15 months

Charlotte is nearly 15 months old. I can hardly believe, she is just about a toddler except I don't want to let go of my little baby. She is being so adorable at the moment, in between the temper tantrums that is. Whenever something doesn't quite go her way she gets so frustrated and screamy. I am getting used to ignoring it though as I know it is just her way of communicating with the world. Here are a few more of her current milestones:

Eating: We have started to have dinner together as a family. I am really enjoying this, and she eats alot better without spitting out as much. We let her help herself and surprisingly she doesn't make too much of a mess. Charlotte has her own fork and spoon but often gets us to load them up. James and I also tend to have a glass of wine with dinner and the other night she desperately wanted one, so we got a plastic wine tumbler and gave it to her with some water. She has a drink from it, puts it down on her coaster and goes "aah". It is so cute. She is also still wiping her mouth and blowing her nose when she is finished, then wipes the tray with the paper towel. It is amazing what she has picked up.

Mobility: My god she is mobile! All of the dining room chairs are now lying on the floor, otherwise she is up on them within a heartbeat, then she climbs on the dining room table, stands there and waves. Scary. She had been climbing up on the pram so we put a big teddy bear there. Now she climbs up on the outside instead. I think we will be spending alot of time in emergency wards over the next few years.

Language: We are starting to notice the odd word coming through. Cat has come back, and we also now have duck and dummy. There is alot of babbling, especially if she is talking on the phone. She has a few pretend phones, but if she is in the mood she will use her hand for a chat. She really has the intonation and pauses as if she is talking. As I mentioned before she is also getting frustrated at everything so there is alot of screaming. I am trying not to give in to her - for example she tries to push her cart over the step and can't, but she is able to lift it up. I encourage her to do this rather than do it for her and today she was doing it by herself.

Playing: She loves to play outside especially with her sand table. I have been a bit slack about taking her outside, largely because we have terrible mozzies and I am worried about her getting bitten (which she did badly last week). But she does love it. I did try some fingerpainting with her, which I thought was great, but she didn't. Her other favourite toys are the push cart, her blocks (she can stack up to 5 up!), her piggy bank and her puzzle pieces. She can't work out the puzzle boards, but the pieces are alot of fun to play with. And of course her books. We must read books a dozen times a day. "where is the green sheep", the numbers book, and an alphabet book from the government are among her favourites.

Sleeping: We finally have a baby that sleeps through - most nights. Now dinner is a bit later she is going to bed later too about 7.30 or so, and wakes up about 6.30 am. She still has that cough and some nights she will cough for up to half an hour. It is quite distressing for us but she often won't even wake up. The demazin didn't seem to make a difference but steam does. It is really frustrating but I don't know what else to do.

She is just SO adorable right now. From loving her new shoes, to brushing her hair, giving us big kisses or tickling my tummy. I love her more than words can say.