Tula is SIXTEEN months old!

This month has been one of those months that I would have had to post multiple times a day to remember or journal all of the changes Tula has made. She is just a little sponge right now, soaking up everything that is going on around her and figuring out how to incorporate it into her own little world. She seems to really just "get" things now, more than ever. A few months ago, it was exciting watching her learn and do one step commands like "put this here" or "go get that" or whatever. But it's totally different now. She tries to tell me things, or she gets the humor in something, or she does things she knows will get a reaction. It seems sometimes like she is thinking steps ahead, and it is just so fun to watch. Seeing her little brain develop and grown, and her personality as well, has been so fun this month. Here are a few examples of how much she amazes me:

- Yesterday she got a ball that came in the mail. her first ball. She was so excited, we took it out of the box and I said "Let's go to the park and take your ball." So we walked across the street to the greenbelt and brought the ball and played. Today, I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk, she looked at me and nodded her head yes and said "Ball?" and then went to go find it. Finds it, picks it up and stands by the door waiting for me.

- When we walk across the street to the I make her hold my hand. It's always a fight. Today, I said, "Tula, you hold my hand or we are going home" and she DID IT! No porblem. She must have really wanted to go play, but I really didn't think she would understand that consequence and she totally did! I was shocked (and happy) that it actually worked.

- Tula has figured out ghat when packages come they are usually for her. If I know FedEx has come by and delivered a package, I will wait till she is around and ask her if there is a package to go look out the window. If she sees one, she gets so excited and I let her out, she runs out, grabs it, and immediately carries it back inside for John or I to open. She cannot wait till the tape is cut and she can dig in to the box or whatever it is.

- If we are downstairs and she poops and I ask her if she is poopy and wants a diaper change, she will go and lie in the spot where I normaly change her diaper (if she is in the right mood, this is) and wait for me to change it. It's hit or miss, but the fct that she has done it for me on more than one occasion tells me she is smart enough to know what she needs to do, and sometimes cranky enough that she just feels like giving me a hard time or something. There are also plenty of times she is poopy and literally makes me chase her around the first floor, running to catch her. That is apparently hilarious when you are one.

- The other day she fell under her red car and was stuck while playing in it downstairs by her self. I was upstairs and heard her yelling for help, when I came down I couldn't help but laugh at how cute she was all jammed up in there. I told her to hold on a second, Mommy needed to go get a camera and it was funny or something. Anyways she waited for me to come back and sort of posed for some pics before "asking" for me to take her out again. That same day, I took the camera back upstairs and she hopped on her zebra and was standing on top of it. I said "Don't move, stay up there' Mommy wants to take a picture" just as she was getting down, and she got back up and waited for me to come back with the camera and get a few pictures. She is a poser, which is great for her camera loving Mommy!

-She doesn't just sit in her car anymore. she likes to turn the steering wheel and say "vroom vroom" when she gets really excited. I love how dramatically she shuts the door behind her when she gets in there. as though she is off on some big adventure. Her imagination seems endless right now.

-Cooking. Tula and I started cooking a little bit together this month. The first thing we did was banana bread, and we mixed it all up and put it in the oven and she went for a nap. I explained to her that when she got up...blah blah blah...you kow. Anyways, when she woke up we went down and looked at it and ate it and she thought that was pretty cool. She loves "mixing", made pancakes with Auntie a couple times and help Grandma with baking while she was here. But in her own play, she has figured out that cooking has ingredients, so instead of just walking around with one of her little mini pots and pans with a mixing spoon (probably one of her fave toys right now) I will see her pouring different things from her cupboard into there and mixing it, then "tasting", pouring more, mixing, etc. She is a little chef, and loves for you to "taste" what she is cooking too. This month Tula's lifelong dream of getting to play with the mustard container and lemon juice container came true. They were both empty enough for me to wash out well and put them in her cupboard for her to play with. These were the two things that as soon as I opened the fridge she would go running for. I try and remember when something is empty to wash it for her and let her use it for play, she loves this idea and all her new cooking stuff has provided countless hours of entertainment for her already.

-Nodding head "yes". This one is cute. She figured out no right away but yes just started and I am in love with it. When she wants something and I ask her, she nods yes with the biggest, cheesiest smile ever.

- "Stinky" The garbage is stinky and we plug our noses when we take diapers out there and she gets to throw them in. She plugs her nose and tries to say "stinky" like Mommy and thinks the whole thing is rather hilarious. I especially love it when she makes me stand over the "stinky" garbage forever with the door open waiting for her to drop the diaper in just so she can keep repeating the whole thing.

-Tickling. Tula loves to tickle me right now and says "tickle tickle tickle" like I do when she does it. What she doesn't realize is that her tickling hurts sort of, its this poking, scratching thing. But she thinks she is doing it to me like I do it to her and finds it so funny. She likes to tickle Mav too.

- "Vagiba." This is her word for her "parts". She kept touching herself during diaper changes so I told her that it was called a "vagina" and she tries to tell me all the time during diaper changes. I think I am going to think of a cuter word to call it.
Vag-i-ba is kind cute though. She acts like she is telling me when she does, like she knows and I don't or something.

