15 Months!

What hath 15 months wrought? Will power! Opinions! Words! And our first temper tantrum.

Meredith is more tuned in to her world than ever before. The other day I was asking Chris why our daughter was constantly barking when there was no dog to be be seen. I promptly realized that there was, in fact, a picture of a dog on the open magazine on the table near Mer. Earlier today a few of us asked why silly Mer was pointing at the sky. About 20 seconds later, we too could hear the airplane that had caused her to point. So, yeah, she's tuned in. It must be exhausting.

Speaking of exhausting: Yesterday morning we embarked upon one of our much-loved early morning So-Cal walks. It's fun to be on Memphis time and wake up long before most sane people. It's fun to have paradise to ourselves and watch the sun come up over the mountains. It's fun, that is, until Meridy decides that neither riding in nor pushing the stroller will do. Neither will riding on shoulders, or walking. We're not sure what WOULD have worked, but we do know that the peaceful, still sleeping golf course was awakened that morning by the blood curdling screams of our own precious offspring. Sorry, dear Indian Wells retirees. Unfortunately, at the point of the meltdown, we were quite a long way from home. So we had a sort of tantrum parade and spread the joy throughout the neighborhood. Needless to say, naptime came early to Mer that day.


The innocents embarking upon a seemingly harmless journey.


Tantrum in full swing.


Tantrums can be cured with donuts. I'm sure it works for adults as well.

Mer has lots of words now. Shoes, dog, kitty, please, thank you, bottle, apple, boom (after falling), down, sit down, get down (you get the picture). She also has lots of signs and uses please, more and thank you very frequently. She also seems to have figured out her own way to indicate pain: she points at her poor little molar infested cheek and says "oosh." It's pretty effective communication.

She hugs on command -- and sometimes of her own free will. That's pretty wonderful. I took her to work one day before the holiday and in the madness of the rush to close up my office and deal with loose ends while also carrying her on my hip so that she wouldn't hurt herself or anyone else, she suddenly put both arms around my neck and sort of patted me and said "hmmmmmm." Perfect timing.

Christmas was a joy and she's getting a big kick out of all the wonderful toys she received. Of course an empty gift bag is still the biggest thrill -- and a an empty water bottle with a cap to put on and take off is nirvana itself. And that's as it should be, and certainly affordable fun.