As it stands, we still live in a world where her face lights up when we walk in the room, she laughs hysterically and proudly when she learns something new and people stop on the street to tell us how cute and sweet she is, as she happily tosses Bla Bla in their direction as her best greeting.
Talking the Talk
She is slowly learning more words and her favorite has changed from “Mo” (More) to a statistical tie between “Hi” and “Uh-oh” which come together whenever Bla Bla hits the ground in hello. Other popular words include “Moo” (what a cow says), “Baa” (what a sheep says), “Ba” (Ball) is a favorite toy and “Moo” (again) is what giraffes, zebras and rhinoceruses say (we are enjoying our Zoo membership). She still mostly gets which one of us is “Mama” and which is “Dada” and “Linin” gets a lot of love in the morning but nothing matches the excitement and enthusiasm that “Papa” (My Dad) gets when she sees a picture or visits him and Grammie. “Buh” means “Book”, usually a very specific book that the reader must guess or risk the wrath of Grace. “No” can either mean that she doesn’t want something when accompanied by pushing that thing away (like the wrong book) or that she knows she is not supposed to be doing something like tossing her dinner to Linin. Perhaps her most clearly pronounced word after “no”, is “baby” and it usually comes out in an awed and loving whisper.
Not Walking the Walk
It’s just not happening. Even though not walking means nothing until she hits at least 18 months, we are concerned that we will have to play the gestational age vs chronological age card to justify her lack of interest in putting one foot in front of the other. Generally, we have stopped thinking of her as 16 months and 13 and half months because almost everything she does is what a 16 month old does. In the case of walking though, we have a tendency to make lame excuses because many of her contemporaries are upright and moving while Grace has little interest. She definitely likes (or at least liked) standing on her own and we know she likes moving since she crawls like a rocket, but putting it all together is a non-starter. If she only knew how many toys she could carry if she gave herself the chance
Out of House and Home
One of the main things she does like a 16-month-old is eat which as helped to get her to the 90-95th percentile of all 16-month-old girls in length, height, head circumference, weight and attitude. Her current near-favorite foods are: applesauce, yogurt, hot dogs, bagels and bread. The hands down favorite, though, is Heart to Heart Cereal, which can stop a tantrum on a dime and occupy her full attention as she takes them one by one from a cup and puts them into her mouth until there are enough stored in her cheeks for the next two winters. In fact, she gets so into the cereal that she forgets which part of the cup is the business end and the morsels end up in her lap, in the car seat or on the floor…”uh-oh”.
Sweet Big Sister
If everything goes according to the pregnancy “rules”, Grace will have a 22 month head start on kid #2. All indications are that she will be a great big sister: She loves babies, she has nothing but love for her 4-legged brother and she has used her 16 months to learn valuable parent manipulation skills that she can pass along to her newest toy brother or sister.
Happy Sweet 16th Monthiversary, Grace!