- Airplanes a big deal and points to the sky and says "oooohhh" every time she hears one, even sometimes from inside the house. It's so random, sometimes we can be outside and the loudest one will go by and it won't even phase her, other times we can be inside and she tells me and I wonder how in the heck she could even hear it.

- Itsy bisty spider is our favorite song and she knows some of the hand motions and tries to do them with me as I sing. She especially loves the end part where I clap and say "Yay" after the song is done. This is very, very exciting and she loves to clap for this.

- "Uh-oh" is constant. If something drops, a loud noise, she is looking for something, Mav cries, anything and EVERYTHING is "uh-ooooooohhhhh"

- Her fork. She has pretty much figured out the fork and bowl. The spoon is different. I still spoonfeed her her cheerios and milk in the mornings and yogurts at lunch, only because I don't want to have to clean up the mess. But she gets the fork and even seems to be starting to understand the bowl and that the food stays in there and is not to be dumped all over her tray. Yay! This is a big step and I am excited to being a little bit closer to cleaner, easier mealtimes!

- Tula got her first "big girl" brush this month, her hair is finally too thick to use a baby brush on anymore, and she loves to brush her hair after bathtime.

Okay, so that was more than a few but basically it's been a big month for Tula and she is just changing so much that it's hard to not want to write down every little thing she does.

A few other "firsts" for this month:

- Tula went to the nursery at church for the first time. She seemed to like it, I basically just took her in there and gave her to the girls and walked away, I couldn't even say goodbye because I wouldn't have been able to leave if she would have cried. I did peek in on her and she seemed okay playing, they told me she was perfectly fine the entire time, so I feel better having that done and over with and we can finally start going back to church a little more regularly knowing that we won't have to think of ways to entertain and keep quiet a one year old for an hour.

- Tula got to have her first "sleepover" at Grandpa and Grandma's house in Scottsdale. Mommy and Daddy and Maverick got to go out for a nice dinner just the three of us and sleep in a little while Tula had fun with Grandpa and Grandma. Apaarently, she slept well and never even seemed phased about being gone from us over night. Unfortunately, her first sleepover was also her first big "owie". Tula feel at Gma and Gpa's friends' pool when they took her swimming. She was getting out and slipped and hit her lip on the side of the pool and got a great big fat one. I guess there was lots of blood, so I am kind of glad I wasn't there for it because I probably would have freaked. I know they are bound to happen and my parents felt bad about it, but it really did lok awful. Don't worry Mom and Dad, I still trust you with my baby and know that it must have been just as awful or you to see it as it would have been for me. The wonderful thing about grandparents is knowing that they are the only other people, possibly in the world, that love your children as much as you do. It was a first, and I am glad it happened under the care of someone who loves her as much as you guys do.

-Oh, here's a big one. We tried chicken! And crabcakes! And turkey! And salmon! And porkchop! Yep, I finally decided it was time to let Tula try meat and guess what? She hated all of them! I have been giving it to her at mealtime if it works for her to eat what we are eating but not really pushing the subject. Frankly, I could care less if she wants it or not and don't realy see it as an important part of her diet so I am not worrying about it. I guess I will keep offering it and when/if she is interested she will start eating it. For now, I guess she is a self proclaimed vegetarian.

- We tried peanut butter. The first time she ate it, she liked it so much she was actually licking her fingers off. But the next couple times, it wasn't so much that she didn't like it, just that she like playing with it more. And when she started rubbing it into her hair, that was it for me. So we haven't tried it since. I bought her the peanut butter Ritz Bitz and figured those were less mess. She can try those a few times till she aquires enough of a taste for it to actually eat it instead if making it into a facial mask.

This months favorites (yours and mine, in no particular order):

Scrambled eggs with cheese. The beautiful weather and walking outside. The day we made a blanket fort together and hung out inside it with Darla. Puzzles. Doing flips with you up on my knees, you are going to be a little gymnast I am sure. Sadie. or should I say "Sayyyyy-deeeee" You love her and saying her name over and over and over. The way you like to sneak up on me from behind when I am on the floor and "get me". The fact that you are finally, officially down to one nap a day. It's making planning the days so much easier, and if you and Mav sleep and the same time Mommy gets one nice, long break. The pumpkin spice muffins at Costco samples and you signing "more" till I did the walk of shame and asked the guy for seconds. I swear he thought I was lying when I blamed it on you. Watching you reading to Maverick. Your kisses. This month you came started coming up to me for a kiss from time to time and it makes my day. Anthills. You are obsessed and I have finally resorted to just letting you sit on them and play with them thinking that one day you will get bit and figure it out. But you haven't, so love you straddle them or sit on them and run your fingers through the sad and watch all the ants go crazy. I have begged you not to but to no avail so I am sure this time next month I will be posting about your first bug bites.

What a month it has been! We had lots of family around, and lots of fun! Daddy has been hard at work building you and Mav a backyard to play in this winter. Grandpa and Grandma were here most of the month and we got to see them lots. Everything, everything we do we do for you guys and I never thought being so totally willing to do absolutely anything for another person could feel so good. We want the world for you and Mav, you have brought a world of joy to us that we never knew possible.

Some of my favorite pictures from this month: