my growing girl (months 13 14 & 15)

Adelaide has become quite a character these past few months, with her little personality really shining through. She has now taken to throwing tantrums. I have no idea where she picked this up from – I thought maybe at Zia’s, but Zia asked if she picked it up from her cousins. When she doesn’t get her way, she will gingerly lay herself down on the hardwood floors being sure not to hit her head too hard, whine/cry & kick her legs - either that or as of late, she'll stomp her feet in place! My usual reaction is to just stare in dismay, which usually just makes her laugh. She is All over the place and in to absolutely everything. And she’s a climber – in and out of her toy box, her dresser drawer, the end tables, her changing table – pretty much anything she can climb she will – she is such a monkey! Thankfully she hasn’t made the connection of climbing out of her crib yet, although I have caught her clinging diagonally to the outside of her crib (think spiderman).  She gets frustrated pretty easily and although she knows what no means, she will repeat it back to me then smile to see if maybe now she can get away with whatever it is she’s trying to get away with.  She loves to read books, well mainly just turn the pages, but she’ll grab one then back up and plop herself down on my lap so we can read. As soon as we finish the book, her little hands go up in the air and she says ‘ut’ (all down in cause you couldn’t decipher that). She’s talking more and more and now and says ‘hot’, ‘duh’ (duck), ‘ap’ (apple), ‘bop’ (papa), ‘brh’ (bird) – not to be confused with ‘brr’ (cold), ‘des’ (yes), ‘dank’ (thanks), ‘byes’ (bye), ‘hi’ and many more! She’ll also just jabber away in her low alto voice. She got her 2 bottom molars just after she turned a year which was another round of sleepless nights, but thankfully she was able to transition back to sleeping through the night. She’s a pretty regular napper – 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon, each for about an hour and a half. I’ve finally broken the habit of needing to rock her to sleep and she will go down with her bottle and blankie now – I do miss that time with her for sure, but I know this will be easier on us both in the long run. She goes to bed at 8 and sleeps until about 6 or so…but then I get my most precious time with her – when she wakes up I go get her bottle and bring her back in bed with me and we snuggle, usually she does fall back asleep for a little while and it is the absolute Best getting to share that time with her. She has become quite a good little snuggler and will greet me with a huge hug and then lay her little head on my shoulder and pats my back. She is very generous with her kisses and where she used to just open her mouth and give a sloppy wet kiss, she now gives proper kisses, lipsmack and all. She is very social and once she warms up to you she will be your best friend. Mary, Justin & Mira just stayed a week with me for the holidays and she LOVED having more people in the house. She really warmed up to Mary and oftentimes would go to her instead of me! Hmph!  She learned how to wink & say ‘shh’ with her pointer over her lips, it comes out as ‘sss’ and I love when I randomly hear her do it – makes me laugh so hard while I ask her why we have to be quiet! She is my little shadow and just wants to be wherever I am, so when I cook dinner, she likes to hang out in the cabinets – she’ll empty all the pots and pans, then tries to close the door. She does this thing – mostly when we’re driving somewhere - where she clicks her tongue, then I’ll click back to her and I see her smile in the mirror and then she’ll do it again and again. She is The sweetest little thing and as busy as she keeps me, I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

Some pictures from the past few months.......