In early February, Morgan decided that walking was OK! On Feb. 7, she just decided to start walking, and she kept walking and walking all around the house! When she fell down, she just got right back up and walked some more. It was quite a sight to see, especially since we thought the knee walking was becoming a comfortable habit. It took a few weeks of testing out the walking, but by the end of the month she was walking all over the place. One of her favorite things to do lately is to read books. She pull them off the shelf and lugs them over to an available lap. Her favorites are the ones with animals and the lift-a-flaps. She is good at pointing to specific animals, especially her favorite kitty cats. She also can say "ca ca ca ca" for "quack" when she sees a duck. We think she also says "ta da" for "tractor." She also very clearly says "Daddy" now and loves to look out the window and watch him leave for work. She has really started to jabber a lot, especially with a toy phone up to her ear. She's got two new teeth now. She skipped her eye teeth and started on some molars.
In March, Morgan turned 15 months old! Her vocabulary seems to grow each day, and she often tries to repeat words we say. She now says, "Hi," "Ba Bye," "Mommy," "Andrew (Na Noo)," "baby," "ball," and "more" to name a few. She also has expanded her farm animal sounds to include, "meow," "woof-woof," "mmmm (moo)," "neigh," "baaa," and "eeeh eeeh" for a rooster. She spends quite a bit of time talking to herself when we put her down for a nap. We enjoy listening to her jabber over our baby monitor. She likes to do everything her big brother does, which sometimes creates difficulties as she messes up Andrew's stuff. She loves to be outside! She will find her shoes and her coat and stand by the door when she wants to go out. She doesn't like to walk on the grass, though, so she enjoys taking off down the sidewalk instead. And she doesn't like it when we have to go inside, and she lets us and the rest of the neighborhood know that she is not happy! At her 15 month check up on March 30 she weighed 23 lbs. 6 oz. and was 30 1/2 inches.
As it is the beginning of June, Morgan is nearing the 1 1/2 year mark. She is definitely growing up! She is into girly things like shoes and dolls, but she's also not afraid to get dirty and enjoys mud puddles, dirt and bugs. She is getting quite speedy these days, and is officially running. She particularly likes to run after animals. There is a neighborhood cat that often is roaming around, and Morgan is usually the first to spot it and take off running. She doesn't seem to understand that the kitty runs even faster to get away! When we take her on walks in the stroller, she is always on the lookout for cats, dogs and the ducks at a nearby pond. Her vocabulary continues to grow. She knows many body parts, milk, bath, grandpa, grandma, shoes, tractor, outside ... to name a few. Some words like "no!" and "my!" have also developed recently. She also likes to try and sing. We can tell when she is singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," because we can catch a few words and she does the actions. She also is our little collector, and rocks are her favorite. If she's outside, she most likely has a rock in her hand. (Her Grandpa Baumer will be proud.) She has even brought pieces of cracked sidewalk concrete home. If you need any, we're accumulating a pile.
Morgan turned 1 1/2 on June 17. She had her 18 month check up on July 2. She is now 31 1/2 inches and 26 lbs., remaining in the 75th percentile for girls. She has been singing a lot more lately. We called one of her songs her "happy song" because we thought she was just happy and singing. Then one day, we realized she was singing "The Wheels on the Bus." She likes to sing, "beep beep beep" for the bus's horn and "swish swish swish" for the wipers."The Itsy Bitsy Spider" is still her favorite, plus her bedtime songs of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me." She also likes to say "bye" to things. It seems to help her not get so mad when we have to leave somewhere or say bye bye. When we leave the farm she says, "bye tractors!" When we get out of the pool she says "bye wa wa (water)!" The pool has become quite popular. Morgan even mastered going down the slide by herself now. We just need to teach her not to throw all of the sandbox sand into the pool. Lately she has needed several buddies to sleep with, including bear, baby, Elmo, lion and bunny. She and "Na Noo" (Andrew) also have to give each other hugs and kisses before they go to bed. They are quite the buddies most of the time, and it is very precious when they hold hands when we are walking somewhere.
