Suzical the Musical

Our baby is now 15 months. She is the happiest baby in the world. Bill said last night she must have at least 10 different laughs. She smiles most of the day now that she is walking. Suz is beginning to babble mamamama and nananana. I have gotten a dadadadada out of her but it has never been repeated. She is also beginning to make more sounds. Her favorite is a sort of german sounding "tch" but she is trying to get beginning sounds. She talks with her hands and babbles with head movement telling long and elaborate stories I wish we could understand. She really knows what she wants to say. She knows the signs for more, thank you, again, all done, and shoes. Yes, she knows the sign for shoes. She is another shoe lover in the family. Every morning she gets dressed, with help of course, then walks to the shoe cubby to get her shoes. She brings them over one by one, uses the shoe sign, and says "ssssssss". She then sits down and lifts her foot to allow the shoe to slide on. This activity is repeated for the second shoe. At night after her jammies are on she puts her shoes in the shoe cubby on her own.



Susan is a master of the slides and loves to climb both small slides in the yard and go down. She walks around very quickly these days with great balance. She races and plays soccer in the yard with the big kiddos. She actually played duck duck goose with us the other day. "ddd" "ddd" "hhh" as she tapped us all on the head. She tries to name body parts by pointing and saying sounds. "nnn" is nose and most other parts as well but she points deliberately to our faces as well as her own. She can point to the correct part when we name them so we do know that she understands. Suz can do the simple wooden puzzles, loves to color-I mean eat crayons, she is great with the legos building large towers and tearing them apart piece by piece. She follows commands and understands quite alot. She is quite the mimic and tries everything the big kiddos do. I have had to take her off the ladder to Ashton's bed numerous times as well as off the side of Ry's crib and the picnic table in the back. She climbs on and off of Lilly's bed and can get off the couch (Ash just said she can climb onto the couch, crazy) and our bed on her own. She really has no fear. She climbs up the stairs as soon as I take her down them, then stands at the top pointing to go back down. She giggles the most when the swing out front touches the tree branches. She sits on the big wheels in the back and scoots around but also loves to wear Ry's helmet and go for a ride on his scooter. She does a great job riding in the buggy everyday walking Ash to school and also enjoys her rides in the Burley taking Lil to school. She is a great car traveler but would rather be in the buggy or Burley.

Susan has been sleeping all night for a while now, since about 9 months, but now she goes to bed on her own as well. Last night she was dancing on Dad's lap during the Def Jam Honors and a second later was sound asleep. She does the same for nap, if she wants a nap, and will lean into her crib after a few minutes of rocking with Mom. Every since she gained independence from walking she has grown up so fast. She is a great eater and will try everything. She refuses to eat without a fork or spoon though most of the time it is in her right hand and she scoops with her left. I still have her drinking out of a sippy but she does very well with a regular cup.

Right now the 3 big children are on the couch making up songs based on "Happy Birthday to you, you live in a zoo..." and Suz is dancing on the floor making monkey sounds in between her laughs. So adorable.