i mean, she's almost 14.5 months old already

my baby is lovely again.  for the most part.  i mean, she IS getting another molar right now.  it's half in half out.  ugh.  1.5 down, 2.5 to go.  and then all those other teeth...

anyways, she is hilarious.  this has always been my most favorite and least favorite age of kids.  well, technically closer to 18 months but y'know... this phase.

she has distinct preferences on what she wants to eat and she'll let you know.  for meals, sometimes i let her choose and sometimes i don't.  but when i'm feeling generous and patient, i will hold up a banana and ask her if she'd like to eat a banana.  and she'll either shake (most often) or nod her head.  normally she shakes her head for everything and when you go back through the options a second time she'll commit to what she wants.

she looks just like a little adult.  i have mixed feelings on this.

she's decided to start signing now.  i mean, i've only been using sign language with her since she was FIVE months old!  i mean, she used to do "all done" and then she stopped for a long time.  but now she does "all done"  (raises one hand with a casual flick of the wrist), "more" (which looks like slow motion clapping since she can't quite figure out how to put her fingers together), and please (gently scratches her chest... mostly just with one hand but is sometimes two).  so those things in combination with shaking and nodding her head... i feel like we're having all out heart to heart conversations conveying every personal detail of our inner-most desires!  it is so fun for me.  every. single. time.

how cute that she posed with her book?  she's saying "thank you aunt liza and cousin skye and cousin will!"

but seriously, i wonder if she'll stop signing again when she gets bored with it.  i'll have to keep finding new signs to keep her interested.  i tried to teach her more for the longest time ever and she would. not. do it.  then one day i showed her please and she's been doing it ever since.  when i started giving her what she wanted when she said please then she brought back those other signs!  i think baby signing is the cutest thing ever.  and i can't believe that it was only a year ago that this talking little individual was just a tiny blob.  now she is a tiny spunky girl!

other things she's loving right now would be my cell phone (still.  of course), shoes (if i take her shoes off when we get home, she whines and brings them to me to help her put them back on), getting into everything in sight, and anything that's not a toy.  what's a good term for that?  i started to say she playes with adult toys but that is definitely NOT correct.  i mean that she likes to play with everyday objects.  like thermometers.  she loves to put the thermometer in and out of it's clear plastic holder.  she also likes things with lids to put on and take off.  one of her favorite "toys" right now is toothbrushes (my favorite one has been missing for two days... i hope to find it soon) which is ironic because ever since her molars started coming in, she does NOT like getting her teeth brushed or even brushing her own teeth but she'll chew on our toothbrushes all morning if we let her.  other favorites include a pack of dental flossers, mascara, q tips, and the zippers of my cosmetics/jewlery bags.  can you tell our bathroom is her favorite place in the house?!?!

she has her favorite drawers and cabinets.  i put some toys in her favorite kitchen cabinet and rubberbanded the cabinet under the sink (her second favorite cabinet in the kitchen)... the rest she only occasionally opens briefly before moving on to bigger and better things.  i reorganized all of her toys last week and it's going much better than before.

i was totally anticipating that she would retrieve toys from the cabinet but it turns out that she likes to be IN the cabinet when she plays with them.

baby girl is also getting really close to saying a lot of words.  i know she's saying words but i have trouble counting it when only my honey and i can tell what she's saying.  but really, today she got so excited when we saw a cat meander through our back yard and she said "cat" several times!  i took a video of it but you can BARELY hear her.  actually I can barely hear her.  i'm sure you don't hear her at all.

all of the personality that comes out of such a tiny person.  i can't believe she understands what i say and then acts accordingly.  which speaking of... one of my very favorite things is when i'm telling her we have to change her diaper, get new clothes on, something random she doesn't want to do, and she takes off running in the opposite direction.  every time she does that i think it's the funniest thing in the world.

anyone else noticing that all of her dresses have been converted to shirts?  swap out the bloomers for leggings and BAM, she'll be wearing this outfit til she turns 2.  or 12.  

anyways, she's pretty amazing.