16 months old!

It was in the past month that Gemma Grace finally took her first steps, and now she's practically running around.  Our sweet little legitimate toddler.  :)  

She's also finally started waving goodbye to people and doing a few signs.  We signed at her for months and had just about despaired on her ever picking it up, until one day when John manipulated her hands and something seemed to click! She signs "more" and "water" (which we basically use to mean "cup").  This is quite helpful, since she's reached the point where, when she wants something, she yells and points for it!  She understands so much.  It must be frustrating not to be able to talk.  

She continues to love our daily walks, and especially loves it when I give her a flower to hold!  If she sees her stroller or carrier, she almost always starts pointing and whining, and if the stroller is open, she tries to climb into it!

 

Gemma's favorite food has suddenly become whole-grain crackers, but for weeks it was raisins!  I was convinced that she must get her love of raisins from her Grandpa Reid!  Every single time we walked past the pantry, she would start pointing and asking for more!  Thankfully, she still loves her green vegetables, especially broccoli.  She's still not very excited about fruit.

Thankfully, Gemma has been a good little sleeper lately, sometimes napping for two hours or longer in the afternoons.  She usually wakes up happy, and is quite precious!  Though she still loves nursing, she's naturally transitioning away from using it to fall asleep, which is promising. Usually, after she's had her fill, she happily goes into her crib and talks for a while before falling asleep.


We'll have to take a video soon of Gemma pointing out her body parts, because she's getting so good!  She knows head, hair, ear, eyes, nose, mouth, hands, toes, tummy, and diaper.  And she's more than happy to point out many of them on Mommy and Daddy, too!


We love you, little sweetheart!