Sam-Sam at Sixteen Months

I know moms are not supposed to play favorites, but I have to say, 15 months has been the best month of her life (for me) so far.

Like a little butterfly, Sam has emerged this month with a fabulous, fun personality, tons of charm and a (usually) much brighter disposition than the one she had been toting around with her.

Cognitively, she has really become a little person. She seems to understand almost everything we say to her. If we ask her to get something, she can. If we ask her to do something, she usually will (depending on her mood, of course). She had taken to calling her special blanket "Fishy," which we could not understand until I spotted a blanket which has hung over the side of her crib for months. It has fish on it. It kind of amazed both of us that she was able to make that association and now we call of her blankets her fishy.

She now feeds herself with a spoon and does it surprisingly well. She also has become a little more adventurous with what she will eat, although peeled grapes are by far her favorite. She is growing two more molars in the back, bringing her teeth grand total to 8. But you can only see them when she is laughing while hanging upside down, which is surprisingly often.

Her walking has steadily improved and now she is walking about 99.9% of the time and doing it pretty well. She still wobbles a bit, but when she wants, she is practically running. It seems this physical milestone has improved her outlook on life dramatically. Because she is so developed mentally, R and I have the working theory that she was ornery because her physical self was behind her mental self. Now the two have met and she is much happier.

Her verbal abilities have held steady this month, but a very amusing penchant for babbling has emerged. She nearly always holds a running conversation with herself in what sounds a lot like a Nordic language. She has an ever increasing vocabulary and when she calls me "Mommy," I want to just squeeze her for an hour. Her little voice is probably the best sound I've ever heard, so I say keep on talking little monkey!

She is obsessed with body parts and we name and point to our ears, chin, nose (her favorite), belly buttons, toes, feet, hair and eyes constantly. She also mimics most sounds and loves to quack like a duck and growl like a bear.

She is starting to look more like a toddler, replete with a constantly running nose, bruised forehead and legs and a variety of small cuts of questionable origin. She has almost no fear and will happily throw herself headfirst down slides and stairs if we would let her. She loves being chased and startled and will collapse into laughter each time while screaming, "More! More!"

This month we got to meet Kristi and Isabella at the Museum of Play, which was very cool:



More photos: