Miranda is 15 Months 2015

Miranda waiting for her 15-month appointment

Miranda is tall. At least for now-- I didn't hit my short stride until I was in 6th grade, and I wasn't officially a short girl until 8th. But I was never a tall kid. Miranda is currently rocking the 95 percentile at 32.5 inches! As a result, she's out-grown almost all of her baby clothes and she's wearing 2T now. She's 75th percentile in weight at 24 pounds and 15 ounces though that part is more surprising because she looks pleasantly chubby to us. She's got 7-working-on-8 teeth.

Earlier this month...

Almost. got. it.

She says: mama, dada, James (pronounced jshyames), tickle-tickle-tickle, yes, go!, caca, and miku (milk).  She understands our commands to get this book or to bring something to Dada. She sometimes answers my yes or no questions yes (when the answer is yes) but never no (when the answer is no). Perhaps she has a block on the word no, since she ignores it when I say it to her.

She dances. Oh she dances any time there's music. She still waves one arm in the air, and now sometimes she tries to sing along. She sings cucarahhh (cucaracha) or the bah bah refrain of bah-bah black sheep, but if she doesn't know the words, she just makes up some sounds to go with it.

Playground joy!

She get up at 7:30 am or 8 am. She takes one nap a day around 11 am,  except the days she either gets up too early or takes a really short first nap, and then there's a second nap around 2:30-3 pm.

Just because it's a nap, doesn't mean you shouldn't look fab.

Feeling refreshed, post-nap.

She insists on eating with a spoon or fork now, or at least having one to use to move the food around. She is a lady.

Eating.

Watching James and Miranda play together is amazing. They totally love each other. James is very patient with her, except for when he's not. It's  funny to see how different it is than I imagined it would be. They play a lot of a sort of Simon Says, where he chases her around imitating her. This role suits her and she's become an evil ring leader. Of course, she also provides a convenient excuse to do all the things he wants to do. He says it was the "bad baby." There are no clean hands here.

Miranda combing James hair

Jumping! This was her idea.

Love!

Investigating her new toy. He's a little mad it says "Mir-ahn-da" but not "James"

• James at 15 Months 2012
• Miranda at 14 Months 2015

James is 15 Months Old 2012

James is 15 months old and it's become pretty obvious I'm never going to stop doing these posts. He's 33" inches tall and rapidly gaining on me! He's a whole foot taller than when he was born, though back then we called it long because he obviously he was a purely horizontal life form. He wears 18 month clothing, but some of the 18-month clothing being a little slouchy on him still.

Wearing my sunglasses

He's got 8 teeth and 4 molars for a total of 12, but he's definitely in the process of getting more. (8 to go!) He puts these teeth to good use by eating everything! This month he discovered he's more talented with a baby fork than with a baby spoon, so for most stuff he gets a fork now. He can also (finally) drink on his own. He was really late on that one.

Some of you saw this picture from the beginning of the month. I posted it to Facebook with the label, The Most Interesting Baby in the World, "I don't always eat beans, but when I do, I prefer Cuban black beans. Stay hungry, my friends." (If you don't know about the Dos Equis campaign: http://youtu.be/8Bc0WjTT0Ps.)  Now note his progress in eating like a real person in one month.

James at close to 14 months with black beans on his face

James eating with a fork at close to 15 months

His powers of mimicry have really taken off. He doesn't have much of a vocabulary "mama," "dada," and "light" (which he pronounces "ight"). However, he repeats a ton of stuff randomly. I recently heard him repeat "go," "oh-oh," and "Boos Coos," his version of Blues Clues.  Beyond just words, he copies the things we do, and he pretends to talk on the phone, even though as most of you will complain, I rarely talk on the phone.

"Hello, yes, I'd like a large pizza with all the toppings."

We cut out his afternoon nap and made his bedtime earlier per parent-advice on Facebook (thank you!). Everyone said to cut out his morning nap, but I think what that really means is cut his afternoon one and then try to make his morning one later and later. I'm pretty sure he'd injure himself from tantrums if I just suddenly cut the morning one. He is not a morning person. So now he takes a 2 -hour nap once a day, goes to bed at 7-7:30, and wakes up after 5 AM. Usually at 5:15, but today at 5:45! Yes, it is sad that it makes me super happy when we're still up before 6 AM. Now I just put him in our bed for the one nap because he's so exhausted, and I don't have to hold him anymore.

The last nap I had to hold him

He's full of energy and personality. He jumps up and runs when he sees me coming to wash his face off with a washcloth. It's pretty hilarious. I can still eventually catch him, but pretty soon that might not be true anymore.  He loves to dance. He climbs onto our couches and coffee table. He plays a cross between peek-a-boo and hide-and-seek. He loves being read to, and he'll bring book after book to us to read him. If you don't respond right away, he takes your hand and presses the book into your hand. He can "ride" his "bike."  He pretends to write with capped markers in his books.  He plays pretend games by himself that we can only guess at because he doesn't talk. He invents and reinvents and laughs at strange things.  He behaves for most of the day! James has really hit a good stride now.

Riding his bike and bringing along a snack

Brushing his hair in the bath

Brushing dad's beard

Peek-a-boo!

I see you!