Elizabeth ~ Sixteen Months

Aha!  I had this post partly done, and in the time between when I started it and today my sweet Elizabeth took her first steps, which was two days ago (May 4, 2013).  That's three months later in age than my previous latest child taking his or her first steps and four months later than my earliest walker, which was my firstborn Jaden William. So I'll erase what I previously wrote below about her development in regards to walking.

Elizabeth is 16.5 months old and still as happy and sweet as she's always been.

Sitting in Momma's lap in Sub while waiting for Jaden William to come out of store

Happy loves climbing into Daddy's and Momma's shower to play.

Pointing happily to something she sees outside

Update:

*She responds to her name and pet names, waves, kisses, imitates just about any sound (as in clicking, smacking, blowing, coughing, laughing, screaming, etc.), and uses a few ASL signs.  She imitates things better than any of my other kids at this age, I think, except for actual words.

*Some of her signs are clear now, after a few months, and some of the others are not as exact and coordinated as I'd expect them to be at this age, but they are good enough for me to understand.  Her clear signs: waving hi and bye, milk, more, fire, rain, snow (this last one she's signed only a few times repetitively on just one occasion and just two or three times for "rain").  Her not-so-clear signs:  cat, chicken, dangerous, hot, drink.  Her sign for "cat" looks a lot like the sign for "mouse," but I've not taught her the sign for "mouse."

*I had posted on a friend's blog a couple weeks ago about Elizabeth not saying any words, but I could not remember how many she's actually said.  There are only two things she says with any regularity: Momma and Dadda.  Historically, she usually only uses one word for a period of time, then she may not say it for weeks afterward.  As I got to thinking, these are the additional words I can remember now that I've heard her say (most of these only once):

-chicken
-rain (ray)
-snow (snow)
-brother (buduh)—more than one occasion
-cuddles, as in "milk and cuddles" (tudda)—two or three different occasions

I think she may have also said "milk" at some point, but I can't remember how she said it.  I think she may have asked a few days ago, "Where's Jaden?"  Could have been my imagination, a coincidence in sound. 

There may be one or two more, but this is about it.  I'm thinking there is nothing to worry about, although she's very "delayed" when compared to my other children (or even the average child).  Both Trust and Liv said their first four-word sentence at the age of 14 months of age, which I know is pretty advanced.  William didn't say sentences then, and I don't think his first sentence was until after the age of two, and even then he didn't speak in many sentences until he was three.  Olivia is only 3.5 years of age and says (when she's not short-cutting by leaving words out, which she often does) very long sentences compared to average.  An example I recorded a few months ago (not more than two  months after her third birthday) was "Will you please get that down for me so I can play with it?" (14 words)  Another example nine days ago is: "I want a little bit of that, but that's too much." (11 words)  This is common for her, though she does cut off a lot of words frequently, especially prepositions.  But if I state the whole sentence as it should say and ask her to repeat it, she does so easily.

Also regarding Elizabeth's plagiocephaly (flat head), she does still have some flatness.  I did a lot of work with her to cure her torticollis and to help reshape her head.  Her head improved and certainly did not get worse, but it looks as if she'll live with some flatness on her back right side of her head, but it's not noticeable unless her head is wet down and you're looking from the top.  Long story short, I suspected I might have a slightly misshapen head, and so I flattened my hair as much as possible (should have waited until it was wet) and sat down to ask Nathan to look at it from the top.  Yes, there is a very slight misshape to my head.  I know my left ear looks like it sticks out more, just as Happy's right ear does (though it's not really the ear sticking out more, but rather it's the head is flat).  Well, I'm all right.  I'm not grossly deformed, and her face looks pretty and decently symmetrical to me, so I'm not going to worry. 

The baby on the left is me.  It's obviously around Christmastime, not sure how long before then the picture was taken, and my birth date is early September, so I guess my age to be around thirteen to fourteen-and-a-half months.  Elizabeth on the right is thirteen-and-a-half months of age.  My dad told me several months ago that she looks more like me at that age than any of our children, and my mother just recently told me that she "looks so much like [me], it's not even funny," and that she is a "mini-[Tara]."

All I know is she's sooooo sweet and so happy, and I love her so much!  I love all of my babies, and I'll soon be updating on my other precious babies and talk about our plant and seed studies, garden-planting, new math curriculum, and more. 

Until next time...