The 16th Month....

Sarah turns 16 months old today. Where did the time go?? Somehow, my tiny, petite little baby turned into a full throttle toddler! Her "speech" is getting better and we are STARTING to understand a few words, like OUTSIDE, SWING, ALL GONE, SISSY, DADA, MAMA, NIGHT NIGHT, BYE BYE, HI, BAILEY, BABY, ME, NO (yep - the dreaded "N" word was said for the first time yesterday!), GO, MO (more), and much to Dandaddy's delight, I do think she is starting to say DANDADDY! She is getting into that "gets frustrated easily" stage, which I remember to be quite a doozer of a phase which brought on the first "real" temper tantrums. Sarah can throw down with the best of them, but I don't believe we've seen all that she has in her quite yet. I expect to see THOSE fits arise in these next 2-3 months. I KNOW it all arises because she is frustrated that we don't know what she wants or means all the time....so I will try harder with #2 to TRY to understand her better! Hum....what else...she doesn't share very well, but then again, what 16 month old does? She beats up her 4-year old sister - yep - gives her royal beatings! Okay, not really, but she is prone to pinching and hair pulling to get her toy back! Wicked little thing! But really, overall, they do get along and play well together...most of the time.

She LOVES to read and has her favorite books...like the Golden Book of Dogs. Yep - we've all read it 5-10- maybe 25 times. She loves the flap books and Peek-a-boo books. She LOVES her Baby Tad Leapfrog and her newest toy fascinations are dress-up necklaces and bracelets. She LOVES those necklaces and its not unusual for her to be flipping around the house wearing 3-4 or 5 strands of her sisters dress-up beads. She also loves to play babydolls. She rocks them, pats them, puts them in and out of the doll highchair and bed, carries them around and just generally "loves them. " I figured Sarah would be my "tomboy" but so far, she is favoring the girly toys MUCH MORE than Beth ever did. I'm not sure Beth EVER played with a babydoll!

Sarah knows where her (or my) eyes, ears, nose and mouth are...and can SAY eyes and ears. We're still working on nose and mouth. We do it every night before bedtime, but you've gotta watch - or she'll poke you right in the eyeball...and be so proud of herself for doing it, too!

Sarah has also learned to give kisses. Could there be a sweeter thing?? She makes her rounds each night before bedtime telling everyone "night night" and gives kisses. Makes my heart melt.

I know that this next 12 months will bring SOO many changes. I remember the BIGGEST changes coming from about 19 months till about 25-26 months old...how their language skills mature and the personalities really come out. Heck, this time next year, I'll probably be potty-training her! So much to come...yet, I want to keep it all status quo for now! Can't I keep her little longer???