14 months!

Wow - 14 months came REALLY fast.  While she has some new tricks up her sleeves, Gabriella is still the same firecracker of a little girl in a tiny package.

Gabriella loves attention, playing chase, chocolate, cheese, ice cream, floating on her back in the bath tub and climbing.  She also loves banana strawberry chocolate milkshakes (let's be honest, who doesn't love a good milkshake?).

She dislikes having her face wiped after eating, having keys taken away from her, going to playcare at the gym and waiting for milk.

We had our first truly bad plane ride with her this month...yes...we were THOSE people with the baby on a plane.  But seven out of eight good flights isn’t bad!

Words she consistently repeats/uses (or at least tries to) are milk (dit), baby (dayday), bye-bye (dye-dye), hi, upstairs (uh tai), downstairs (da tai), up (ut), out (ow), thank you (tay dee), all done (ah duh), again (ah duh), i love you (sounds like a blend of the vowels), dada, mama, uh oh (uh uh), yes (sss), keys (eees), cheese (cheesh), teeth (teess), shhh (with pointer finger over lips), and high five (hi i - with palm extended).  Mind you - many of them sound nothing like they are supposed to, but she is trying very to communicate verbally.  She has shaking her head no and sign language for more (used vigorously when ice cream is present) down pat.

She hasn’t shown any interest in repeating animal sounds yet.  On occasion, when we ask her what a duck says, she will respond “duckaduckaducka.”  However, I have also heard her muttering this to herself when she plays and/or when she is upset, so I don’t think there is much to the coincidence that this is the only animal “sound” she will respond with.    

She has learned a lot of body parts this month. When she doesn’t assert her toddler independence by shaking her head no when we ask her about a body part, she will point to her head, hair, ears, nose, mouth/lips, belly button, toes and stick out her tongue when we ask where the part is.  She will point to my/Michael’s head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth/lips, belly button, toes and teeth.  She can also point to her pants, shirt, coat and hat when we ask her about them.

She is a climber.  In the past month at Gymboree she has mastered climbing up the slide and the ladder.  Last week our instructor, Miss Jeannie, observed Gabriella as she leapt off one of the structures (about 2 feet high) head first into the foam mat below and commented, “she’s fearless, huh?”  Oh, Miss Jeannie, you have no idea!   

She may be the only toddler in the world who couldn’t care less about bubbles (she is certainly the only kid in our Gymboree class).

No big change in clothing/shoes/diaper size from last month.  I’m guessing that she is still weighing in around 18-19lbs and hasn’t changed much in height.  

She is gradually becoming more cuddly and affectionate and gives many hugs and kisses daily.  

The window for auditioning for the next big vampire movie has passed. One of G’s front teeth cut through this past month (she now has a grand total of 5 teeth) and the other front tooth not far behind (i think...).

She is trying so hard to jump and it is funny to watch her bounce up to her toes and come back on to flat feet with the hugest smile on her face.  

Here is Miss Gabriella at 14 months...

P.S.  A note on yesterday's post:  In talking to my mom yesterday, I discovered that all those outfits that G tried on (which I thought were size 12 months based on the labels) were actually size 0-6 months...well that explains why they seemed to be really small on my petite 14 month old.  I mean, I know kids are getting bigger, but the size discrepancy between what I thought was 12 months "then" and 12 months "now" did seem a bit much!