15 Month Update

Given that Charlie turns 15-months-old today, I thought it would be appropriate to record what she's up to these days.

Cuteness:

• She loves giving kisses at unexpected times:  in the middle of lunch, mid-sentence while reading her a book, while drinking her evening milk
• She is still super social and loves being in the midst of a large group of people (church, the train, etc.).  She smiles at everyone and says "hiya" and will often say "bye!" when people get off the train.
• Every now and then when she is in the midst of playing, she'll say, "bye-bye", blow a kiss, pick up a toy and leave the room.
• Her "lovies" are currently her giraffe "Lala" and a stuffed Winnie the Pooh.  She also has similar attachments to her jackets and likes to wear them around the house or have them near when she's playing.
• Her favourite book is a book in Spanish about big and little things featuring Big Bird and Little Bird that I had as a kid.  
• One morning while I was away, Jason was in the living room while Charlie was playing in the hall.  She managed to take off her diaper and her pajama bottoms and then ran into the living room laughing hysterically!  Luckily, Jason had his phone handy to capture a couple quick pictures:

Smarts:

• She consistently recognises the colour yellow.
• She can locate the following body parts on herself or me:  head, hair, nose, ears, mouth, tongue, teeth, foot, toes, hands, fingers, eyes, tummy, belly button, bottom, boobies . . .
• She can follow simple instructions such as getting a particular toy from another room or a particular book and bringing it to me.  I can also say, "go to the kitchen" or "go into Charlie's room" and she does!
• She is super chatty these days.  Sometimes she just babbles and sometimes she is so insistent with her chatting as if she were saying actual, complete sentences.  I wish I spoke Baby!
• She's really picking up animal sounds and especially likes making elephant, cat, dog and monkey sounds.
• She uses the following sign language signs on a daily basis:  again, more, eat, all done, book, milk and a signs we made up for her to indicate that she wants to colour with her crayons or brush her teeth.
• She is in LOVE with books!  Having us read books to her or flipping through books on her own is, by far, her favourite pastime.  

Food:

• We're making an effort to include a variety of flavours in her diet, especially interesting savoury flavours.  She's eaten and liked blue cheese, olives (big fan!) and other interesting flavours.
• If I'm drinking a glass of wine at dinner she always wants a little taste (less than a drop) from my finger.  She'll sometimes make a face, but always wants more.  She also does this with Jason's tonic water.
• She gets to choose her own cereal at daycare and always chooses Rice Krispies.  
• Her current favourite food is mango.
• Her favourite part of a full-English breakfast (which we generally have every Sunday) is the sautéed mushrooms.
• She always insists on feeding herself and is getting pretty good at using her fork and spoon!  

Words (she could use some work on her diction, but she has consistent ways of saying each of these words):

1. mama
2. papa
3. dada
4. book
5. yellow
6. hiya
7. bye
8. hello
9. shoe
10. sock
11. milk
12. mango
13. apple
14. banana
15. water
16. bath
17. Pooh 
18. dog
19. box
20. flower (she is constantly pointed out flowers and images of flowers everywhere these days!)
21. toast
22. rainbow (she likes to talk about the rainbows on the bunting in her room)
23. bottle
24. ball
25. bee
26. bird
27. jacket
28. Jacob (her cousin whom she loves pointing out in pictures)
29. eye
30. ear
31. hair
32. nose
33. belly button
34. more
35. no (we're trying SO hard to not say this, but to say "no thank you" instead, but I think she must hear it at daycare . . .)
36. please
37. help, please
38. all done
39. thank you
40. teeth
41. uh-oh
42. bib
43. circle
44. triangle

She can recognise far more and often repeats words that we say, but these are ones she says on a regular basis.