What's going on at 16 months?

With all the excitement we've had going on lately (hospital visits, travel to London, etc) I wanted to give an update on what Sophia's doing development wise.

It's amazing to see how much she understands now. We have a pretty solid routine with her every day, so she knows what to expect, but she's been impressing us left and right with some new skills.

At night, before bath, she and Dave always go downstairs to get the mail. The other night he told her they were going to do this. She ran off - we looked for a moment and then found her waiting patiently by the front door for Dave. She climbed all the way down and up the stairs by herself. Very cool.

She loves dogs - everywhere we go, we see them. She greets them with an "oof - oof" of her own. In fact, we have a book all on dogs. When I ask her to get it, she finds it off her shelf and brings it to me and says "oof-oof".

She's totally into brushing her teeth with a "big girl" brush now.
She also is mostly feeding herself. She has her own plates and silverware and is quite content to munch away - new favorites are: Chicken Salad, bagels, fish nuggets and chicken patties. After our stint of sickness, she was drinking Rice Milk (or Drink) for awhile quite happily.
Apparently, it's also very fun to wear our food. (I guess I used to shove a black olive on each of my fingers - so why not tortellini!)

She also has some new words: "Nonni" is for her sitter Lidiana (we just figured this out yesterday!) She has also started to say "Mama," but not with much consistency. (When you say it back to her, she responds with "Daddy." Hmmm...) She also says "Yurt" for yogurt.

Nice work my little one. She's growing big and strong - I definitely think we're in the midst of a growth spurt judging by the way she's eating and sleeping lately. Now if only those 2 ugly molars would come through!