16 month old Malia Joy

 I'll have to play catch up with a few posts!  On November 16th, Malia turned 16 months old.  She is the FUNNIEST little thing I have ever met!  She is honestly my best friend and I love hanging out with her.  She makes me smile, laugh, cry (good and bad sometimes) and we have very in depth conversations now:)  She is learning things so fast now that I have a hard time keeping track of it all!  Some of the things worth noting for her 16th month:

• She is a TALKER!!!  She LOVES to talk and joke and thinks she is participating in our conversations.  I can understand probably about 50% of what she is saying.  She is saying full sentences where I can get a word or 2 out of it.  She is able to communicate to us what she needs or wants which is helping minimize those tantrums.
• She loves to laugh and joke when we are doing it too:)  If we all start laughing around the dinner table she'll join in with full laughing and body gestures like she understands what we just said.
• She knows all of her body parts and all her animals and animal sounds.  She can identify pretty much anything you ask her to show you.  As her mom, of course I think she's brilliant:)  
• She is still tall and lanky.  This probably won't be changing anytime in the near future.  She is probably the same weight as many kids half her age but as tall as most 2 year olds.  I love my bean pole!
• She has so many teeth!  I can't keep track of how many she's getting!  I think she's getting her incisors as we speak which is making her nose runny and her attitude a little grumpy:(
• She is on the 1 long nap a day thing now. And she still likes her milk in bottles (oh well, I pick my battles)
• She is OBSESSED with the beach and the park still.  She is learning to "run" and it looks more like a gallop right now.  It's funny.
• Her favorite foods this month are raspberries, oranges, string cheese (still), fruity cereal, yogurt, goldfish, chicken, edamame and anything I am eating.  Of course she doesn't want it unless I am making it look oh so tasty;)
• Malia is transitioning into the normal, yet not so desirable, stranger anxiety phase.  She doesn't like it when stranger come up and say hi to her and try to coddle her. She does this hideous pterodactyl scream and scrunches up her face.  It's lovely.  She even does it sometimes if it's been too long since seeing people in her family that she knows and loves!  Argh.. just gotta get through this stage I guess.  
• Oh, and she knows and loves the word "mine" and now is not a big fan of sharing.  This will pose a big problem in 2 months when Keely makes her entrance into the world and Malia is forced to share.  We are working on this.
• All in all, she's a great kid with a ton of personality!  Her mom and dad sure love her a whole bunch and look forward to our story and cuddle time at night.  We get the biggest giggles out of her and love how she fold her arms to pray and always says "amen."

And judging by how well she treats her babies and her doggie I think she is going to be a great big sister:)