Morgan continues to grow and develop, sometimes surprising us with how much she knows and understands. She loved singing "Happy Birthday" to Andrew at his party, and continues to sing, "Happy to An-new" whenever we mention that it is someone's birthday. She had fun on our vacation to California in August. She mastered the skill of walking up and down stairs on our trip. She didn't like the ocean at first, but quickly learned the word "ocean" and eventually had fun getting splashed by waves. She loved the beach, though, because she could play in the sand. Zebra was one of the first animal names she learned, and she was very excited to see them in person at the San Diego Zoo. She called them, "Beezas! Beezas!" She has also increased her speedy running. When we got back to the Des Moines airport, she was running through the terminal and another lady walking by us even commented on how fast she was running. We don't know if she realized we were getting close to home, or if she was just happy to be off of the airplane.
Morgan is already over 20 months now (early September.). She keeps singing and trys to sing along with us before bed or when Andrew sings. She is becoming a parrot and tries to repeat anything we say, even hard words like Oskaloosa and Go Cardinals. She does pretty good attempting to pronounce things. She's also started putting words together to form sentences, like "Oh no! milk spill!" and "more grapes, please." (The "please" usually comes after demanding "more grapes!") One recent night, she was awake in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm. We tried comforting her, but it was a pretty loud storm, so we opted to bring her in our bed. She never went to sleep, but Dad did. She leaned over to Mom and said, "Mommy ... Hey Mommy! Daddy sleeping." Quite a long sentence for 2:00 a.m.! The "Hey Mom!" or "Hey Dad!" is also a new phrase. She also likes to say, "Daddy, are you?" for "Daddy where are you?" Usually, Daddy is sitting right in front of her when she asks that question. And, if you ask her what her name is, she will probably tell you, "An-new." We don't know if she really thinks her name is Andrew, or if she just wants to be silly. She says, "Mormy" when she sees pictures of herself.
Morgan is now almost 22 months old (mid-October.) She isn't our little baby any more, and she is becoming more and more of a little girl each day. Her vocabulary continues to explode! She has learned her own name better, and now will usually say "Mornan" when you ask what her name is. Most men we see in books or around town are "Daddy" and women are "Mommy" until we are able to teach her the correct name. She still loves tractors. When we were at an Iowa Cubs baseball game in late August, she started saying, "Tractor! Tractor!" and she had spotted a John Deere logo on the wall of a suite down the hall. She continues to love music and loves to dance whenever she hears something she likes. Her favorite book is an "Elmo" book with all of the Sesame Street characters who talk about colors. She is trying to learn her colors, but hasn't quite mastered that skill yet. One day, she was playing with some markers and kept bringing them one by one to Mom. She would say, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! ... Blue!" (or another random color) for what she thought that marker's color was. She got them all wrong, but it was cute to see her try! She has also started to sing the "Alphabet Song." She has the tune down pretty good, and since most of the letters sound the same, you could say that she has some of the order down, too! She has also gotten better at expressing her opinion. Just today (October 14), it was kind of chilly, so Dad put some tights on her to wear with her dress for church. She kept saying, "Yucky! Yucky! Yucky!" and pulling on the tights. (Women everywhere will agree with her statements!)
During November and December, Morgan learned to count to ten and has mostly mastered her colors. Her favorites are purple and orange. She is getting good at singing songs. She can sing "Jesus Loves Me" very well, and also does good with "Old MacDonald." She is also mastering her independence, and the phrases, "Me do it!" and "Do it myself!" are heard often in our home. If we try to help her do something when she doesn't want help, she will undo what we have done so she can "do it myself!" One thing she doesn't like to do herself much is to walk in the snow. She usually says "carry you!" when we are outside and snow is on the ground. She is fascinated by snow, though, and loves to look at it from the window. She still idolizes her big brother, and often mimics what he has just said or done. She also likes to pretend to be a kitty cat, and will crawl around the house saying "meow, meow." She sometimes likes to pretend to be a baby, too. She will say, "I baby ... wah, wah!" She is particularly fond of babies, and was thrilled to meet her new cousin, Briella. She likes to take care of her baby dolls, feeding them and putting them to bed. We hope she is that excited to have a new baby brother or sister in July! We are very excited that Morgan has been using the potty a little bit, mostly if we "catch her" and rush her to the potty. She also has a toddler bed now, and is able to get in and out by herself. She mostly stays in her bed when she's supposed to be sleeping, but sometimes at nap time we catch her playing in her room or gathering more toys and stuffed animals to sleep in her bed. It didn't take long before her giant Care Bear became a member of her bed. Mom moves it out of the way when she checks on Morgan each night after she has fallen asleep.
Morgan turned 2 on December 17, and we can hardly believe where the time has gone. Our baby is a little lady now, and enjoyed her birthday party on the 15th. You can see photos here.