The Mathies Family: 14 months

It's hard to believe Allie is getting so big. These last few months, we've really gotten a glimpse of her personality.

A few words to describe her: independent, confident, persistent, curious and fun-loving.

A few things she loves: playing at the park, reading, going to the zoo, going down slides, tickling Daddy and Mommy, giving Eskimo kisses, brushing her teeth, and new this month - coloring.

Words she says: mama, dada (and variations of them), hi, more, eat, banana, drink, uh-oh, teddy, teeth, cow, dog, ball, book, this, here you go, there you go, and thank you.

Cute things she does:

She points to things around the house and in books and says "dis" until you tell her what they are.
Each night she says goodnight to her teddy bears, and the grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins who are in the photos on her walls.
She likes to be tucked in just so - lay her down, cover her with her blanket, tuck her teddy bear under one arm and her baby under the other arm and turn on her crib soother. If she doesn't go down right away and we go in to comfort her while she's crying, we can always tell if she is ready to go to sleep when she rubs her blanket. It's her signal that she wants us to lay her down and repeat the routine.
She likes to walk instead of riding in her stroller. This makes for lengthier zoo trips and neighborhood walks, especially when she stops to pick up each and every rock and leaf she finds along the way, but that's ok. Occasionally, she'll let us hold her hand as we go along.
She has started "pretend play". The laundry basket has been re-purposed. She loves to turn it on it's side and sit in it with her teddy bears and toys. She talks to her bears and uses her little nesting cups to give them pretend drinks of water. She also likes to use dish towels, fabric softener sheets, and clean clothes to pretend she is washing her face or dusting, cleaning the windows, floor, etc.
And lately, she has decided that her riding toy is the perfect place to read a book. Unless it is one book in particular, and then she takes that one and goes and sits by the back door to read it.