15 Months - Time is Flying

Seriously quick blurb about 15-month Q. (This is how I feel like my life is going right now...sort of a fast-paced whirlwind of fun mixed with frustration, stress, worry and most importantly LOVE!)

• Quinn is saying more words (in her own little dialect): happy, milk, cheese, avocado, blueberry, Dot (her stuffed animal), more, flower and banana. She also makes lots of animal sounds, the cutest being the "roar". At night when we read books, after I finish each one she says "one more". SO CUTE

• She's recognizing things more: school buses (since we see a jillion on the way to school in the mornings), flags, firetrucks, her school, dogs and she LOVES other kids.

• Little Socialite: If you catch her in the right mood, Q likes to say "hi" to people. She will just wave and say "hi" walking around  the grocery store and other random places.

• Her eating has gotten a little pickier. She's not eating quite as many veggies as before so I tend to hide them. I puree spinach and add it to a lot of things and sometimes I'll feed her w/ a fork and hide a veggie behind some meat or something else she likes.The other day she found the Nutella in the pantry...smart girl!

• Speaking of forks, Quinn can use a fork SO WELL! Her dexterity and motor skills are awesome. If she's being a toot and won't eat, I can give her a fork and she'll eat! Tricky Mama.

• Quinn is still a dancing queen. She always starts to dance when we say "It's time to dance...go, go, go Quinn..". She's also started to spin in a circle and stomp her foot.

• I think Quinn already has the super-maternal gene like her mama and grandmothers. She has a baby and I made a little bed for the baby. She likes to rock her baby and then cover her up w/ a blanket to put her in bed. She even gives it a bottle!

• I'm afraid we have a little perfectionist on our hands. Quinn likes to be clean and she likes things to be in their place. When she's covering her baby, she likes to shake the blanket out (I bet the teachers at school do that at nap time) and make sure it lays on the ground perfectly without any wrinkles or flips at the corners. She also has a tendency to put her cup down on the highchair tray and turn it ever so slightly so it faces perfectly the way she wants it to face. Oh. Dear. This could be a blessing and a curse.
• Somehow Jeremy taught Q how to look sideways with her eyes and more recently how to try to cross her eyes. It's pretty funny because she'll do it randomly while sitting in her highchair completely unprompted. She looks pretty creepy and could possibly lose friends later in life if she continues this pattern. 

• The park and outside are still her favorite things. She's getting a lot more courage to do big kid things at the park and I have to watch out for bigger kids running her over. She doesn't seem to care.

• She's still doing some sign language and my new favorite is "cold". Her face is priceless.

• She's getting quite a bit of hair now so I can make pigtails and pony tails. The funniest thing is when her hair has been up all day and then she takes it out and the hair continues to stick straight up. I love the pic below and something about the hairdo reminds me of Joe Dirt. I dunno?

• Quinn continues to prove she is Little Miss Independent. She wants to do things by herself and she knows what she wants (and wants it immediately). She got some diva sunglasses, sometimes insists on reading books and brushing her teeth by herself.

• On that note, I recently went to a training through Junior League that taught a little bit of the Love and Logic parenting method. I've been trying a few of those tricks w/ Quinn and it's amazing how she's responded to them. I'm not going to be a hardcore Love and Logic parent, but it's nice to know there are cool resources and little things you can try to get your child to respond w/out the whining, throwing a fit, etc. 

• I finally got Q a nap mat for school. They have little cots w/ blankets and pillows, but I thought she needed her own cute polka-dot mat. I laid it out to show her at home and she loved it. She says "na-ma". 

That's it for now. Of course, I'm posting this about two weeks after the fact, but at least it's here for Q to read one day. :) I'll leave you with a hilarious photo from when we were "calling" Elmo and Q was in a horrible mood.