Keira's a big girl now!

With everything we've been doing, I haven't even had a chance to blog about what Keira is up to now. So I thought I would catch up with all the new things she is doing at 16 1/2 months old!

Walking: Keira has been officially walking full-time now for almost a month. She is really doing well indoors. Last week the weather got nice so we have started walking with her more outdoors. She had a little tumble at the park yesterday, but she's okay and only had a little scrape on her forehead. As Ryan put it "She ate dirt." She is unable to get into a standing position on her own, so she is still crawling over to objects to pull herself up. But she is definitely doing well with her mobility. One of her favorite activities is to have Mommy or Daddy chase her around the kitchen island trying to get her to tickle her. Her giggle is such an infectious sound!

Weight: We went to the doctor's last Tuesday, the 17th as follow-up after an ear infection. She weighed in at 27.8 lbs with her clothes on. Um, that's huge. She is definitely heavy so I think it was good timing for her to begin walking!

Body Parts (update from this post): Hand, foot, cheeks, chin, and fingers.

Sign Language: Food/eat, more, all done, milk, please, bath, baby, monkey, cracker, and bird.

Talking: At her 15 month checkup, I reported that "Keira says three words (Mama, Dada, tickle), maybe a fourth (kitty)." Now she is talking all the time, a lot of which I don't yet understand. Those words that I do understand are:

Mommy ("Ma ma")
Daddy ("Da da")
tickle ("tickle")
baby ("baby")
ball ("bah")
Cheerios ("joos")
kitty ("ki-ee")
meow ("ow")
doggy ("Do-ee")
Grandpa ("Pa pa")
chirp ("Beep")
hi! ("hi!")

Just yesterday, Keira was pinching her fingers together and saying "beep" "beep" "beep" while we were looking at the characters/animals on her Sesame Street placemat. I'm unsure what she is trying to say so I ask her. She points to a pigeon on the placemat. It finally dawns on me that she is signing "bird" and telling me what the bird says. We have a small bird at home and I always say "peep" "peep" "peep" when signing bird as that is what our bird sounds like. So cute!

She loves to talk on her cell phone and will hold it up to her ear and say "Hi" and then jibber jabber as if she is talking to someone.

I'm working a lot with her on the sounds that animals make and she has three down now. I'm also working on teaching her different foods that she likes, either by trying to teach her how to say the word or do the sign (or both if I know how to sign it).

Other cool things: Just this week, Keira can now complete two wooden knob puzzles without assistance! She can do a five-piece shapes puzzle and a four-piece animal puzzle (well, there is a fifth animal, but she refuses to put the bunny piece back).

This weekend we listened to a lot of music. Previously she was starting to make the motions for "Itsy, Bitsy Spider" and would clap during "If You're Happy and You Know It". Now, she will also stomp her feet and wiggle her ears during the latter song! She learned both of those pretty quickly when she saw Mommy and Daddy doing them.

It is absolutely amazing how quickly she learns new things. She learns new words almost every day and understands what the objects or actions are. She loves to copy what other people are doing. My trick to get her to try something new is for me or Daddy to do it first. Then we ask her to do it and generally she will. That is what prompted the "pull toy parade" last night. She and Daddy walked around and around the kitchen island for probably 20 minutes last night, each of them pulling a pull toy behind them. It was adorable.

Not so cool things: So along with the cool things, the not so cool things of toddlerhood are beginning to shown their horns. Keira is definitely getting a mind of her own. For example, when walking, she sometimes wants to walk in the direction she wants to walk in, not the one Mommy wants her to walk in. So with this mind of her own, she has started throwing some tantrums. Sometimes when she doesn't get her way, she will throw herself to the ground and put her head between her legs to the floor and cry. She did it the other day in the middle of Lowe's. So I just left her there and started walking away. I stopped and turned to ask her if she wanted to get up and come with me. She stopped crying, and let me help her up and we walked our way back to the car without incident. Not so adorable, but luckily not happening too often so I'm not going insane yet.

Say Goodbye, Winter!

Yes, we are back from our trip to Seattle and have been for two weeks now. I have been trying to get myself back to normal. I have no idea what happened to the months of February and March! They have flown by...

Here is the list of things with which we have been dealing:

• Keira's high fever and seizure on 2/4
• drive to/from NJ on 2/13-2/16 to celebrate Christmas with Daddy's parents
• cough and cold on 2/18
• Grandpa ill on 2/20
• Grandpa passes on 2/23
• fly to Seattle on 2/24
• Grandpa's memorial on 2/28
• Keira's 3rd ear infection this Winter on 3/3
• fly home from Seattle on 3/9
• drive to/from NJ on 3/13-3/15 to see Grandma and Aunt Kelly for their birthday
  
• follow-up dr. appointment on 3/17

I think Spring has finally arrived and I, for one, am ready for it! Say goodbye, Winter. We'll see you in nine months! Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Smarty pants on a cell phone

Caught some cute pictures of Keira "talking" on her cell phone. Smarty pants!

Yes, she already know what to do with a cell phone at 16 1/2 months old. We're in trouble...

Lions and tigers and PIGTAILS...oh my!

This Friday afternoon I decided that Keira's hair was long enough to try pigtails after seeing several of her little friends having them. So cute! Check out her smiling at the camera, strutting her stuff as the "bag lady", eating snack, and playing games with Daddy.

Say "green"!

This weeks subject for the I ♥ Faces weekly contest is "green" photography. Here goes!

The picture I have chosen is one that I took of Keira sleeping in her stroller during the District's Cherry Blossom festival last March. She was wrapped up in a green blanket as it was very cold out and all you can see of her is her sweet face.