Best. Age. Ever.

I am so in love with our baby girl.

The stage she is in right now (16 months) is pure joy.  She makes me smile all day long when I'm with her, and I miss her painfully when I'm not.  This is such a FUN time in her life!  I hypothesize that it's because she is old enough to verbalize most things she wants.  She can talk enough to tell us what she would and would not like to do/eat/read/sing.  She's mobile enough to run around, climb up on things, and take a tumble without it phasing her.  But she is not yet old enough to be in that 'terrible two' phase that looms ahead, where everything is uncertain and dramatic and scary and...not fun. 

We are also not in the midst of any major transitions.  Sleeping through the night? Check.  Solid food? Check. Potty training? Not yet.  Discipline? Close but not too intense yet.  So there just isn't much for us to stress about right now...it's just learning through activity and interaction.  She loves us so openly and plays so enthusiastically.  She is just awesome.

Here are some things I want to remember about this time:

*She is so freaking silly.  She will do anything for a laugh, like pick up her sippy cup with her teeth, do a headstand, make a silly face, play with her tongue...she just loves to make us chuckle and do silly things back to her.

*Along the same lines, she loves our (or anyone else's) attention.  She will repeatedly do any of the silly things mentioned above, as well as hum loudly, do a 'no-hands' headstand, and just put her nose right in our faces if we are not interacting with her at the level she would like.  She says, "Hiiiiiii," to strangers in the grocery store or at church until they say it back, and she is thoroughly confused when everyone around her isn't staring at her.  Really, I am confused by this too because I just can't stop :)

Here's a video of her playing with her daddy.

See? Fun. :)

*While she does not understand what "I love you" means yet, she has started mimicking us when we say it.  She has a book we often read called How Do I Love You and so when she tries to say I love you, it comes out, "How do."  So cute.  I'll always remember when I opened her car door to pick her up and she said, "Mama, Mama! How do."  Melt.  It's hard not to over-do it with this simple yet meaningful phrase.  Part of me wants to say it to her every 3 seconds.  But at the same time, I want to use it sparingly, in moments where its meaning is clear and strong, so she can begin to understand how powerful and special this phrase should be.  I also always want her to know that when I say it to her, I am saying it with purpose, not out of habit.

*Her favorite lullaby these days is the happy birthday song.  And we sing happy birthday to everyone we know while we are rocking before bed.

*Speaking of lullabies, naptime and bedtime have become a dream.  When she starts to get tired, she says, "Rock," and points to her rocking chair in her room. So we rock and read or sing.  After a bit, we ask, "Are you ready to get in your bed?" and she answers honestly.  Sometimes she says "No. Rock," and so we hold her for a few more minutes in the chair.  When she's ready, she says, "Bed," and then points to her dragonfly mobile and asks for it to be turned on.  We put her down, start the music, and walk away.  And she's asleep before the music stops.  AMAZING.

*We're also loving her 'grown-up phrases,' which I call that because she says them with the exact intonations that Brandon and I often use.   The most common one is, "Okay" (which she says like she's suspicious of what she is agreeing to).  She also says 'okay' in the same breath as a request for something, such as, "Up? Okay!"  I guess I say it often when I agree to help her with something, so she has started just saying it for me.  I'm not sure if I've ever met a one-year-old who asks for hummus, but Carson does on a daily basis. When she says it, she lingers a bit on the "m" sound and it's pretty funny.  There is also, "Yeah." (which she says very flippantly, "Yah" or intensely, "YEEAAAHHHH").  She has also been telling me, her toys, and her books to, "Hang on," in a sing-song-y voice, which I guess I say much too often to her. 

It is all hilarious.

You can hear her say 'hang on' in this video, as she readies a 'bed' for her stuffed dog.  That's another new thing lately--imaginary play. She pretends to feed her toy animals and takes very good care of them, giving lots of hugs and careful attention.


*Somehow, Carson seems to have gotten a bossy streak.  She first bossed me one day when we were outside, and she said, "Mama, sit down."  Since then, she has gotten slightly confused and forgets that only things with bottoms can technically sit down.  She'll say, "Sit down, milk," when she sets her cup down to pick up something else.  Or when she wants me to put her yogurt container on her tray so she can feed it to herself, she says, "Mama? Yogurt, sit down," and points to her tray.

*While she is very interactive, upbeat, and rowdy for a good portion of the day, she can also spend 30 minutes putting her animals into and out of her ark, lining up her play silverware, or putting all her animals 'night-night'. And while I could do a million other things while she is busy with her 'work' (because clearly to her, this is not playful nonsense), I just sit and watch her little hands.

Busy at her desk                                                                                                                                            Bedtime on the ark    

*When she doesn't know the word for something or just wants to 'chat' she says, "Abbadabbas!"  It will never get old.

I know one day she will worry about being too silly or too sensitive.  I know one day she will despise her bedtime and curfew.  Before we know it, she will want to do everything herself and won't think we're nearly as clever as she does now.  But in the meantime, we are soaking up every minute with her, because she is just too cool to do anything else!