saron: sixteen months

Saron and her cousin Bronwyn, playing in my mom's kitchen

I am a terrible blogger. I wish it was because I was too busy to spend any time on the internet, but if you follow me on Pinterest, you know that is totally not true. The truth is, I hate uploading pictures because our camera is too fancy and i have to edit the pictures and make them all fancy and it is a day-long project that I never feel like doing. And a blog post without pictures is just lame.

These days Saron is a riot. Sometimes literally. She can tear up an un-baby-proofed room like a full on riot. And she can dish up riotous fits of giggles at a moments notice. She has a very strong personality, which is fun but hard sometimes. She is stubborn and fierce and funny and silly. She RUNS everywhere she goes. Seriously, always. She still loves playing peekaboo, but not the baby kind anymore. She will really try to surprise/scare you, and I do it back to her and she loves it. Sometimes I get her so good that she actually gets really startled and screams and then we both roll on the ground laughing. It's one of my favorite things these days! And lately she has gotten all girly on us, to Tyler's great dismay haha. She loves purses, hair bows, tutus and necklaces. She is always wearing a necklace and has this tiny little pink purse that she inherited from an older cousin and she loves to put things in it and carry it around on her arm. Pretty! Pretty! Pretty! She loves that word. We read a lot of books these days and she loves to turn the pages and pretend to read back to me. She loves animals (especially ones that make noises, like farm animals) and will go absolutely NUTS if she sees a dog. She loves dogs! And babies. She says about 15 or so words I think (maybe more, now that I am counting in my head...) but a lot of them are unintelligible to anyone but me and a lot of them sound the same, but mean different things. For instance, Boppers (the name the grandkids call my dad) and diaper are basically the same word for her, which is sometimes funny. She loves to wrestle on the ground with her daddy and loves to be chased. She is also starting to really understand right from wrong, but still does the wrong things (making sure that I see her do it) just to get a reaction from me. Boy am I learning patience these days. I swear half the stuff she does is to get a reaction from me, and sometimes it works, but I am learning to control myself and guide her softly and consistently. And then there are days that when Tyler gets home from school I have to shut myself in my room because I am so aggravated and frustrated. But I guess that's just part of being a mom, right? Every day I learn and grow along with Saron.

I love this stage because:

• she can actually communicate lots of things with me instead of just screaming in frustration
• her personality is really developed and I can really see who she is and see her humor
• she is independent in a lot of ways. She can feed herself, climb up and down the stairs, etc
• she is a total sponge and is absorbing so much information and saying new words all the time

Things I will miss:

• She has made this little "goya-goya-goya" noise when she sucks her thumb and is super tired since she was tiny, but she hardly ever does it anymore. It is the cutest little noise and I am really sad to see it go! My baby is a big girl now...
• She is all done with bottles and I actually really miss that quiet time before bed when we could just snuggle. She never ever ever snuggles with me anymore.