16 months!

Punk,

You are 16 months old today. The weather is glorious and not typical November, so we took a little trip to the park this morning to celebrate. You enjoyed yourself thoroughly on the swings, slide, merry-go-round, and sandbox. You are a kid! An actual kid! I hardly remember you as a baby.

You are so independent these days and have really discovered the art of the power struggle. You need to try everything yourself and the world knows you are unhappy when you're not able to do so. You climb into your own little chairs, you insist on feeding yourself yogurt (which means you wear it), you have to hold mama's camera and try to take pictures, you have to throw your diaper in the trash, and you yell "up up up!" and "down!" with every switch of your fancy.

You have started to build up a little vocabulary of words, mostly to bark out your orders. "Up" is the most common, with to occasional "down." Other things you like to say: ball, baby, bye-bye, apple, trash, book, cat, yeah, mama, whee, uh oh, and airplane. You are getting more into imitating things you hear, and your child care provider is determined to teach you to say, "love you." You like to sing songs and some of them are recognizable, including 'Twinkle Twinkle' and 'Happy Birthday.'

You are becoming quite the picky eater and most meats and vegetables are a thing of the past. What happened to my little baby who would eat anything and LOVED vegetables? Now you have discovered "kid food" and that is all you want to eat: chicken nuggets, fish sticks, macaroni and cheese, pasta, meatballs, tofu dogs, crackers, grilled cheese sandwiches, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs. You love fruit and will devour any kind. You will occasionally eat sweet potatoes, white potatoes, green beans (but only canned ones), and broccoli. You like tuna fish sandwiches. You look so cute and grown up when you take bites of a sandwich.

You are growing and blossoming right before my eyes. You have been walking for a month now and your balance is still really rocky, but you have learned how to squat down to pick something up and usually can pop back up without falling over. And you try to climb on everything - so obviously your lack of balance isn't stopping you!

You got your first major boo-boo the other day and came home from child care with a bump the size of a ping pong ball on your forehead. We were so worried for you and it is still so bruised and nasty. It doesn't seem to bother you, though! You are one tough cookie!

You are a quick, energetic, excited, strong-willed, determined, and clever little girl and I wouldn't have you any other way. You have more spunk than I know what to do with and I know that no one is going to push you around. Happy 16 months, baby punkin. Where did the time go?

Love,
Mama