15 months of Eden

Dear Sweet Eden,

At 15 months, you continue to teach us so much about life. You are so wonderful and so new to us in so many ways, that you often keep me guessing and learning to accept what comes next.

At 15 months you still aren't talking much, which makes me worry. In fact I asked for a evaluation of your language skills to see if you can benefit from speech therapy to get you to talk. At 17 months they finished the evaluation and you did not yet qualify, but your words my dear, are limited. You use dada, up, and hi consistently, but thats about it. With prompting I can get something that sounds sort of like momma, papa and you make a consistent sound for sorry.

Your receptive language skills though are well above average, you shake your head for yes and no, sign, please, thank you, more and all done all the time and add expression with grunting, shoulder shrugs and whining noises to get your point across. For the most part you are content without words, which is so unfamiliar to me as we are a family that talks, a lot.

Your gross motor skills are off the charts- you climb the single rung ladder on the bunk beds easily, you run everywhere and you are a daredevil, jumping from one piece of furniture to the next all the time. These days I find you on the countertop in 2 seconds flat, quickly scaling the stools and getting to the top of the counter with a look of pride and a mischievous smile. You go up and down the stairs easily and have only really fallen once, a bit before 15 months. Since then you are careful to go down on your belly and take the stairs going up one at a time. We don't have any gates, so its always in your view and access. Fortunately you've accepted them as part of the topography of our house. When you are playing, everything is a stool- you stand on your riding dinosaur, and on the rocking horse, all with reckless abandon, making me fearful of a fall.

You adore your brothers, and they continue to adore you. You especially love running into Owen's room and heading right to the nightstand drawers to empty out all the small things that are too small for you. You quickly shovel them into your mouth, and as  I say spit it out you turn and run until I catch you, when you finally willingly dispose of whatever small bead, toy or trinket you've found.

In your own space you are getting more particular about choosing clothes and like to take things from drawers and place them about the room. You are such a little helper, always wanting to help along with the vacuum, dusting or cleaning up spills.

At 15 months you started the transition to 1 nap, which was a little early for my taste, but you've taught us to adjust. Now you eat early, around 11, and then head for nap before 12 to take a 2 hour slumber. It works well for you and you are our sweet happy baby when you wake up. At night you You are a great sleeper once you are down. You don't need us to rock you for naps, but you still love to cuddle to sleep at bedtime.

You continue to be an adventurous eater. At 13 months we stopped nursing and about 3 weeks later all of the pumped milk was gone, leading to a transition to real food all the time. You took it all in stride and now enjoy whatever we are eating right alongside of us. Sometimes textures through you off and you continue to not like tomatoes and cucumbers, but for the most part will try anything once.Between 13 months and now you've had a wealth of new teeth, four molars, a couple of eye teeth, but you still don't have a full set. Your teeth are so slow to come in, but you don't seem to mind at all.

You also love water, both to drink and to play in. One of your favorite things to do at ECFE is play in the suds tubs and splash water. In the bath you've taken to laying on your belly and putting your face in the water slowly while you splash. Its fun to see your brave adventures.

Every morning you sit quietly in your crib and wait for me, which is such a amazing thing for me. I've never known a baby with such patience! You are content to be by yourself and do seem to enjoy quiet time in a way that I didn't experience with either of the boys.

You are teaching me about new ways to connect with you- I'm particularly fond of reading books but you still don't love them the way I do (or the boys do) which is hard for us, but we are learning to adjust. Sometime soon I hope you turn a corner and find the same joy in books that our family shares.

You are all the things I could imagine I'd want in a baby girl and yet you surprise me everyday. We love you so much, and we can't wait to see you continue to grow.