15 months old

Taylor turns 15 months old today. And not only is that in itself exciting and fun, but today is also Friday, and that means it’s party time. I’m predicting an all-out Amys dance party tonight in the living room, and maybe, just maybe, Chris and I will take a cue from the Taylor school of dance and spin around in circles until we’re so dizzy we fall down.

And us copying her doing something will be a nice change of pace right now, because for the last month she has started mimicking EVERYTHING we do. Whether it be using her fake, plastic keys to lock the basement door, holding her purse on the crick of her arm, rubbing her hands together when I get out the lotion, throwing the ball to the Rubes, yelling in disgust at the nightly news - Apparently this kid has been studying our every move. Which isn’t a bad thing, especially if she can start pulling her weight in chore-department.

Taylor also picked up a few new words and facial expressions over the past month. The most noticeable - read, ANNOYING - is when she shakes her head and says No. But when she says it, it sounds more like Doh. And last week, during a sandbox playfest at the park, a bigger kid took her little shovel away from her. And then Taylor took it back from the girl. And when the girl tried taking it back again, my daughter kung-fu gripped it, pointed at her and shouted Doh! As in, No! Get your grubby hands off my shovel! And the girl looked at me, and I was all, That’s right. You don’t mess with the T.

And the independent, non-pushover story doesn’t end there. She has officially grown out of the Cling-all-over-your-Momma stage I told you about last month. She now runs into the YMCA Child Watch room and frolics the ways nuns do on top of grassy hills. In fact, it’s now more of an ordeal for me to pick her up, dislodge the toys out of her arms and leave. But then I remind her that there’s macaroni and cheese waiting at home, and she practically skips to the car.

And other than her obsession with pasta and baby-spoons, some of her favorite things this past month were her beloved baby doll, a mesh bag filled with curly ribbons and all of her books. We had a few literary-casualties this month, one in where she pretty much patted the bunny to death. And after tossing it, Chris and I braced ourselves for an all-out Taylor-tantrum, but she just shrugged it off and started loving, patting and kissing her other books.

So, there ya go, another month has passed and we’re still having lots of fun and are absolutely in love with our little girl. And while we never expected anything other than that, Chris and I will still stop and remark upon how we had no idea parenthood was going to be this exciting and wonderful. And how that just when we thought we had smiled as big as we could, laughed as loud as we ever heard and loved as much as our hearts would hold, the next day comes and we do it all over again plus some.