14 Months Old!

Yes, you've already seen this photo...but it's so stinkin' cute.

I was watching Olivia in the tub tonight, and I realized that my little girl is growing up. Her little features and expressions are more mature, she pays careful attention to every move I make - often mimicking me (including attempting to do squats with during my little workout), and she is so clever - quite the seasoned tease. Her hair is long and thick now, her eyes still a stunning blue, and she's losing some of her baby chub with how active she is. Olivia is a skillful climber, adept runner, and always on the go. She loves to play ball - throwing, catching, chasing, and rolling it. She is happiest outside where she not only runs free, but also where her curiosity is peaked at every turn; "outside" is the courtyard of our apartment complex, nearby parks, and the beach.  She is incredibly smart - and is often mistaken for being 2 years old!  

She obviously recognizes familiar faces and objects, and she knows that everything has a name. She'll point to different things and say, "dis" - which I have come to realize is her asking for its name. If it's a name she recognizes, she smiles and says, "yeah". If it's unfamiliar, she'll usually say, "dis" several more times, and I'll say the new word each time until she moves on to something else. 

She continues to pick up more signs, I'm introducing new ones to her each month. It's a good review for me of what I learned in college several years ago. She fluently uses: more, food, drink, book, please, finished/done; she occasionally uses: thank you, bath, help. She understands baby, sleep. We're working on flower, ball, bird, diaper. We've been learning the names of body parts - she knows ears,nose, toes, and belly button - it's darling because she can't seem to find her own nose, so she ends up pointing to her mouth, and she LOVES to find everyone's belly button - it can be a little awkward when we're in the store and she wants to find mine. Tonight in the tub she kept asking about my elbow, she laughed when I kept saying the name. 

Recently, Liv has been waking up around 1am screaming bloody murder. She is often inconsolable. It will take Aaron or me 1-2 hours to get her calm and asleep again. One night she was even up for 3 hours! After some reading and talking to her nurse, it's most likely one (or more) of the following: night terrors, hunger/bottle withdrawal, separation anxiety, or sleep transitioning issues. We have been spoiled as parents - Olivia has been an amazing sleeper, sleeping through the night since 6 months (and by sleeping through the night I mean 12-14 hours). Up until this past couple of weeks she slept from 7:30pm - 8:30am; she would then play in her crib happily for up to an hour. Talk about amazing. Perhaps that's why her sudden night waking has really thrown us off! I am re-learning how to function on less sleep. We're hoping this stage doesn't last too long. 

Olivia loves to play hide and seek, chase the ball (or whatever object), climb anything and everything, read books (we read several times a day together, and often I'll find her in her room quietly reading), and play on the computer (she sees her Daddy use the keyboard and mouse, and yes, she knows how to as well). Livi still loves her baths, she is quite particular about water temperature and loves to splash whoever is bathing her. She is becoming a more picky eater - and will only eat food she can pick up herself (no more oatmeal, rice cereal, or yogurt). She loves PB&J sandwiches, homemade waffles, green beans (or any bite size veggies), mandarin oranges, peaches, mini raviolis, and scrambled eggs (her new absolute favorite food, she'll even take me to the fridge and point out the egg carton). We are weaning her off the bottle finally - she still has one at night, we're gradually decreasing the amount. She's not big on juice these days (which is actually a good thing since doctors are now pushing to really limit juices), but loves her milk and water. She is in that limbo between a sippy cup and a real cup - I often give her a sippy with milk to limit the spill damage, and a water in a regular cup. 

I absolutely love being a stay at home mom. There are definitely those "down in the trenches" days - but there is something so fulfilling about seeing Livi's every development and milestone. And the moments I love most are when she runs to me for a hug, gives me kisses, or just needs to snuggle on my shoulder. She and I also have started rubbing noses - "nose kisses" - super cute. 

Livi is still (and always will be) the absolute joy of our lives. Happy 14 months baby girl!