16 Months

Vera turned 16 months last week.  She's not a baby anymore; definately a little girl now.

I was telling Adam recently that I can't believe how much she's changed since the beginning of the summer.   On the last day of school, she couldn't walk, and she didn't talk as well.  Now she runs around like a maniac, and talks so much.  She really understands what we're telling her, and she does really well at talking for her age.  I've tried to make a list of words that she knows and uses regularly.  Here's what I came up with:

mom    
dad    
please (sounds like "peas" and is usually said over and over "peaspeaspeaspeas...")
thank you    
juice    
strawberry  (her ultimate favorite food right now)  
shoes    
socks    
snacks    
eat    
up    
out
outside    
Reese (her buddy that she asks for a lot!)
Patty    
papaw    
mamaw  
yes    
no    
nope  
baby    
diaper    
bye    
hi    
see ya    
ice    
eyes    
nose     
mouth    
teeth    
pretty    
hat    
hot    
mine    
Minnie    
Mickey
Go, go go! (the Olympics have been on TV, so she learned this while watching in the evenings)
books ("boosh"--her most favorite thing to do)
read  ("weed")  
keys    
shopping  
water    
pool    
bath    
bubbles  
towel    
mess
plop
peaches
rocks
brush your teeth ("bosha tee"  took a little bit to figure this out...she loves brushing her teeth!)

She still does lots of jabbering too, that we don't understand.  And, she will repeat almost anything you ask her to say.  She talks with a pretty major lisp right now and we're hoping that goes away with time. 

Vera also knows a lot of animal and object sounds.  Here's what she knows:
What does a ... say?
cow--mooo
piggy--wee wee
sheep--baa baa
chicken--ba ba
puppy--arr arr
monkey--ahh ahh
bunny--hop hop
tiger---rarr
train--choo choo
car--beep beep

Right now, Vera has lots of favorite things.  She loves to play on our bed and flop around.  Juice is also a favorite.  We call her a "juice head" sometimes because she will drink an entire cup of juice all at once. 

She really likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, as she has for several months.  It's great for when I need to shower or keep her busy for a little bit so I can do something.  She also likes Doc McStuffins a lot too.  We always have to tell her to "back up" because she stands directly in front of the TV when she watches. 

We gave her an old cell phone to play with and she really enjoys walking around pretending like she's talking.  Whenever you ask her who she's talking to, she will always, always say "papaw."  If you ask her what papaw is doing she almost always responds with "moos" and some jabber to go with it.

Vera really likes glasses too.  She can put her sunglasses on herself, and she'll wear them for a long period of time.  I'm amazed that she will leave them on.  The other day I saw her watching Mickey with her sunglasses on.  She also has a few other pairs of silly glasses that she likes to play with.

I bought her a chunky puzzle at the second-hand store a few weeks ago.  It was brand new, and it's really nice because the pieces are wood and will hold up.  She likes to play with the puzzle too.  Her favorite piece is the airplane.  She can make it fly around in the air.  She can recognize all of the puzzle pieces when we ask her.

Flying the airplane and making noises.

Another of Vera's summertime favorites has been playing in the gravel of our driveway.  I previously blogged about her injuries related to playing in the gravel.  When we go outside, she always finds time to sit down in the gravel and play.  We've had lots of stones at the bottom of the washer this summer, and lots of messy clothes too.  It doesn't bother her little feet if she's barefoot either.  She walks right out on the stones to play. 

Yes, even in her swimming suit she plays in gravel.

I was playing with the settings on my camera.  There's nothing wrong with Vera's skin.  It's the "poster effect."

This summer, we've also enjoyed lots of pool time.  Vera loves the water.  She is not afraid at all.  Whether we're at the public pool, playing in the backyard, playing in the water table, or taking a bath; Vera does a great job of drinking the water.  Eww!

I'm going to have a hard time going back to work in a few weeks.  On one hand I'm ready to go back to a routine, but on another hand, I'm going to really miss all of the fun I've had this summer watching Vera grow and change.  I can't believe how much she can do and how much she understands.  And, I've got to watch a lot of that happen this summer.  There are days that Adam and I laugh out loud (pretty hard) at Vera's oneriness, inquisitiveness, and silliness.  She sure is a joy and a blessing!