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.

Eat. More. Now!

Since Keira was about six months old, I have been working on teaching her sign language. I never thought I would be one of those moms, but I have to say it has worked wonders for eliminating some of the communication gaps between us and Keira.

I started by signing "milk," "eat/food," "more," and "all done" at each of the applicable meals or times. I then added "Mommy," and "Daddy" once she started speaking those words. Months went by without any signing from her. The books say that the child will begin understanding you at around 7 or 8 months and will start signing as early as 10 months. I would agree that Keira did understand the signs for "milk" and "eat/food" pretty quickly. However, month after month went by without any signing from her.

We went months with her grunting and groaning when she wanted more food. I would passionately sign "more" as I asked her "Do you want more?". To no avail. I thought she would never sign!

Finally in December, Keira began signing rudimentary versions of "more" and, shortly thereafter, "all done." Hallelujah! Mealtime became a much more pleasant experience.

Just last week, she added "eat" to her repertoire and refined "more" to a more precise tapping of her fingers. However, she seems to be very liberal in her signing of "eat." Either that or she is hungry ALL THE TIME!

Mommy: "Where's Daddy?"

Keira (signing): "Eat...eat...eat."

Mommy: "Where's your nose?"

Keira (signing): "Eat...eat...eat."

It very well could be hunger. If so, she's a girl after her daddy's heart.