15 Months

I'm late, I know. Things are a very hectic around here since we're moving NEXT WEEK! Damon's in Colorado this week working with the guy he's replacing. He'll be back Thursday night, we're signing our house away Friday afternoon, my uncle Jack will be here to pack and load us Monday and Tuesday, and we take off Wednesday morning. I don't have a clue when I'll have internet access again, so I don't know when I'll be able to post again after next week.

The other day, I was carrying Abby and happened to look in the mirror. When did she get so big!? Damon pointed out that she's now more than half my height. I can't believe she's almost 3 feet tall.

She's doing many extraordinary things these days, but she's still not really saying many words. She says "da da" (bye bye), she'll occasionally say Hi, and she knows that Damon is Dada (she still hasn't figured out what to call me). When she points at things, she still says "Da!" I'm constantly telling her what things are called, and it's starting to stick. She may not be able to say what an object is, but she understands what it is. I can ask her where certain things are, and she'll look for them until she finds them. At first, I'd say "YAY!" every time, and she'd clap. Now when she finds something, she'll stand in front of it and clap on her own. The next step is to teach her to bring me things. Then I'll have my very own servant. Isn't that why we all want kids in the first place?

She's also learned an extremely useful skill recently. I can give her a ziploc bag with snacks such as Cheerios, and she can feed herself from the bag without any assistance. And with little mess! I'm telling you, the girl's a genius! This will come in very handy next week when we're travelling a million miles to Colorado.

While digging through her cabinet in the kitchen, she found a bag with 4 of those metal baby spoons with the rubber spoon part. She's been in love with them ever since. She'll spend a good half hour carrying them around the basement. She'll sit on the couch with her feet on the coffee table, and place them one by one on the table. Then, she'll scoop them all up and put them in her mouth. They're also great for banging on the coffee table. When she tires of the table, she'll take her spoons and sit on the window ledge and start all over. She's been doing this for days now. "Spoons" is one of those words she understands now. If she's getting into something she shouldn't, I can ask her where her spoons are and she'll immediately go on the hunt.

Another favorite toy is the laundry basket. She's graduated from simply tipping it over and throwing our clothes everywhere to pushing it all over the house. She'll go around throwing clothes, then picking them up. I never know where I'm going to find the baskets or dirty laundry. Yesterday, I found a sock in the warming drawer under the oven.

Abby also has a new game she plays with her ball. She doesn't throw it yet. Instead, she'll walk around with it for a while, drop it so it rolls away from her, then pick it up and start all over. She loves it when we throw the ball to the other side of the room, so she can go chase after it.

She's finally letting me hold her hand. In the beginning, I was constantly stooped over holding both of her hands while she toddled around. Once she was able to walk well on her own, though, she wanted nothing to do with me. If I tried to take her hand, she'd smack me away with a look that said, " God Mom! I can do it myself!" I swear I caught a glimpse of the future teenage years whenever I'd see that look. Lately, she's been letting me hold her hand while we walk around the house together. It's practice for when we got out in public without the stroller, something I haven't been brave enough to do yet.