Fifteen Months

I'm a little behind. Stella turned fifteen months over a week ago, but we were traveling and we're still in vacation recovery mode, so it's taken me a little while to get to this post. Also, this last month was a bit of a blur with the kitchen remodel going on, so I'm still not sure exactly what went on to document. Shamefully, I've been letting the camera gather dust this month, so we don't have as many pics of our cute little girl as we should. But, she's still very cute and has been very busy this month.

She's getting much better at walking and her newest trick is to carry things around the house. She picks them up, walks around with them and then drops them when she sees something more interesting. I have to keep a close eye when she's carrying my keys or my phone around. I never know where they may end up. She's also discovered her hamper and has learned that she can drop anything she wants in there. I never know what I'll find when I empty it to do laundry.

Her climbing continues. Whatever she is able to climb on, she will.

She had yet another haircut this month. She's getting a little better about leaving barrettes in her hair, too, so our hair options are increasing - a little. Her food options continue to expand as well. This month she tried clementines and LOVED them. We finally had to back off on them when they were showing up a little too much in her diaper.

Last month I mentioned that Stella had developed an evil laugh. This month she has perfected it. She does it primarily when she stumbles upon something that she isn't supposed to have or that she's really excited about. She lets out this little evil laugh and it totally cracks us up. We have tried desperately to capture it on video to no avail. It's totally unpredictable and cannot be forced. If you've heard it, consider yourself lucky.

The Christmas season has been fun with Stella around, but I've been mess-managing in double-time. When we first put up our Christmas Tree, Stella was wary. She was curious, but didn't want to touch it. I thought maybe it would be a Christmas miracle and she would just leave it alone. Not so. She quickly got over her reservations about the tree and loved to check it out up close and personal. She wouldn't just go over and grab the ornaments and garlands. She would walk into the tree as far as she could and then when she saw us coming for her she would reach her hands in even farther and shake them all around. One day I even looked over and saw her biting one of the Tree branches. I love Christmas and Christmas Trees and Christmas decorations, but this year, I'm super excited to take them all down.

The little girl has been growing increasingly independent. She knows what she wants, but still can't always communicate that to us, so it gets very frustrating at times. Of course, sometimes she knows what she wants and just takes care of it herself.

She's a very curious little girl and whenever we go to a new place she takes off to check everything out. Her bottom two canines poked through her gums and I'm expecting her top two any day now. She hasn't started using any new words, but has been using the ones she knows a little more frequently. And she seems to understand most of what we say. I guess that's about it. We went to Idaho for Christmas this year, so between the remodel and getting ready for our trip, the month was a blur and poor Stella did not get as much attention and focus from us as usual. Oh well. A Christmas/Travel post is forthcoming and we'll see what the new year brings for our little girl.