Aylin - 16 months

Wow, it's really hard to believe that my baby girl is so not a baby any more! She will be 16 mos. old next Saturday... Jeff and I are constantly commenting on how amazing she is, and how fun it is to watch her learn and grow, and develop this awesome little personality. She is a spunky little goober. So full of energy and fun! She also has a lovely little temper... but don't all kids come into that at this age? (please tell me they do, and this is only a phase!)

Aylin has been walking pretty much full time since about 13 - 13 1/2 months. Once she figured it out, she didn't go back to crawling hardly at all. She's also gotten to running in the last couple of months now that she's steady on her feet (most of the time). She also has started in the last month or so to climb on things. We made the mistake of leaving too many things close enough together one day that she could climb high enough to get on a kitchen chair. We left my kitchen foot stool next to a cooler, which was next to a kitchen chair facing backwards to the table. She climbed on each and was playing with things on the table. She has this mischievous grin, too, when she knows she is into something she shouldn't be. Once she makes eye contact with you she'll grin and shake her head no and either act like she wasn't doing it, or continue on. Depending on if she thinks you are going to stop her or not.

She's talking some. Most of it we just don't understand yet. But she talks A LOT! The things we DO understand are: Mama, Dada, Si-Side (Outside), Bi-ee (Bite), HIIiieeee (Hi!!), Nonon (No), Ni-ni (night-night), Sock, Caaa (Car), Bu-Bu (Bye-bye), 'S Dat (What's that?), and LOTS of pointing and grunting and shaking of the head! :D She also does this cute thing when she wants to watch Veggie Tales. She'll point at the TV and go Buh-buh-buh-buh! She LOVES the songs especially, in any movie really. She likes to boogie!

We've found that even though she LOVES bath time, she does NOT like pools... We spent some time at Aunt Kris & Uncle Brad's place in Dallas Memorial Day weekend to welcome Bradley back home from his tour of duty, and Aunt Kris has a nice pool. She even got some fun things like a floating baby seat, and all kinds of floaty toys. Aylin wanted NOTHING to do with them, and wouldn't stay in the water for more than a few minutes and that was being held by mommy or daddy. She didn't even want to think about sitting in the floaty seat. Oh well. I still think I might try to get a little kiddie pool and see what she does with it. She likes to play with water, especially when it's the dogs water dish. We shall see...

We've recently been introduced to bubbles, and sidewalk chalk. She loves to chase the bubbles, and we mostly just pound the chalk to death. But hey, it's chalk... and it's cheap. She can get it all over the place and mash it to pieces and it's all good. :)

She's still a tiny little booger. At her 15 month apt she was between the 15th - 25th percentile. She was right around 26 lbs (I think, can't remember exactly). She's a bean pole. :D When she wears disposable diapers the 12 month pants that are right for length, are too baggy for her little waist! They'll fall right off of her if they don't have an adjustable elastic on the inside of the pants. And for this I can be grateful, because at least for now she stays in clothes longer than other kids do. There are still some 9 month onesies she can wear! Her feet are the same way, itty bitty! She is in a size 3 these days. Which if you look, that means 6-9 month size... supposedly.

Changing gears ... Work has been tough for me lately. There has been a lot going on, and going wrong. So it has required a lot more from me than I really want to give. A lot of times it consumes me, and I have a really hard time leaving it at the office. It's a catch-22, because I feel like I'm missing out at home because I've got so much going on at work. But then because I'm so worried about what I might be missing out at home I end up maybe not giving work my all. So neither one gets what they really need. Like I said, it's been really hard and I'm trying to find some balance.

Where we go from here, only time will tell and God knows. I'm ready for something new. Bring it on.