"Taumafai": Aiyana is 15 Months

I miss my monthly updates with Aiya. She is learning so much and cracks me up every day!

My little diva

22.7 lbs, 30.5 inches

(Gained more height than weight in the past 3 months)

At 15 months she:

babbles all day long, but can say, "ball, buh-beh (baby), mama (or she calls out "meee!" to get my attention), Dada, then-ku (thank you), Hi, uh-oh, Poke-boo! (peek-a-boo), bah-ba (bottle, which we are wearning from), and her very favorites: BYE!! and NO! No, no, no! It's pretty cute right now, and Dan encourages her with my somewhat disapproving eye, but I know it won't be so cute in a few months. She just says it with so much passion and sass in her face, with her eyes intense and her lips over-exaggeratingly round. Oh, so kissable! Lately, she's really into yelling "BYE!" any time she hears me getting off the phone. The other day, I also was trying to sneak my way onto the laptop while she watched a show. She promptly scrambled to my end of the couch, pushing the laptop closed and yelling, "Buh-BYE!!" Ok, no laptop for me in little one's presence. Probably a good rule.
Can walk. HAS walked up to 15 feet a few weeks ago, and WILL happily walk if holding our hands. But if we let go, she immediately lowers herself to the ground and resumes crawling. We know she can walk! She's just choosing not to. For some reason, she still seems nervous about it, though she'll test herself occasionally and gleefully fall into our arms with that growl of hers. She'll get there when she's ready.
Finally owns a pair of shoes. She likes to play with shoes but not to wear them. With direction from Pawnee, I bought her those slip-on shoes from target (Momo Baby Soft Sole) that fit her comfortably without the hard sole. She'll wear those longer than anything.
Still signs for "more" and "all done" (Cutest thing ever and I love when she communicates her wants/needs!) and loves for me to sing and for her to sign along.
Plays fairly well on her own for a time but desperately needs a playmate. She just loves playing with kids! That's what little bro/sis is for and why I'm happy they'll be close, even if it'll be a head-ache when the baby is a baby.
Hallalujah, she still naps twice a day! Love my girl but I love the me-time, too. 10am and 2:30pm I get an hour-and-a-half to two hours each (occasionally more!) every day.
Sleeps so well at night. I am soaking it up.

My little Rudolph. While playing hide-n-seek (where I hide behind the couch and pounce out at her yelling Peek-a-Boo!) we both became a little over-zealous, resulting in Aiyana jumping back in laughing fright and bouncing face-first into the carpet. (Those that have stood on my carpet know there isn't much padding!) I felt so bad as her nose reddened and swelled. But no blood. Whew! I would have freaked. I'm actually surprised she faired so well considering how hard she bounced off the couch.