I'm behind on posts. No big surprise there, but I'm finally getting around to Vivian's 15-month update. She's closer to 16 months, but that's a fine point. We took photos a day early this time around because of impending travel.
Here's the collection from 15 months.
As you can see, she's getting around. A lot. Sitting still is pretty much a thing of the past, although that's been true for quite a while. Now she runs, and plays chase with Theo, Daddy, Mama, the dog, and pretty much anyone who will get her. Theo loves to "capture" her, which basically involves chasing her down and then wrapping his arms around here, usually inadvertently picking her up as well.
If you take a closer look at the photo, you can see Vivian wearing her penguin pajama pants. She brought those out and asked to put them on and I obliged. Vivian loves clothes. One day she wore three pairs of pants - the pair I dressed her in, followed by a second pair of leggings, then a pair of corduroy pants. She also loves shoes and hats. In addition to pants, those are the things stored within her reach, but if she had access to her entire wardrobe I'm sure she'd go through all of it. Unlike some stories I've heard, she doesn't change outfits multiple times a day. She's much more likely to continue building her fashion up as the day progresses, adding a hat (or two) here and there and shoes and whatnot. She is often frustrated by the fact that she can only wear one pair of shoes at a time. She tries to put a second pair on top of the pair on her feet and even with help she can't get into them. It's hard having so many choices and so little time before she grows out of things.
We didn't have a 15-month doctor's appointment to check her growth. She's not due back for a check up until 18 months, as she was fine at 12 months and apparently with second time parents they don't feel the need to see kids as often. She was 18 lbs at one year, and I sincerely doubt she's more than 20 now, if that. She's tall and skinny, which is not a surprise.
But she's still got a big appetite. Vivian likes to eat, and except Gouda cheese we haven't really found anything she doesn't like. The other day she took advantage of an open fridge to take out a bag of shredded cheese, and took it to her seat to load up and eat. I'm totally on board with that. She likes fruit and veggies, but doesn't get scrambled eggs as often in the morning. She loves carbs and dairy and most meat, and cheese quesadillas and deli meat feature prominently in her diet. Peanut butter and jelly is also popular, although macaroni and cheese is still the best bet. She loves macaroni and cheese. She also loves some of anything anybody else has on her plate, and insists on having some for herself at any given meal.
She's totally in the mimic stage, especially with Theo. If she sees him doing it, she's going to be trying it in a matter of minutes. She's much more of a climber, and adores going up and down (and up and down and up and down) any set of stairs. She can go up no problem but hasn't perfected the art of going down. Luckily for me (and for her I guess) she's very patient. If she detects any difference in the texture of the floor or ground she waits with her hand up for someone to come give her a hand down the step. Sometimes there isn't even a height difference, but I will not discourage this habit. She loves swinging and slides at the playground but gets a little miffed that she can't just climb back up the slide (part of that is lack of ability and part of that is our own house rule of only going down slides) and instead has to go all the way back up the steps to go again.
Vivian is still obsessed with balls. All balls. I haven't tried her on football viewing yet, but we will see if she's still fascinated with televised ball games as well. She signs for ball now, along with many other things. Milk is the most often used, followed probably by open. She can sign for book/reading, cheese, cracker, water (although in the past week she's added wa-wa to her spoken words as well), all done, changing, and more that don't come immediately to mind.
Vivian's still taking two naps, but the big news in the sleep department is that she has moved in with her brother. They both seem to love it, and spend lots of time (up to an hour before finally collapsing at naptime) entertaining each other by jumping and tossing animals and bed buddies back and forth. Theo has just discovered he can go from his crib to hers, and they both think it's the height of hilarity. I'm trying to eliminate that habit but I'm not sure it will take. I still need to relocate her clothes into their room but until I get more storage that's not a possibility.
Vivian's favorite book by far is a copy of Brown Bear in board book form on indefinite loan from the library. She's also a huge fan of Oink Moo Meow, and a similar book from Auntie Blah by the same company (whose name escapes me at the moment) called Baby Animals. She still loves the chunky touch and feel board books like Baby Touch and Feel Animals, and seems to like bears best of all, even more than dogs and cats. She could use a Mis of her own but sadly we did not score one at the fair this year. What's more, I didn't even see one that could be collected, as Mis was won by Theo last year at the same fair.
She can say Brown Bear (brah beh) as well as water (wa wa), Mama, Dada, Grandma, Grandda, Blah, and just about anything else she likes. Those are the most common words you hear around here but there is always some really fun babbling which I have yet to catch on video. She sat down just today beside Theo and I on the couch and read herself a book out loud while I read books to Theo.
She has recently perfected the art of getting in and out of the rocking chair on her own, which she generally does multiple times a day. When she can get near the train tracks, she likes to drive the trains around the track, and ditto with cars. She loves to read and can still spend 20 minutes or more with her favorite books, flipping through them quietly by herself, which is still a shock to me. She can compete with her brother in volume on screaming and she often gets upset because she's being mistreated (which is usually the case - she's just protesting having things yanked away or denied by her brother). She shakes her head no and yes and is in general very clear about what she wants, and very infrequently frustrated by her inability to communicate clearly. When she gets really mad, she carefully sits down on the floor, lays back very gently and slowly, and taps her heels on the floor in a "fit." The whole process takes longer to complete than she stays mad about whatever set her off, and I have a hard time not laughing out loud at her displays.
She's got just enough hair on her head to get bed head or hat hair but not enough to not be called bald. It's like token amounts of hair, and certainly not enough to stick a bow into. As a result it's still hard to tell what color it might be. Her eyes are undoubtedly darker than her brothers, almost brown I'd say, but it really depends on what she's wearing and what colors are around. (They look different in the green bathtub for example.) She seems to prefer bright colors and picks out the orange and pink and coral pants over the black and brown options. She loves the multi-color stripe Zutano hat the best at the moment, but it seems to change and she may be choosing to coordinate with her outfit on any given day.
Vivian is obsessed with riding things. She will throw a leg over anything that vaguely resembles a ride, be it someone's legs (either straight out on the floor or sitting on someone's ankles while they are in a chair or on a sofa), an actual toy meant for riding like bikes and trikes and our rocket ship, as well as things like curbs that are about six inches wide and high enough off the ground that her legs hang down on either side. She rides statues at the library and would probably ride the pets if she could get either one to let her on.
Overall Vivian's nothing but pure pleasure and fun and brightens everyone's day.
