16 months

Anya is 16 months old today.

Locomotion

Nothing new here, really. She just consistently improves in climbing and navigating. She can climb a vertical ladder at playgrounds now, uses the wall or railing to climb stairs instead of crawling up them, and is as fearless as ever. One thing I've noticed is that she hasn't tried climbing her dresser lately and doesn't immediately try to get on the dining room table or coffee table anymore. It's almost like the novelty has worn off. Let's hope it stays that way.

Speech

This has been a big month for new words. I think Anya has roughly doubled her vocabulary and is somewhere around 400 words. "Bicycle" and "soccer ball" are still favorites. Another favorite is now "helicopter". She puts together 2 words more and more often as well. She is also starting to recognize more letters of the alphabet as well as more numbers.

It makes life a lot easier for us as parents that she can communicate a lot of her needs/wants. For example, Anya says "help". I ask what she needs help with. And she tells me; usual answers are "stuck" or she names a toy/object that she is trying to reach/move but is having trouble. And she lets us know what she wants for snack time, what book she wants us to read, etc.

Other Development

Ever since I sliced my finger the other week, she's been on a "hurt" kick. She'll lightly bump herself and then say "ouch!"...."hurt" and points to where it supposedly hurts (things that actually hurt she of course cries and doesn't point to). Same goes for dropping her dolls or when she pushes them down the toy slide we've got in the living room. "Doll....Hurt".

Anya likes to mimic me and help. She sweeps and tries to vacuum, etc. She's still very much into her dolls and feeding/caring for them. She also now "reads" to her stuffed animals - she'll put them on her lap, flip pages in a book and jabber & point. It's pretty cute. Chris was also showing his parents our work in the basement, pointing and explaining a few nights ago. Anya was copying him, pointing and babbling. I wish I saw it.

Food

The only thing to note here is that vegetable/bean soup I make that has some tomato in it doesn't seem to bother her. I'm not sure if it's the amount or the way it's cooked.

The only foods we don't give her are now (besides plain citrus) are shellfish (allergy runs in Chris' side of the family, so we're waiting), chocolate (I was allergic, but this one probably isn't a big deal. I'll introduce it soon enough), and mango (since I am allergic and since she has trouble with citrus too, the chances are high that she is allergic to this).