Today, dear Bean, you are one and a half years old!

Since I am turning into a broken record, I’ll spare you the “I can’t believe how fast…” or “…how big…” commentary (even though it is still true). Instead, I’ll tell you all about the past month and all the cool new stuff.

You graduated into the next class at daycare. You aren’t a huge fan of the new setting, but are glad to have your friend with you again who is a couple months ahead of you in transitions. In your new class, you are no longer using a bottle and you are eating the school lunches exclusively! We are still struggling at home with you eating “big people” food – but we are SO excited that you are getting better.

Daddy and I have been keeping up with your haircuts (just cutting your bangs) until this month – so we went for your second haircut. It was MUCH better than your first (thankfully!) I will remember this as your first good haircut.

Last week, your cousins C & J came with Grandma and Grandpa. You LOVED playing with them. Anything they wanted to do, you were agreeable and just wanted to watch and learn everything they did. You especially enjoyed the new game of getting in and out of the ice chest that was left on the porch with a little bit of water in the bottom. You were dragging C & J in and out of the cooler for at least 2 hours! Finally we gave up and just went swimming, which you also loved.

While the family was in town, we took you on your first trip to the zoo. You were not so impressed with the animals. Through prior training, you were able to tell us what many of them “said”. You were far more impressed with the parakeets that flew away when you got close, than the giraffe you got to touch.

Your language skills continue to explode, but you are camera shy about it. Only when you are feeling very comfortable, will you say the words you know. As soon as I can, I will post video of all your new tricks. You can name all the parts of your face, you can tell us what a variety of animals “say” (i.e., moo, woof woof, etc.), you are still keeping Mama and Daddy, night night, bye bye and Bubba. You can say more, all done, and milk (these are very handy at meal time). There are a variety of other miscellaneous words you can say as well.

You went to your second wedding, this time in North Carolina. You don’t like road trips. At all. So this road trip ended up being much longer than planned. We will try to avoid strapping you down for any length of time going forward, but I would appreciate it if you could cooperate a little bit… it makes the trip shorter – making us and you much happier.

You are starting to outgrow a lot of your toys, so we will spend part of this month going through what we will keep, donate and sell. This, along with cleaning up your own toys, is one of the things I am trying to teach you – but it isn’t sticking. I wonder if it is because you don’t want to clean or if you REALLY don’t get it. The books say it is advanced for you, but you seem to be able to throw EVERY toy you have on the floor, spread them out and proceed to find a single toy to play with in another corner. I think you should be able to pick them up on demand as well. Maybe we will work on this next month.

My new favorite game EVER is the game the Bean learned this morning. She learned to blow kisses.

This game has surpassed my previous favorite game (though still in a strong second place), the hugging game. The hugging game is where you sit on the floor and she runs across the room, then with a dramatic pause, runs over to you and gives a big hug.

Over the weekend I am going to try to capture the blowing kisses game on video and will share it with you.

This month has been yet another adventure. All the things Bean is learning have been expanding. I have said it before, but I love watching kids learn and see new things. The little light going on is really amazing to watch.

This month:

Everything she did since mid-month, she did with a cold/daycare plague/ear infection/pink eye. This made her mood less than happy.

The most exciting update is language. Much like many other things – it is not 100% clear – so we are not shouting from the roof tops. (It is NOTHING like “Look Who’s Talking Too” when he all of a sudden says “Daddy”) – but we believe that she is saying “Daddy” when she says “dada”. She is also saying “nom nom” (bad habit we started when feeding her to call her food “nom noms”) – but it is language. I was really hoping for Mommy first, but Daddy is good too. This, of course, is in addition to “uh oh” and “oooh”, both of which she has been saying appropriately for a little over a month.

Walking skills continue to improve. She is now starting to climb! (I don’t know how to baby proof the ceiling). The living room is finally “proofed” (translation: there is nowhere to put a drink down that she won’t be able to get to it.) At least I thought it was proofed until she opened drawers (with nothing in them) and used it as a step to climb on the table, tv, etc. I can’t really move those tables – so – we took out the drawers. (this is only temporary, right?)

Stats from last doc appointment: 21 lbs, 12 oz. 30″ tall and 18 3/4″ head. As noted, she needs to be “sleep trained” and she can eat anything except peanuts and those things Daddy and I are allergic to (she has a higher chance, so better to wait). All in all, doing great.

The sleep training has moved from “pulling her toes off” to going to sleep on demand most of the time. The only issue we had was one night she was less than happy and wanted to explain her unhappiness for a couple of hours. Other than that – she goes to bed while still awake and goes to sleep on her own! (woohOOO!!)

About the food – she is better w/ textured foods. We’ve been sharing more foods with her and she hasn’t gagged nearly as much! (very thankful about this one!) I really don’t want to send pureed foods w/ her to Kindergarten. When we went to dinner, she ate pieces of the bread with great success! So we tried eggs… it failed.

Her body shape is officially “toddler” and is no longer “baby”. She stands up and walks tall (even when she has her belly sticking out and hands behind her like George Jefferson).

Daycare had a shout out to her new skillz, saying she would soon be ready for the next room (away from her favorite ‘teacher’). It is nice to get a shout out, but they did forget her birthday in the Newsletter.

She heard ‘Sounds of Silence’ for the first time. It was on a recording of the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of fame.  She stopped everything she was doing (playing with her tons of toys) and watched. Simon & Garfunkel sucked her in and she was mesmerized by the song. She is also a big fan of ZZ Top, but doesn’t care about the Foo Fighters.

We are officially “bad parents” because we have used the Baby Einstein videos as a baby sitter a few times this month. (it is mainly times when we HAVE to do something and sitting quietly in a safe place by herself isn’t an option.)

The top center teeth have officially popped out and the two next to them are expected any day.

She is waving and it will melt your heart.

As always, she continues to amaze me and I love her more than I thought was possible. Now if I can convince Daddy, she can have a sibling… I am not holding my breath though. He is pretty fond of sleep. He also says that he remembers my pregnancy better than I do and thinks I am crazy for wanting it again.