14/15 and almost 16 Month Update

Kate is well into her 16th month on this earth and I haven't done an update in forever. For shame. She turned 15 months on Tuesday, July 3rd, which just so happened to be my friend and former roommate, Jules' birthday, which I completely forgot about until days later. July usually does that to me. Jack, Julie...don't count on me remembering your birthdays later this month. Something about the summer heat drops the dates from my head.

Anyway, there's so much to tell you about Katelyn, but it would make this post way too long. So, I'll probably post a few things across a couple days and hope I forgot nothing. This post is going to be about Kate's verbal skills, which have been entertaining and astonishing us lately. She had her 15 month check-up last week, and the pediatrician informed me that Kate should be saying 2 to 5 words at this age. I quickly counted up in my head and let her know that Kate could say 12 words. TWELVE! Now, don't misunderstand. YOU would have no idea what she was saying unless you spent at least a week following her around. But I spend every waking moment following her around, so it's usually clear to me what she's trying to get across.

In the last week, she's added more words to her inventory. I remember Padyn at this same age had a verbal explosion. I wrote the new words she said everyday on my calendar. And it literally was a new word everyday. Some days it was two. Kate seems to be following in her sister's footsteps. In fact, just this morning, she said her first two word sentence-Bye bye Daddy. Granted, she was imitating Padyn, but she did it perfectly, and more than once.

Here's the list of things Kate can currently vocalize and we can usually understand.

This doesn't include her signs that she doesn't speak for yet-please, more, milk and dog.

dat-doo or tant-too thank you

my mine

ha hat

ah duh all done

dadda Daddy

adada Padyn

bah ball

byesh or by-by bye-bye

highsh or hi-iehi

shoosh shoes

dis this

dat that

momma Mommy

bahbah Papa or Bon Bon (it sounds the same when she addresses both of them)

aboo apple

bo-bo bubble

ah-boo peek-a-boo

teese cheese

She also has a word for Bear Bear and her paci, but I can't quite figure it out yet. And she clearly thinks she can talk. She'll look intently at me and spew forth nonsense in an extremely animated manner. I have NO IDEA what she's talking about, but the best part is, she can usually repeat it EXACTLY like she said it the first time. Verbal development in children is amazing!

Ok, really quickly, I'll also give you her stats from last week's appointment-

weight-23 lb, 13 oz
length-30.5 inches

She can point to her head, nose and tummy. Sometimes she gets her ears, mouth and eyes correct, but usually she just points to her head. She spontaneously plays peek-a-boo, usually with her big sister. She can climb in and out of her stroller by herself, as well as buckle its buckles. Reading is becoming more of an interest, but she still prefers to walk around in circles, eat markers and crayons, or splash at the water table.

Oh, and she can almost climb out of the bathtub. I'm waiting for the day she decides to try it out on her crib.