16 Months

Naomi turned 16 months today. While our baby will always be a baby to us, I have to say, she is definitely a little girl now. She's got her own opinions, desires...she's basically her own little person. Day care has been going incredibly well. This month she really bonded with all of her teachers, two in particular, Miss Irina and Miss Fabiana. She comes home knowing so many new songs, dances and has had the opportunity to finger paint, draw with markers, paint with a roller. While I'm sad that I get to miss out on spending my days with her, i'm so glad we chose a daycare that has provided her with so much stimulation. She's become so social and loves waving and "talking" to people we meet outside, especially at the grocery store. We had a couple of rough days after her finger accident, and with her catching a couple of colds. But she's feeling all better, and back to her usual playful self. My dad has been with us for the past month, and she loves giving him hugs, tickeling him, and giving him high fives. Every night after dinner, once she gets out of her high chair, she has to run to him and give him a high five. Pretty cute.
Her vocabulary is growing at an exponential pace. Each day it seems like she tries to imitate us more and more. She can almost call all of her grandparents by name (ah-ma, nai-nai and yeh-yeh) Ironically, the one grandparent she can't call is my dad (wai-gong). Whenever we ask her to say Wai-gong, she laughs and points to my dad. I guess it is a little harder to say.
Other words new words this month are
Nana (banana)
Wow
Geh geh (Big brother)
Abble (apple)
Cheeeeese
Eyes
Rice
Silly woo (silly goose)
I ooob oop (i love you)
Yea
Bye
Up (coupled with throwing her arms up in the air)
Maooo (for what a cat says)
Baaa (for what a goat says)
eep eep (for what a bird says)

She is incredibly quick, she's starting to run and likes to chase us around the house.
She still loves to dance, her new moves consist of squatting, swaying side to side, spinning around in a circle, and swinging her arms up back and forth.
She's also proving to be a little monkey and loves to climb up on the coffee table, couches, chairs, you name it.
This month, following her accident, we also babyproofed a little more, mainly the drawers/cabinets in the kitchen. Considering she used to have free reign over all the cabinet doors, she's taking things pretty well. Partly because I leave her one cabinet where she can go in and out of and play with all the tupperware and other fun "toys". She's also allowed to play in some of the lower drawers.
One of the negative things I've started to see more of is her jealousy. She gets extremely jealous if Lilo and Stitch go near her toys, shoes, backpack, you name it. One day Stitch tried to take her Izzy doll, (one of her two comfort items), and she lost it. She ran after him, snatched it back and "yelled" at him in baby gibberish. While it was cute, i hope it's not a precursor to her not wanting to share.
But balancing out the negatives, today she finally learned how to pet Lilo and Stitch gently, and was stroking Lilo's fur today. And she gave Stitch a hug several times in the evening when we were skyping with her bff Alli.
She's also gotten good at asking for things. When she wants to sit in a chair, she usually grunts to get our attention, then pats the chair.
When she goes to her toy section, she grunts to get our attention, then points to the toy she wants. It's interesting to see how she never takes her own toy out. she always waits and sits by the toy she wants until austin or I go over to her to "allow" her to play with it. (We'll see how long this one lasts).

This month for almost half of the month we'll be on vacation with various family members. I'm so looking forward to month 16!!


Sorry the picture is blurry, but I love it since it was a typical night of Naomi sillyness, mid swaying side to side