Elizabeth is 16 months old!

At sixteen months, Elizabeth is taking 3-4 steps on her own. Ben walked at 17 months, so they're about on the same timeline. She can say Mama, Dada, Papa, Opa and up. She approximates "more," "buh" for Ben, "ah duh" for "all done" and knows a few animal names and sounds as well as a few signs (more, all done, bath). She gets into moods where she loves to chatter or screech and other times she is quiet.


She likes:

• Eating. Bottomless pit! She likes most food, but has random streaks where suddenly she hates melon or will start eating blueberries again after squishing every single one she was given the previous week.
• Playing with Ben's toys, especially Matchbox cars
• Playing peek-a-boo
• Putting things in containers. She has inherited a tall cylindrical Tupperware that used to store flour and enjoys jamming all sorts of random stuff in there.
• Unloading the kids' plates from the cupboard. Actually, unloading anything she can reach in a cupboard.
• Reading. Some mornings I can put some books in her crib and she will look through them while I finish getting ready.
• Moving to music
• Pointing to body parts or poking at yours when you ask where chin, belly, nose, etc. are. She was trying to grab Uncle Jeff's beard off his chin yesterday.
• Taking off her socks and shoes. This is apparently hilarious.
• Walking, but only when she can make it a game that ends in her diving onto you
• Cuddling the telephone when one of her grandparents is on speakerphone.
• Giggling

Elizabeth doesn't like:

• Being told that she's had enough food
• Getting her ever-running nose wiped
• Having something taken away that she's playing with, whether it's one of Ben's toys she's not supposed to have or some random thing she's found on the floor.  She will squawk and let you know the extent of her displeasure!
• Brandy, her grandparents' dog
• Having her hair up in pigtails or barrettes  
• When the other kids at school get too close to her (some try to hug her a little too vigorously and one sweet girl seems to want to help Elizabeth rid herself of her ponytail holders every day!)
• Finger painting (apparently painting with pudding was okay, but not with paint)
• Being put down when she wants up, up, up. It is your fault if you just put her down because she was wriggly or pointing at the ground like she wanted to be put down.