The Smiths in South Bend: 15 Months

Well, it's time for a Maryn update. Can't believe she's already 15 months old! I feel like I just wrote her 12 month update! One thing is becoming clear, Maryn is a very verbal girl. She likes to talk. Loudly. All the time. To any one who will listen. Her vocabulary is rapidly growing (book, ball, bye-bye, night-night, banana, apple, water, shoe, sock, keys, up, snack, baby, one, outside, diaper, Elmo, George, Momma, Dadda, Graycie, Elliott); of course, most of these words aren't perfectly enunciated or anything - she requires an interpreter still, but we know what she's saying. Her favorite is still "Hi!" which she says constantly at home and anywhere we go - it's her first word in the morning. Now she also says, "Hi, babe!" or Hi, Bay-bay!" I guess because we say "Hi babe" or "Hi, baby" to her all the time. It's so funny.

She also LOVES for us to read books to her (her current favorite is Pat the Bunny). She probably drags a book over to one of us and says, "Boo?" about a million times a day. And she throws an outrageous fit if you say no. Speaking of which, fits are another new development; these include screaming, crying, hitting, stomping, and momentary despair. Yeah...we're working on it. She is getting better at following simple commands, which is nice ("Sit on your bottom", "Bring me your shoe", "Put it in the trash", "Get your milk" etc). But this means she is also getting good at disobeying commands, like, "Bring that to me" followed by a crazy, giggling, maniacal run as fast as she can away from me. I can't help but laugh most of the time.

Of course she's walking (nearly running) and getting into everything. She has learned to get down from furniture like the couch, but she can't climb up yet, so that's frustrating to her. Curious George is still the most loved toy. If she can't find him she goes from room to room calling for him ("George? George! Geeeooorrrggge?!"). She loves her ride and push car, her grocery sack, her baby doll, her blocks, her Noah's ark animals, and of course, our cell phones. She also likes to go outside and see the trees, leaves, grass, acorns and possibly a dog or a cat ("Woof! Meow!"). Currently, she is also obsessed with socks and shoes - we find both ours and hers all over the place because she is always dragging them out. Another favorite thing is several times a day, she puts a bag over her shoulder and says "Bye!" and walks toward the front door or down the hall; then she comes back as if she was gone a long time and says, "Hi!". So cute. She also loves to talk to herself in the mirror on the back of the bathroom door while I get ready in the mornings.

She's still a pretty picky eater. She does have a new found love for fish sticks which is pretty funny. But thankfully she's gaining weight; at the pediatrician's a couple of weeks ago she weighed 18.8 lbs! Which is up to the 4th percentile - yay, back on the chart! The day before she turned 15 months old, she completely weaned herself - at that time we were only nursing once a day. So that's been sad and very freeing at the same time for me. She still has a little bit of iron-deficient anemia, so we're giving her an iron supplement; she's slowly increasing her meat intake, too, so hopefully we'll be able to get off the supplement in a couple of months.

I swear she gets cuter every day. She's just growing up too fast. She's learning so much and changing so quickly that it's getting really difficult to adequately write these updates; I could never include it all! Here are some highlights of the last 3 months: