Megan at 16 Months

It's time for another Megan update now that our little girl is 16 months!  There are plenty of new things going on, so let's get started!

The first thing I wanted to mention is that Megan is sleeping soooo much better than when I wrote her 15 month update. We have a routine down now where she will have just a little milk while we read 2-3 books together.  Lately, Megan has been so good with the stories and I can actually read all the words on the page before she turns the page.  After the books are done we fold our hands for a bedtime prayer.  When I put her in the crib and tell her to put her head down and she will generally put herself to bed.  Bedtime goal is still around 8pm (may get to be later if she's antsy because she's working on filling her pants - which has been quite a bit lately!)  Naps can be a little trickier and Megan's still giving us either one or two a day.

Megan's biggest accomplishment this past month has been baby sign language!  John and I had been casually signing "more" to her during meals since she was about eight months old.  However, about three weeks ago she finally caught on and signed back to us!  And she caught on to the next few signs we showed her as well like please, milk, cracker and now book.  I checked out a "Baby Signing Time" DVD from the library which she really enjoyed but was mostly help me learn words to introduce to Megan later.  Our biggest challenge is to keep encouraging Megan to use the signs instead of whining and to use the appropriate signs.  Sometimes I will ask her what she wants and she will sign everything she knows.  For this reason I'm trying not to introduce any more signs to her until we get these learned better.  I sort of made up my own sign for book (I put my hands open hands together and then showed Megan how to open and close them using the side of the hand as a hinge...).  She is very proud of this sign and I like it because it sure cuts down on a lot of whiny points at bedtime.  The other signs are nice because Megan can point to something and then pat her chest for "please" or sign "more" when riding in her carseat so I know to pass her another cracker or food.  Overall, it's definitely a lot less whining and Megan's patience has noticeably increased.

Megan's still saying plenty of words but hasn't learned too many more lately, maybe due to the signing.  Her favorites right now are up, hi, no, all done, dog and uh-oh.  However, she has started saying some animal sounds.  She was experimenting with a roar sound and we told her that was a lion and will now do it on command.  The next animal sound she learned was "woof".  She sees plenty of dogs during the week but started woofing after my parents got new neighbors with really, really loud dogs.  Now when she sees a picture or real dog she will either say dog or start woofing.  Yesterday we went down the pet aisle at the grocery store and Megan had to point out all the dogs and cats on the liter and pet food containers.  Finally, and I have no idea why Megan picked this sound up, but she learned that a cow says "moo" or "ooooo" as how she would say it.

It's a subtle change, but Megan s doing a lot btter with the stairs recently.  She barely uses her knees anymore shen going up but still uses her hands to help her.  Going down, she enjoys holding onto me with one hand and the wall with the other.  She is so proud!  Of course, this climbing is better also is her climbing onto everything else.  She sits on our desk chair to play "office" and yesterday we looked over and she was standing on the desk... Ugh!

I will leave you with one of Megan's recent fasinations... Every time I give Megan a bath she has to look up into the bathtub faucet and poke her finger in there to make the diverter go up and down.  Her little brain is working overtime to figure out what all this stuff is for.  One thing I almost forgot... Megan now dances for us when we ask.  In response to the Hokey Pokey, her dancing is her twirling herself in circles until she falls down!