Emilia - 16 Months

Little Wheelia is 16 months now. I feel like she's older already, and am tempted to say a year and a half all the time, but two months of development at this age is still significant, so I am reminded that she still has a ways to go!

Dominic at 16 Months

I cannot get over how massive he was

Weight: 23.6 lb (77th percentile)
Height: 31.5 inches (65th percentile)

Likes:

• Rough-housing. She's a little dare devil and her and Dom are often wrestling and running around and being crazy.
• Dancing. 
• Blanket (still her favorite, other than me :) )

Dislikes:

• Mashed potatoes. I think it must be a texture thing. I could tell she liked the flavor (covered in Bo Bo Moma's gravy. mmmmmmm!!!), but her face was definitely showing dislike for the texture haha! She still enjoys french fries though. 
• Being helped when she doesn't want help. Miss. Independent. Lord help you if you try to help her with something and she wants to do it herself. It will serve her well in the long run, but makes for fun toddler days!
• Having her teeth brushed. I'm pretty confident this has to do with the fact that I try to do it for her. (see previous bullet point...).

Notes:

• Moving towards size 18 month clothing, depending on the brand and how many times its been washed. Size 4 diapers, size 4 shoes. 
• Words: Ball , bless you (ah tu - with thank you sign), thank you (tae tu - with thank you sign), up (puh), book (bvoo), cheese, pee-u (while plugging her nose), no thank you (shakes head and says thank you), please (sign and peees), help (just signing), Daddy, Dom (Dah), Puppy, Milk/Water (woh woh woh), Hiiiiiiiiii, Bye (DAHH!), ya, toes, shoes (dooos), poop (boop), Oma (mmmmma).
• I think she's closer to potty training than Dom is. She does not like to be in a dirty diaper. If she poops she will stop whatever she's doing, come to me and point to her diaper and say, "boop" and then lay down on the floor and wait for a change. Makes things very easy for me!
• She tries to say everything we say with proper inflections and everything. 
• Animal sounds: dog (ruff ruff ruff), cat (me-owwww), gorilla (thumping chest Tarzan style), elephant (raspberry with arm as trunk), rabbit (hand up on her head trying to do bunny ears and smacking lips), fish (kissy face - always leads to a real kiss), snake, monkey, giraffe (she points to her neck and tries to say, "looooooong neck" - because I have no idea what a giraffe sound is), and my favorite... the whale!
• Whale. I didn't know what to do for this one, so I just started speaking like whale, "Heelllllooooooooo Doooooominiiiiic! Heeellllooooooooo Emiiiiiiillliaaaaaa!" Now she goes, "AlllllooooooweeeeeeeeliAH!" and is very proud of herself and it's so freaking cute. 
• Can point to head, nose, eyes, mouth, hair, ears, bellybutton, bum, toes. 
• She's starting to get her molars. I think there are three poking out. 
• She can do simple puzzles. All of a sudden something clicked. The animal Melissa & Doug ones are pretty doable now for her. She wants to try Dom's harder ones, but that just gets messy and annoying when she throws the pieces everywhere. 
• Tests the rules... constantly. The kids aren't allowed to bang their cups at the table whie we're eating. They get one warning and after that their milks get taken away and put in the fridge. It's an established rule and they both know it. Emilia will do a couple test hits and look at us, so we give her the warning. Then she looks up with a grin and does one more big hit and hands us her cup. How is a 16 month old winning at life already?! Going to be some fun teenage years. 
• She demands that I take her shirt off often. I'm not sure if she hates clothes or just wants to play with her bellybutton. Maybe both. I put her in a long sleeve for bed and she kept whining and pulling at the sleeves around her wrists. A summer girl already!
• She has the most hilarious giggle. It lights up a room. That's cliche, but it's true! If you've heard it, you know. 
• She's started playing better by herself and loves to read books. 
• Speaking of books, if I do try to sit down for 5 minutes and take a break I immediately have 2 kids on my lap with a pile of books being brought over. Sigh... at least I just rotated out our book supply so I'm not completely sick of all the ones on our main floor now. 
• She eats anything pretty much. She doesn't complain or fuss much at all. The kids are both champion eaters lately (except Dom and his stalling techniques, but he's not picky at least). 
• Dances along with some of the Wiggles songs
• Still won't sit and watch TV for more than a couple minutes. Sometimes I just want a break!!
• She is doing much better with other people. She uses her tears to manipulate a lot, and pouts if someone looks at her funny, but she has improved SIGNIFICANTLY compared to a few months ago. 
• Speaking of manipulation, I have to watch how I respond to her and Dom's tiffs. They'll be having an argument and she'll start crying and I assume Dom has done something to her (probably true), but I am learning that her reaction is often not appropriate for what was done. She jut likes when he gets in trouble and she gets a snuggle. I'm not exaggerating. She's tricky.
• Tries to open doors already. Dom JUST figured out doors. Hopefully it'll take her a while yet. 

I just had to do it. I also have a shirt that matches these. One day we'll get a pic of all three of us haha!

Now for a little Dominic Then & Now

I did not ask him to make this face. I hadn't even looked at his 16 month photos when we took these. He apparently is just the same cheeky child!

Something weird happens on the inside when you look at baby pictures of your babies. I can't remember what he was like at that age and that's so hard! Thank goodness for modern technology and Google Photos for making videos from those days easy to access. I now realize I have hardly any videos of Emilia.