1) Reilly becomes more and more mobile by the day. Her agility has been improving drastically: where she used to spend more time falling than walking, she now only falls down occasionally. She has even learned to navigate changes in her terrain, as when the carpet gives way to tile, or when the tile is interrupted by a door jamb.
Reilly is also a climber now. She loves to scamper up steps, and is learning how to come down them as well, though she still needs some work in this category. Reilly has also taken to scaling small-scale tables and chairs. One of her favorite things to climb is the square wooden coffee table in the living room. She swings her leg up to the edge, pulls herself up, looks to see if anyone is looking, and then smiles, because there I am, rushing over to put her back down on the floor again. Of course, as soon as her feet hit the ground, she is over at the table again, ready to climb.
2) Reilly’s speech is also improving. She hasn’t added too many specific words, but she has increased her volume of communication. She will talk and talk and talk to anyone and anything that will listen. She’s had quite a few conversations with our dog, Leia. She also mimics a lot of our conversations. For example, the other day she was trying to crawl up on the table, and I said to her, “No-no-no!” Reilly looked up at me and said, with a smile, “No-no-no!” She’s like our little echo.
We’re both still waiting for her to call us “mama” and “dada.”
3) Reilly’s favorite thing to do is to take the dog’s food out of her bowl and feed it to Leia piece by piece. Reilly also likes to sneak a piece into her own mouth from time to time. To combat this practice, we have started putting the dog bowls up on the counter while Reilly is awake. Still, from time to time we forget, and if Reilly sees those bowls down on the floor, she will bolt for the food as fast as her little legs can take her.
Today, I was feeding Reilly, and so decided put the dog’s food down so Leia could eat while Reilly was captive in her highchair. When Reilly was done eating, I put her down on the floor while I went to clean off her tray in the sink. The next thing I hear is the rustle of her little hands in the dog food bowl. I swung around and moved her away from the bowl. She tried to get around me, but I used my legs to block her path. After a few tries, she gave up and walked away. However, when I turned to go back to the sink, Reilly did a U-turn and bolted for the dog food bowl again. I could only laugh. She’s a crafty little sucker.
4) We have consolidated Reilly’s two naps per day into one nap that starts at noon. It was Reilly that really initiated this new schedule and Shawn that put the process into motion. The one nap per day is a big deal, because all the books say that babies should be taking one nap per day after they turn one, and this was also reflected in how the children napped in the toddler room at Reilly’s old daycare. Nothing makes me more pleased than Reilly doing something “by the book.” I know, I’m anal. I can’t help it.
5) Reilly’s going through another hair growth spurt. Her hair is not only growing longer, it is also getting thicker. When I pull up her bangs and look underneath, I can see a whole mess of new hair growing in. The result is that her hair has grown more and more wild, which only means that her hair now matches her personality. Shawn was able to put a clip in Reilly’s hair for the first time the other day, but Reilly pulled it out within moments, before I could snap a picture. It looked cute, though. Really, really, cute.
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