15 months! (and one day..)

It's hard to believe Rachel was ever an infant. Lucky I have the pictures to prove it! She's barrelling toward toddlerhood and I can tell we will soon have less and less control of her. She is:

--Approximating words. Her favorite is, "whash shat?" which Drew and I have translated to, "What's that?" since it is always accompanied by pointing. Now that we get to explain stuff to her, it makes talking at her much more interesting.

--Standing perfectly. And taking one tentative step before sitting down. It's almost as if she's nervous about walking because she knows that means she's not a baby anymore and thus has more responsibility along with the freedom.

--Building stuff. Which, in Rachel-world, means stacking one or two blocks atop each other until she loses interest.

--Matching some shapes and colors.

--In love with puzzles, simple ones. I can already imagine the day when she and Drew put together a 1,000-piece jigsaw while I read a magazine next to them, all of us in front of a roaring fire.

--Eating tortellini, whole-grain noodles (yuck, I say, but she doesn't mind the taste), hard-boiled eggs, almost any kind of fruit, cheese sticks and challah, her favorite bread. Yes, folks, she's Jewish.

--Developing a mischievous side. Sometimes when she's delighted, she'll squint her eyes and give me a huge grin and twsit her torso from side to side. Or when I feed her, she'll squint her eyes, tip her head and open her mouth, expecting mommy to feed her like a mommy bird would feed a baby bird!

--Very cuddly. She has started to put her head on Drew's shoulder and chest but reserves her cuddly moods for mommy. Today at daycare, I couldn't find an attendant to hand her to, so I took her over to a rocking chair, sat down and held her in my lap. She immediately lay her body against mine and tucked her head under my chin. I could have sat there for hours.

--Still looking like Drew. We are positive her eyes will stay blue.

--Growing, growing, growing. She is LONG and she has large hands and feet. She also has wavy brown hair with little curls in the back and a nicely developed baby tummy.

--Climbing everywhere she can and is tremendously frustrated she can't hoist herself onto our leather loveseat in the living room. Hey, I thought they were supposed to walk before they could climb!

--Bouncing to music. Her voice, to me, sounds musical too -- it's fun to listen to babies figure out how to use the timbre of their voices to speak. Never thought watching language development could be so interesting.

--A daddy's girl. Drew has spent more time with her than I have this past month, and they definitely get along wonderfully. I have to admit, though, that she gets excited when she's in his arms and sees mommy coming. Then it's back to "Dada."

--Pointing to letters of the alphabet and waiting for me to say what they are! Thanks to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for being the most awesome book ever...

--Completely absorbing to watch. Now we know why couples don't have date nights. It's far more entertaining to stay home and watch what the baby does.