ollie, Girly, baby, Tristan, tree, shoes, ball, drink, banana, uh-oh, doggy, kitty, book, hi, Jesus, guy, bear, trash, clock, that, these, light, and door. She also knows lots of signs and has started using signs a lot to tell me what she wants.
Lizzy is such a funny girl. She has discovered books, and absolutely loves reading. She wants to read all day, but she is very picky with her books – she only wants to read certain ones that she has decided are her favorite. If I try to read other books to the older kids before nap or bed, she throws big tantrums and gets “her” books down from the shelf and forces them into my hand. She especially loves looking for pictures of dogs or cats in the books. She calls almost every animal “doggy!”. She knows the sign-language for book, and she is constantly asking me to read to her.
She also likes playing with balls, Mega-blocks, and toy food, and sticking magnets on the fridge. She’s always hungry and often brings me one (or all) of the bibs that hang over the back of her high-chair as a hint that she wants something to eat. She also tries to open the fridge and the pantry all the time. If she ever finds the pantry door left open, she starts taking out food as fast as she can (usually all the cereal boxes, because they are on a shelf she can reach) and then if I ask her if she wants some food, she runs as fast as she can over to her high chair and gets really excited.
She loves her monkey from IKEA that she sleeps with – she carries it everywhere, and never likes to leave it in her bed when she wakes up.
She is starting to do little smart things that surprise me, because I still think of her as just a baby. On Monday we went swimming with the Bates, and we ate our lunch at the pool. After we ate, I was gathering up all the trash and I put it into a little sandwich bag. Lizzy saw me put the bag down on the ground, and she ran over, picked it up, and started walking across the whole pool area toward the trash can, saying, “trash, trash, trash” the whole time. I had never heard her say that before, and I didn’t even know she knew what trash was, or where the trash cans were at the pool.
She seems to be paying close attention to all of the things we do around here, and it's funny how quickly she picks things up. I guess I do a similar routine each day when it comes to naps, and Lizzy has really memorized the whole process: as soon as I tell the kids it’s time for nap, she starts signing “book” and races upstairs to get out all her favorites. Then when we’re done reading and I go put the older kids in their beds, Lizzy never lets me forget that we’re supposed to get a drink first – she points to the bathroom and starts saying (and signing) “drink”. She never wants to skip that step, even if the older kids forget about it. After that she starts looking for her monkey, and then starts signing “nurse” and “ni-night.”
She is still a little wild child, and is always busy, busy, busy! She never stops moving. She loves racing up and down the hall with the big kids, and even tries to do somersaults with them (she runs around with her head cocked to the side trying to pretend she’s turning upside down, until she falls over).
She has one trick that she’ll do on demand – a “bend” where she bends over and puts her head on the ground. She loves to show-off with that trick (see above pictures).
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