1.25!

Alma turned 15 months yesterday.  She continues to surprise us with her thoughts and playfulness.  Sure, we don't understand everything she is thinking but the little bit of sign that she knows offers more insight than we thought possible ... or we are just filling in the gaps in her expressions and find ourselves completely fascinating!

Here are some photos to summarize her life.

She loves corn and peas ... and tons of other foods.  But mostly corn and peas.

It has become impossible to keep her clean. She loves walking through the garden and climbing in and out of the raised flower bed. Her cute little shoes are usually caked with mud. Love this about her.

She is very excited to wear headbands ... for a minute or two. She calls them hats.

When she has an afternoon snack at her little table, she likes to invite a stuffed animal and pretend to feed it.  We recently received a large supply of stuffed animals.  My parents returned all the stuffed animals I collected as a child.  It is great watching Alma play with them.  This particular stuff tiger is a hand puppet and Alma wears him around the house frequently.  I've kissed him at least 40 times in the last two days, due to her requests.

Other updates:

• Her thirteenth and fourteenth teeth are coming through this week.  This is a lot of teeth for such a little one.  For example, my cousin's child got her first tooth when she was 14 months, although that may be on the other end of the spectrum.
• She weighs 21 lbs (20th percentile), she is 31 inches long (70th percentile) and has a head circumference of 19 inches (95th percentile!).
• Joshua was so determined to teach Alma to say "mama" (because a few months ago she was only saying "dada") that now she calls both of us mama.  In fact, she also calls herself Mama because it sounds so close to her own name.
• She still refuses to drink milk.  But she loves ice cream and milk with a little bit of hot chocolate in it to change the taste.  Know that this isn't the way to get her to drink milk ... still working on that.
• Been carrying her in the sling carrier I used when she was a baby, which is a fun way to have her on my hip and still get to use both hands.
• Alma doesn't feed the dog as much from her high chair these days. Think she is realizing that the food doesn't come back once it goes to him.
• Started watching the first 15 minutes of Sesame Street with Alma in the morning (10am). At times feel that this is a slippery slope to watching tv.  Joshua contents that because I'm so keen on not having tv be a big part of her life that I will probably not let that happen.  
• Mid-month Alma was singing along with Bjork surprisingly well. I wondered if I should be proud of my daughter or embarrassed for Bjork?
• Her sign for cat is said by making lip smacking noise while putting thumb and index finger in mouth.  She might be Alf!
• She keeps exclaiming "bop!" So we have had the song by EnVogue that starts with "mmmmbop" in our heads all month.  At least until we realized that she was saying either ball or bib.  BOP!
• Alma dances with both hands up while bringing her fingers together repeatedly (basically, doing the sign for milk).  Finally I realized that she is mimicking my snapping.  Guess I dance and snap a lot.
• Most days she gets up at 7am, naps once (for two hours, starting around 12 noon) and has a very consistent bath and bedtime (6:30 and 7:00, respectively).  I've finally learned how to make her nap without nursing her, which is key to the weaning process.  I'm still nursing first thing in the morning and at bedtime. 
• It is great watching her learn sign and also to see her signing improve as her dexterity improves.  For example, she can now do a textbook "more" instead of simply clapping.  But signs like "doll" (hooking index finger over nose) usually ends up somewhere around her ear. Becoming aware of her own body is fascinating.  Incidentally, she often tells me that the large statue of St. Francis we have in our backyard is a doll.  Yes, I guess he is.
• One of the best signs she knows is "all done" which is used to say that we/she cannot do something.  For example, I use it to say "we are out of strawberries" when she requests them or "you cannot play with that" when she points to my phone and says "please".  
• Words: mama, book (gook!), hat, hi and bye (usually said in a very soft and high voice), dad, bark (funny side note: she barks when she sees things she likes or wants like crayons), bib (bop!), nana
• At story hour, she is usually rather shy, sitting on my lap, hiding behind my legs and sucking her thumb.  Until they bring out a basket of shakers then she quickly gets up to get one for each of us.  
• She does tons of funny things like spending an afternoon trying to get a stuffed cat to ride on Shanti's back and using a cut out puzzle piece of a horse to ride on her rocking horse.  She seems to like the order of putting similar things together.
• Alma will freeze to watch older children.  It becomes hard to move her through a store if older kids are around.  
• She will point to the mixer on the counter and say "please" if we haven't spent time baking that day.  When I say "let's bake" she goes into the dining room to push her baking table into the kitchen.  Then I hand her each of the ingredients (i.e. the flour and sugar canisters) and she carries then to her baking table.  She is certainly at the stage where she loves to ferry things back and forth between people and rooms. 
• She reads books while being changed.  Joshua noted that this combination -- toilets and reading material -- seems to be throughout our lives.  

Alma is an absolute joy and hanging out with her all day is awesome.  Sure, she has some pout-y moments, but she is redirected rather easily.   I love my little gal more and more each day.  When we were talking about expanding the family the other day, Joshua said that it was hard to imagine since his heart is already so full from Alma.  We would explode!  She is just that great for us.