Natalie at One

We're lacking in energy and creativity, so here are some stats to keep you busy:

• 25 lbs. 3 oz., 29.5 inches--she's actually fallen back onto the charts in weight, and now rests happily at the upper edge of the 95 percentile band
• 9.5 teeth (one molar is only partially through)
• Stands, cruises, walks while holding our hands. Takes a few independent steps only when she doesn't realize she's doing it.
• Words: hi, woof (pronounced oof), moo (mboo), meow (ow), bubble, book (boo), mama, noodle (na-da or na-na), ball, cat (at), dog (duh! oof! - she mostly just calls them oof these days), duck (duh), nana (meaning nurse, pacifier, or any other good thing to put in mouth, like a drawer pull or a piece of mulch), diaper (duhduh or duhpuh), poop (good one, moms!) oh, wow. She's working on a roar (for what a lion says, of course), and sometimes says ba-ba for sheep. Phone, button, zipper, glasses, and a few other things (Malka!) get a very purposeful and determined "dada" in the appropriate context. She clearly knows she's saying it and expects the rest of the world to understand it as well.
• Signs: milk, more, eat, all done, dog, fish, bird, cold, cheese, water, cat, car, bath, hungry, please, cereal and attempts at ball (Plus her invented sign for train--one hand up in the air. We think it comes from pointing/waving at trains through our window. Whatever the reason, anytime she sees/hears a train, up goes the one hand.)
• Favorite foods: frozen peas and other frozen vegetables (yes, she eats them still frozen--nice on the gums--though she'll also gobble them cooked), frozen blueberries, freeze-dried fruit, noodles, beans, hummus, yogurt, cottage cheese, tofu, applesauce, water (she LOVES, LOVES water)
• Non-favorites: fresh fruit (oops--we'll rectify that this spring/summer as more stuff comes into season)
• Loves: books, balls, being outside, anything the big kids are doing, swings, slides (she climbs the small one in our cohousing tot lot by herself), music, paper, plastic, cardboard, climbing things, anything she can use as a walker, baths and other water activities
  
• Hates: when her moms take away the wonderful "toys" she's found in the trash can, or that they unthinkingly left in her reach, those darn hats with ties that she can't instantly remove from her head, tooth-brushing
  

And a few entertaining details

• If you tell her that something is hot, she will blow on it to cool it down. This includes the oven.
• When she finds something she's excited about, she will pick it up and examine it while saying "oohhhhhhh...woooooooowwwww." It gets louder the more off-limits the item is.
• She's learning to blow kisses. If you blow a kiss at her, she'll blow back. Minus the kissing part.
• She quite happily announces when she has pooped, or sometimes, when she's going to poop. In those cases we'll put her on her potty, explain that she can poop there, and read a few books to distract her. She'll then sign "all done," get up, and a few minutes later, poop on the floor or in the bathtub. Nice, eh?
• She LOVES music. Anytime we finish singing a song, she'll sign "more." When listening to her CDs in the car, she'll grunt impatiently in the brief pause between songs. We're learning to make good use of this--singing gets us through a lot of things (nail clipping, toothbrushing), and is very good at calming her down when she's too wound up to go to sleep or when she's upset.
• Her hair has an interesting ability to change color depending on the light and what she's wearing. There is definitely red in her hair, but its prominence varies daily. She also has curls. As one who has suffered a lifetime of boring, straight, uncurlable hair (believe me, I've tried), this pleases me greatly.