15 Months

I can't even begin to describe how much I love these two! This picture is so precious. All that's missing is Wedge. He was actually in Nick's legs, but Nick's shirt was up and I didn't think he'd appreciate me posting a picture of his belly!

Shasta was puking and fevery on Monday. Luckily it only lasted a few hours, but it was miserable for both of us all the same. She had her 15 month Doctor's appointment today so I asked him about it and he said we're probably in the clear for Hand, Foot, Mouth so thank heavens for that!

The poor girl had two shots today and cried hysterically. She was SO upset and did her wheezing cry afterwards. It was so sad to watch. The nurse made me hold her arms while she held her legs down and with each shot I could see her legs and feet get so tense and she stared at me in desperation to save her. Heartbreaking. Once I picked her up she wrapped her arms around me and laid her head on my shoulder and snuggled the whole way to the car.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 18lbs 14oz (3rd percentile)
Height: 29.5 inches long (23rd percentile)
Head: HUGE! 18.7 inches (88th percentile)

Pretty much we make light-weight, shorty-pants with big heads! I thought for sure she was 20 pounds or more. When I weigh myself while holding her and then again without holding her it's around 20 pounds every time. Bright side is maybe my scale weighs heavy... good news for me! HA!

Shasta has been so much fun. Who knew motherhood could be so enjoyable. I love watching her learn and grow and I especially love watching her mimic things that I do.

• She still eats pretty good. She has her moments, but for the most part she will eat what we eat and when she doesn't she goes hungry. I try to include something with dinner that I know she'll eat, but there are times when even that isn't something she wants.
• She eats a whole slice of pizza by herself. That seems like a lot of food to me. Most of the time I only eat 1 slice, rarely do I eat 2. It's funny that she eats as much as I eat.
• She's learned to go down the stairs (finally). We've been working on it for MONTHS and she's finally mastered it. Now it's pretty much impossible to keep track of her.
• She says dad all day long and only says mom when she gets hurt, is sad, or needs to be comforted and I think I'm okay with that!
• She signs: milk, puppy, more, all done, and bath.
• She says: dad, mom, Shasta, Wedge, juice, shoe (which when not paying attention can be confused for juice), foot, ball, don't and no (yay for that)
• She will mimic an elephant sound, monkey sound, and lion, but she won't do them on her own if asked what sound those animals make. She'll only repeat it after she hears it.
• Saying "no" is usually her doing something she shouldn't be doing. She says no when she's about to open a cupboard, dig in the bathroom garbage, play with the toilet paper roll, and so on.
• Her nickname is "Tornado". She can destroy a room in seconds. She is so busy and into everything. I used to pick up after her as she made messes. Then I started picking up while she was napping. Now I wait until she's gone to bed for the night to straighten my house. It gets old when I feel like I pick up toys all day long, so I've learned to love the mess. I used to apologize when company came over unexpectedly and there were toys everywhere. Now I don't even do that. So I have a child... and our house is lived in... I'm not going to apologize for choosing to play with my child instead of clean up after her all day long!
• She has 11 teeth and is working on the 12th one. Technically she's still working on 4 of them, but 3 have broken through and the 4th one hasn't yet.
• One of my most favorite things that she does: she picks up her baby doll (and sometimes stuffed animals) and puts it on her shoulder, pats it's back and says "aaahhh". I LOVE IT! I do it every time I pick up her doll and I love that she's learned that from me and does it too!
• She's still rear facing in her carseat. She does pretty good in the car and I'm going to keep her rear facing as long as possible. I've decided she's still a baby being rear facing. Once she's forward facing then she's for sure no longer my little baby.
• She's completely done nursing. Super bitter/sweet for me, but she didn't seem to care one way or the other. She does fine with whole milk and doesn't seem to miss nursing.
• She's been to Utah (obviously), Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, and next month she'll hit Colorado.
• She's so generous with giving hugs. I especially love when she pats my back and says "aaahhh" like she does to her babies. That only happens on occasion though.
• She's less generous with kisses, but she still gives them.
• She gives Wedge the most kisses. She'll randomly walk over to him, bend down and open her mouth to give him a kiss.
• She plays with my hair when she's tired and feeling cuddly. I love it!
• She loves to have her hair played with, but she HATES getting it curled. She doesn't mind having it put in pigtails or what have you as long as she has something to play with (usually her toothbrush and dripping water out of the faucet (because I sit her on the bathroom counter with her feet in the sink)), but as soon as I pull out the curling iron she wines and complains until I'm done. She also learned her lesson not to touch it...! She swatted at it to push it away and barely nicked her finger. Luckily it didn't leave a mark.
• We've had several bumps and bruises this month. It's always sad, but I love the cuddles that follow when she gets hurt.
• We go on a walk every night after dinner. There are nights that I'm not in the mood to go on a walk, but between Wedge standing by the door staring at me and Shasta banging on the door with Wedge's leash in her hand, it's a little hard to skip. I love that she knows the routine and even though I'm not always in the mood to go, it's good for us to get outside so we almost never miss a night.
• She recognizes when I'm about to lay her down for bed and knows that if she hugs me tighter I'll hold her a little longer because I can't resist her hugs! Some nights she'll even voluntarily give me kisses without being asked in an attempt to stay up a little longer.
• She's starting to get really feisty and opinionated. When she doesn't want something she swats at it and when she gets mad she throws her hands down to her sides and makes a noise that I don't know how to describe!
• She loves throwing the ball for Wedge. She also loves to tease him. She snatches his toys and loves it when he chases her to get them. Just today she would take his ball and wave it around in front of him in a teasing way and then throw it. It was SO cute!

I'm sure there's more, but the list is getting long and I'd be surprised if anyone is actually still reading. As a mom, I love to talk about my child and how brilliant I think she is, but all moms who have gone before me know how it is and know she's simply on track and all babies do what she's doing. Either way, it'll be fun for me to go back and read these posts when more babies come along and see how they compare.