Lyla at 16ish months

Right after New Year's, my friend Nancy came to visit with her little boy Truman. Truman is exactly one month older than lyla and was 15 months at the time. I couldn't believe how much older he seemed than lyla! He seemed like a kid and lyla still seemed like a baby to me. He colored, he sat at the table in a real chair, he communicated with Nancy....I couldn't believe it. Nancy mentioned at the time that a lot of the grown up behavior he was showing had really I merged in the last month and that 15 months was a big turning point for him. I have thought about that a lot because I feel like Lyla has grown up a ton in the past month or two, I have really felt like I've seen the "baby" leave her and a toddler emerge. It has been crazy to watch, and so much fun. Here's an update on some of the things she is doing(warning, very detailed, boring post to follow).

Folding her arms: this girl is the prayer police in our house. Whenever she is in her high chair and I bring my lunch or our dinner over to the table, she immediately folds her arms. She does the same at bedtime after we sing her song. She only lasts a few seconds into the prayer with her arms still folded, but it's pretty cute.

Coloring: we don't do a ton of coloring, but anytime she finds a pen and paper, she is very eager to draw. She is absolutely obsessed with Todd's little green notebook and loves to take it out of his pocket and draw. I need to be better about carrying crayons around with me to have in replacement for pens she always seems to find.

Teeth: she is in the process of cutting all her canines. So far 2 have come through--the top right and bottom left.

Phones: Lyla loves to talk to daddy on the home while he is at work. She used to just sit silently and listen, but she is getting good at talking back. She also got a toy leapfrog phone from nana for Christmas and she LOVES it!

Talking: this girl doesn't have a whole lot of words(though I think she's actually said quite a few at least once), but she is really into talking. She does the funniest babbling and will walk up to me, stick her face in front of mine and just go off. My favorite is when she walks up to one of her cousins like Mya, squats her little legs and tilts her head so that it is inches from their face and tells them a story. She also says "yeah" a lot, and if you ask her a question, she almost always nods her head and responds with "yeah", as though she agrees. I look forward to her expanding her vocabulary, but I am going to miss her funny talking stage. We may not understand her, but she has a lot to say, that's for sure!

Copycat: Lyla observes so much more than I realize. Her new favorite thing is to climb on top of the toilet and play with toothbrushes and makeup, or whatever else is on the counter(slight improvement over her previous go-to of playing in the toilet bowl). The other day she grabbed my makeup brush and my bare minerals foundation and started rubbing the brush on the bottom of the container and then rubbing the brush on her face. It totally blew me away that she has been watching me that closely! It's a good reminder to be on my best behavior!

Communication: I feel like Lyla is much better able to communicate now than she was even a month ago. She still doesn't say many words, but she is good about grabbing my hand and showing me what she wants.

Outside: speaking of what she wants, thanks to a brief spell of nice weather, this girl is now obsessed with going outside. The other day after Todd got home, she went into our bedroom, brought out a pair of my shoes, insisted I put them on(layed them out in front of me and then proceeded to grab my feet and stuff them in the shoes), and started waving her hand vigorously like she does when we say "bye-bye" to daddy in the mornings. I turned to Todd and told him that I wished I knew what she was trying to say. He suggested that maybe she wanted to go outside and sure enough, next thing I knew she was pulling at the front door handle. So our little family went for an evening walk in the dark and it was tons of fun. Lyla walked for forever and loved every second of it. Now she is constantly bringing me her shoes and pumping her little fist(generally accompanied by some whining), begging to go outside.

A picture of our first late-night adventure

An example of Lyla's whiny face when she's begging to go outside

Tantrums: oh goodness, this little girl has learned how to throw a mean toddler tantrum. Refuse to let her play with the iphone? Take an uncapped pen away from her? She has No problem immediately laying herself face down on the ground and screaming. We are doing our best to roll our eyes and ignore.

Shoes: they were briefly mentioned before, but she is obsessed. She brings me shoes approximately 15 times a day to put on. Or change for her. She also often brings me my shoes and likes me to put them on. Lately she is a little more into putting them on herself and sometimes gets irritated if I try to help her. She concentrates really hard and almost always manages to put them on the wrong feet.