15 Months

Our little girl is 15 months old. I think she's pretty great.

I mentioned earlier this month that Chloë started walking. Which she has. But she's a very cautious walker, and really doesn't like to walk on our hardwood floors. If we're down in the basement, where there's carpet, she'll walk everywhere. She's still a little wobbly, so she falls sometimes. Which is why she probably doesn't like to walk on the hardwood. So she still crawls as her main method of mobility, but she's making progress.


Chloë is getting more teeth! She currently has six on top (two of which are molars), and she has three on bottom, and just in the last few days had three more break through the gums (again, two of which are molars). She loves having her teeth brushed, and gets super excited when she sees her toothbrush.

You'd think with all those teeth she'd be eager to use them on food, but she's proven to be quite the picky eater. I have sort of thrown my hands in the air for a couple of things that she just hates: oatmeal, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And she's very particular about texture. Bread is great, but only if it's not too dry (or toasted), and she recently has decided she hates the crust. Oh dear. And she hates milk. At her check up with the doctor last week, this was our biggest focus of "concern." She needs the calories and the calcium, but she decided she hates milk a month ago and started refusing her morning and nighttime bottles. I haven't given up on re-introducing it in new ways, and she'll have a little with cereal, and loves cheese and ice cream, so she does get some dairy. There are some foods she loves, like her ham or turkey and cheese sandwich, with mustard and mayo (and butter, to sneak in a little more dairy).



Speaking of her Dr. appointment, Chloë is down to the 15th percentile for weight. I could stress about it, and worry and feed her potato chips all day long, but I won't. She's perfectly healthy. I don't doubt she would have a little more chub if she was more sedentary. That kid moves all the time. Even when she's sitting in her highchair, eating. And when she's falling asleep. Yeah, she's a calorie burner, alright.

Where she lacks in walking ability and weight, she makes up for with talking. She is such a chatterbox. A parrot, really, as a friend recently put it. Even if she doesn't know the word, if we ask her to say something, she'll try it. In fact, she'll echo the entire alphabet, one letter at a time, if she doesn't get distracted. I realize her enunciation leaves something to be desired. But being her mother, I understand her language pretty well. It sure is convenient to know that "cuh-keys" means hungry, despite the fact that it sounds like a very clear "cookies." She probably uses this word the most throughout the day. She'll crawl over to her highchair and say "cuh-keys! Cuh-keys!" sometimes once a second if she thinks she's about to starve to death. Thankfully I understand many of the basic things she says and asks for. "Sah" for some, when she sees something she wants. "Duts!" is cheers, and she'll raise her sippy cup and toast. Other new words this month include: spoon is "poo" or "spoo," cereal: "seh-zuh," cheerios: "choo-choos," yuck: "guck," all done: "ah nun," wipe: "why," down stairs: "tis," walk: "wah," balloon: "bah-boo," sleepy: "sthe-pah," glasses: "gah-yas," help: "ahp," Louella, "weh-wah," car: "cah," bye bye: "buh-bye." She loves shoes, and asks to wear them, pointing to her dresser saying "sue! sue!" Her daddy taught her that getting her diaper changed is getting all fresh and clean, so diaper change is called fresh, or "shesh." She's getting good at her anatomy, too. Hair: "ah," nose: "notes," eye: "aye," teeth: "teet," tongue: "tah," belly button: "beh-bah," knee: "me," or "nee," toes: "totes." She's good at saying what something is when she's pointing to it. She doesn't quite understand personal space, and if the mood strikes, likes to point out a friend's body parts.

I skinned up my knee a couple of weeks ago, and since it's been warm, I've been wearing shorts. Chloë is an attentive and sympathetic girl. About a hundred times a day, she would see my knee, stop whatever she was in the process of doing, and point to it and tenderly say "atch."

For as much as we understand, there is still an awful lot of chatter that we don't understand.


We've established that her pacifier is only for naps and bedtime. She still prefers to sleep on top of or right next to one of us. But if she has her binkie and Bear, she'll give Bear kisses, pat and hug him, and snuggle on a pillow and fall asleep. Often times in the afternoon, when she's starting to get sleepy, she'll ask for Bear and binkie, and say "nie nie," and then will have a moment of relaxation on the couch. After the moment passes, she'll hand me her binkie and hop off of the couch, on to her next adventure.


She still loves reading. Recently she has been patient enough to let us read through an entire children book. She used to get too excited about turning the pages (and sometimes still does), but she'll actually listen to the story now.


She's discovered her nostrils, and occasionally sticks a finger up her nose. (Don't have a picture of this. Oh well.)

She figured out her Radio Flyer toy this month. She can get on and off the thing, and she even figured out how to make it move.


She absolutely loves sunglasses, and will snag them any chance she gets and try to put them on. Here she actually has the earpieces on her little pigtails.


One of my friends had a baby a couple of weeks ago, and we've had the pleasure of seeing Baby Sam a couple of times now. Even though Chloë doesn't quite understand what qualifies as gentle, it has been heartwarming seeing her being so affectionate to the new baby. She'll light up, and point, saying "bay-bee!" and kiss his head or some part of the blanket he's wrapped in. She'll sweetly "pat" him, although I've had to intervene, because as sweet as it is, it's still just a little bit too much like gentle hitting. If Sam is in his car seat, she likes to rock him. I feel pretty confident that she's going to be a great older sister.