I’ve been a mom for 15 months — how is that even possible?!! It’s hard to imagine how quickly time has flown. Everyone says “It flies by” and they are right. I wish more than anything I could put this time in a bottle and just let life stand still for a little bit.

Barring that, all I can do is reflect … and savor.

I think I do a lot of both each day; some days more than others. But overall, I have been really good about being “in the moment” with her (and L and Rocco, too — but this post is about her). Even though I do take a LOT of pics and vids for my family back east, I’ve been scaling back some. It’s hard not to want to capture every moment … she’s growing into such a beautiful little girl and I am swelling with pride when I think about her.

Here are some reflections on our sweet Maya at 15 months.

DEVELOPMENT: I love watching her play, explore, solve problems. She has this serious, intent look on her face when she is trying to figure something out and it’s priceless. She looks just like her daddy when he is trying to fix something.

Though she doesn’t use the words yet for these objects, she brings us her toys by name: baby, Scout (the talking LeapFrog dog), ball, Minnie Mouse, blocks, Bear (a stuffed bear), shoes, socks, etc. It’s been great because she is a little organizer and for as much as she likes to knock things over/dump things out, she also likes to put things away.

Other new “tricks” in addition to the babyschool tricks I blogged about last week (signing, facial features, rowing her boat) — she says “moooooo” like a cow, holds up her little finger when asked how old she is (though she does it kind of low), points to her mouth in Spanish, nods her head “yes” and shakes her head “no,” … and I SWEAR I heard her repeat “GATO” Friday when playing with one of her bilingual toys. I’m not saying she knows “gato” is cat … but still. In time 🙂

FAVORITE FRIEND: She is obsessed with Rocco. They didn’t interact much until a few months ago, but now it’s like they are BFF. She gets very upset if he is sleeping in the kitchen and is (in her mind) ignoring her squeals. At 106 pounds, his tail has knocked her down more time than we can count, but he is very gentle with her and we are very careful; he is still an animal. He still sometimes scares her with his bark — the lower lip quivers, the tears stream down, my heart breaks into two pieces — but most of the time, she just loves his kisses and loves to pet him. I didn’t know I was pregnant when we got Rocco, but truthfully, for as frustrating as it can be having both a puppy and a baby at the same time … we wouldn’t trade him for anything.

FAVORITE SHOW: She LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. This is  brand new … one day a few weeks ago I put it on for the hell of it, and the rest is history. She’s enamored! We’ve never been the type of parents to say “No TV, ever” but we also wouldn’t want her sitting in front of the tube all day, either. That said, my justification (if I need one) for her watching some TV is that she is SO stimulated at school by all sorts of toys and games and people and sounds and overall chaos … that I don’t think it’s a big deal if she has MMC on in the background for a few minutes to zone out. She usually watches — pointing and squealing — for 5-10 minutes and continues playing.

FAVORITE FOOD: She especially loves cheese and fruit, but she will eat anything we put in front of her, and we encourage her to try whatever we’re eating. I know things could change and that isn’t necessarily going to always be the case, but for now she is an excellent eater — and my not-at-all-picky hubby, especially, couldn’t be prouder.

As for her eating habits,  at 15 months she’s eating three meals a day plus an afternoon snack, [loosely] following the schedule they have at school on the weekends. And though she eats a lot of finger foods, for the past several months she’s been eating with a spoon and she is getting really good at it. We introduced the fork this month and she’s been doing great with it … except when she hand her fork over to Rocco … which happens quite a bit 😉 She’s been off the bottle since January 25, and drinks water throughout the day. She is down to 4 milk servings a day– one of which we’ll eventually replace with 1/2 water, 1/2 juice. She drinks anywhere from 18-20 ounces of organic whole milk a day, sometimes more, sometimes less.

TEMPERAMENT: She  is still an easy-going, laid-back baby — I mean, toddler! … ironic given how frenetic I can be! Guessing she gets that cool/calm/collected ‘tude from Daddy. 😉

This month we’ve noticed that she is very sensitive to tone. A few weeks ago; L and I were having a discussion in the living room and we didn’t realize she was listening (she was putting socks away in the basket in her room). Well, our voices rose and she started to whimper from her room … we tabled our discussion and comforted her and talked later when she was asleep, but it was a good wake-up call for both of us that she is hearing everything and is very sensitive to voices/tone/etc. Whereas before she might not have picked up on anything amiss, she does now, and it’s good to be reminded of it.

Finally, whereas she used to go to anyone’s arms, she has recently become much more cautious of strangers, even choosing to whom she will flash a smile at. That’s been a tough adjustment but deep down I love knowing L and I are her “safe place” in a crowd. There’s something powerful about that realization; I can’t explain it but it’s visceral …

GROWTH: We have her 15-month well-baby checkup on Thursday and we’ll see how she is growing but she seems to be doing quite well. She still has those squeezable arm and leg rolls — I’m glad they didn’t disappear yet! Seriously, they are edible. Like her daddy and I, she has short, thick legs and a long torso. Her eyes are still blue – though more gray than blue these days — and she has two delicious dimples that appear whenever she smiles, which is a lot. Four teeth–the two “Dracula” teeth up top, and two bottom teeth. We can see her top two teeth coming in but so far, they haven’t broken through. And while her physical/gross motor milestones have not been always on par with her age, she has eventually hit all of them (rolling over, sitting up, pulling to a stand, crawling, walking). She wears 12 month and 12-18 month clothing and we’re guessing she’ll be in those sizes for a while, given how she’s been growing.

SLEEP: She sleeps from about 7:30-7 now (pushed back a little from her otherwise usual 7-7), with one nap –on average, an hour and a half. She flips all around her crib, but more often than not, we find her in “froggy pose,” with her tush in the air and her legs tucked under her. She is a heavy, deep sleeper like her daddy, and we feel blessed she’s been such a good sleeper all this time. Everyone says this pretty much means we’re guaranteed for a terrible sleeper with Baby # 2 someday — oy.

So in a nutshell, that sums up 15 months of Maya … we can only imagine what the next 15 (and so on) will bring. I hope someday she reads this and just knows how loved and adored she is.

Because really, who wouldn’t love this face?! 🙂

Edited to add: She actually said DOG tonight … not “dough” like she has been pronouncing it … “DOG.” And she repeated it a hundred times it seemed, looking all over for Rocco. SOOOO cute. Nice job, Papaya!