16 Months and Counting

Our little Mo turned 16 months yesterday. My goodness, how time flies.

She's got some sweet bangs, courtesy of the Dardens, I think.

She's been all smiles and happiness the past few days, which was good for me since Zack's been down and out since Thursday (fever, exhaustion).

Mara loves pinwheels and we have to stop almost daily to see the pinwheel garden at daycare. It's there to recognize domestic abuse month, I believe, but we're fiercely reminded to stop and admire them on our way in and out of school.

She's been able to blow the fan a little bit, but she mostly likes to swing it around, as shown in the above picture. She loves bubbles and can say the word! It's not even Ba Ba - it's Buh Bull. SO CUTE! She loves trying to blow on the wand and has been successful at making her own bubbles a few times. She prefers to dip the wand in the bottle and fling soap everywhere... When I tell her to blow, she usually starts well before the wand is anywhere in range - she does the same with hot food when I tell her we need to blow on it. At least she's practicing!

I got her a little plastic camera so she can get some revenge on me for the 16 months of photos... but I think she's so used to only seeing one end of the camera that she doesn't know how it's supposed to work. HA!

She's still awalkin and atalkin... more talking than ever! She was reading a book on the way home this evening and we both swear she said Baby Bird. Definitely came out a little muddled, but there was a chick on the page she was looking at, and I do tell her it's a baby bird. Regardless, she's still learning more signs and I need to go look up some more.

Mara got lots of compliments on her clearance dress from Target:

She still points out just about every car or truck she sees and likes to bang on ours:

Little Mo skinned her knees about a week ago and reskinned them at daycare yesterday when the resident toddler bully yanked on my keys (which Mara was holding) and she screamed and held on for dear life! Good for her! But she landed on her knees on the only little concrete pad by the door from the playground to the classroom. This bully kid about drives me crazy - he pushes and kicks and he was on his belly on the floor gnawing on the tips of my shoes. I mean, what??

I need to get a new hummingbird feeder. Mara's been carrying around this one and putting the plastic flower back in the hole (it's broken).

I hit up the local flea market with Arson on Sunday while Mara and Z were napping and came away with a little Thomas the Tank Engine train (paid too much for it, but I wanted it). I am so glad I did b/c Mara adores it. Get a load of these smiles:

I snapped all these when Thomas was on his way back to Mara, which she loved.

Just FYI - I really have to make an effort to anticipate (wild guess!) which direction Mo is gonna take when she out awandering... and I dive in front of her to try to get whatever shots I can. But THIS is my usual view:

BIRD! (she can spot them yards away, hidden behind a tree leaf. I dunno how.)

Thanks for listening!