windy with a chance of wind: 15 months

Hollie is 15 months old today! What a little lady she is becoming.

Lately she has started holding hands with us...something she has, until now, always refused to do. Well, actually, she holds our fingers. Us holding her hand is still not allowed. Also, she will only lead, never be led. It's very cute. Today she walked almost all the way down the street holding my thumb. My back was hurtin'.

When Hollie was born, her hair was dark, like mine, but it has slowly lightened. It still looks brown when she's indoors, but lately it has looked nearly blonde when she's out in the sun. I think my hair went almost blonde when I was younger, too (but older than her) and then it went dark again. So we'll see. How funny, if the two of us dark-haired, dark-eyed parents made a blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter!

We are up to nine teeth! The first molar is coming in on the upper right, and the second incisor on the lower left. We had zero indication from her that she was teething, so we were surprised to say the least!

In the last six months (since she started walking) we have gone up two shoe sizes.

She gets crazy excited when she sees dogs on TV (I have been meaning to get that on film...one of these days..).

It's really nice that she can eat most of what we eat now. She loves trying new foods, and I think the only ones she has never liked are squash and zucchini. Some recent favorites are strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, watermelon, grapes, eggs, and any kind of meat. She tried the home-made brisket while we were in Louisiana...wow! We are still breastfeeding, but just when she wakes up, and when she goes to bed.

Speaking of going to bed, she has been an excellent sleeper the past few months. We have been sooo lucky! The key for us has been routine. For a long time, she just nursed to sleep (and slept all night) but a few months ago she began waking up consistently once every night. I was pretty sure she wasn't that hungry because she's fall asleep immediately when I tried to feed her. I figured it was time to change up our bedtime routine. We already kinda had a routine, with nursing at the end, so I just moved it to the beginning instead. Since then, we have stuck to this routine pretty rigidly: feed, change diaper, change into pajamas, brush teeth*, read books, turn out the light, and then just hang out with her until she goes to sleep. It wasn't more than a few nights before she started getting visibly tired toward the end of it. Now, it's just, well...routine, and it is working incredibly well for us.

*That's right, we are brushing her teeth! Just with water. And she mostly just chews the brush. But she loves it...I think it's her favorite part of bedtime (especially when we sing the Raffi song -- when you get there, press play!). Never too early for those good habits. :)

These days she typically goes to bed between 9 and 10, and wakes up around 7. She just recently switched, all on her own, from two shorter naps to one longer nap, usually in the afternoon.

We can tell that even though she doesn't say any words yet, she understands a lot of what we're saying. She likes to bring books to us so we can read them to her, and afterward I usually give her the book so she can flip through it and "read" it on her own. The other day, she handed the book right back to me...read it again, Mom! I had been in the middle of something, but I read the book again...and again...and again. After about the fifth time, I said to her, "Go take the book to Dada!" And she got up and went straight to Daniel, and gave him the book! It's happened a number of other times, with different things. We'll say, "Let's find your shoes!" or "- your sippy cup!" and she goes and finds them. Amazing.

The other thing about shoes...she brings them to us when she wants to go outside. I know because once she has them on, she goes straight to the front door. She loooves going outside!