The Pope Kiddos: 15 months

You can imagine how loud this is.

Official stats:
Weight - 24 lbs 11 1/4 oz (75th percentile)
Height - 32 1/2" (95th percentile)

Lily had a doctor's appointment this morning to celebrate her 15 month birthday. This visit was particularly difficult. We think she remembers the exam room. She wasn't happy to be there. Even before the doctor came in she kept trying to get on the ground and was pointing to the door trying to get out. None of the procedures went very smoothly. She didn't like the nurse or doctor touching her and she had particular disdain for the two shots she got. She was happy as soon as we got out of there. She's growing wonderfully and symmetrically. She's still long and lean. Hopefully she'll be blessed with that figure her whole life. She's a little below normal on her words (has 2, average is 5) but she has so many signs to make up for it. Signing with babies and toddlers has been shown to help vocabulary not hinder it so I'm not worried that she'll catch up and catch up quickly.

Lily has finished her swimming lessons and has now moved on to gymnastics. She loved swimming so much. Although Daddy couldn't stay and watch otherwise she just wanted to wave to him the whole time and show off. I was pretty impressed that she could hold onto a kickboard and keep herself above water. Then I could hold her feet to show her how to kick. She prefers to kick both legs simultaneously like a frog though. She's gone underwater a couple of times (me dunking her very briefly). She's surprised but she doesn't hate it or cry at all. She likes to put her face in herself, probably mostly to lap up the water like a dog. Gymnastics is going well too. She has a private class since no one else signed up for her session. She likes jumping on the trampoline, she's mostly just bending her knees but she can make the trampoline move. And she likes the big foam block pit and just exploring and climbing on things.

She's a real jabbermouth. She's talking and babbling all the time ("daba-daba-daba-daba"). Her signing has really taken off too. She made up her own sign for cat (tipping her head over so her right ear is touching her shoulder). I'm not sure how she came up with it, but she consistently does it whenever you ask her to show you "cat" or she sees a picture of one. She still only says three words "hi" ("eye"), "up", and "apple" but she says those a lot (especially "up"). She actually just learned "apple" on her birthday. We were looking at a book together and she just said "apple", while pointing to one. She's been practicing saying it a lot since then, it's very cute. She tries to mimic a little bit but not much yet. Hopefully that will be coming soon. I really look forward to hearing what she has to say. Although it's amazing how much content we can get out of a few signs and grunting/pointing at things.

She understands most of what we say to her. She's very good at following directions, "get your shoes", "take this to daddy", "where's your milk?", "let's go outside", etc. She responses appropriately to almost all those cues and a lot more. If only she'd listen to "stop throwing food on the floor" and "stop dumping milk out of your cup".

She's taken a new liking to her stroller. Whenever she sees it she gets really excited that she's going to ride in it. So excited that she jumps up and down, pointing and grunting. I'm not sure why that fascination started.

Her papa, grandma, Aunt Melody, Aunt Anna and cousin Bella recently visited for 9 days. Lily had a blast with them. While they were here Lily was able to go to Disneyland twice, the aquarium, the zoo and the beach. She loved all of it of course. And she loves her cousin. She's pretty good at sharing things with her and she likes holding her hand (more than Bella would like) and they even danced together (until they somehow toppled over--see below). Lily is pretty much obsessed with the water, we have to watch her carefully. She'd jump right into a pool or walk right out into the ocean--she doesn't have any fear at all. When we were at the beach she kept wanting to go deeper and deeper into the waves and enjoyed them splashing into her. When I let go of her hands she just walked right back out into the surf.

She had her first night away from mommy and daddy the first weekend of August. It was a little tough on mommy but we all survived. I'm not sure how much Lily even noticed. Mommy and Daddy went up to Santa Barbara wine country for a wedding (congrats Kelly & Mike!) and bauby and grandpa came up to stay with Lily. Lily enjoyed being the center of attention and showing off all her skills--especially her dancing skills apparently.

Milestones
Wearing 18-24 month pants and dresses, 2T shirts
Wearing a size 6 shoe
Wearing a size 5 diaper
Has 6 teeth (got a new molar on the bottom left below her other molar)--still so many teeth to come, hopefully they'll just get here soon.
Words: hi, up, apple
Signs: milk, more, food, water, cat, alligator, elephant, bath, brush teeth, dance,
Animal sounds: dog, cow, monkey, fish
Can point to: nose, mouth, tongue, hair, head, belly, eyes, ears, hands, feet. Loves pointing to others' features too.
Favorite book: One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish by Dr. Suess
Favorite toy: Elmo