Bella: 14 Months

I ought to take the time to chronicle some of Bella's many advancements as our baby has recently grown into a toddler. She's not yet big enough to fill my shoes (or even big sister's shoes), but she is certainly working on it. Annabelle does like shoes, and if she finds a shoe (be it hers or someone else's), she tries to put it on. If you ask her where her shoes are, she will look at her feet and (if she's wearing shoes) point. However, during every car ride, she will pull her shoes off and leave me with a treasure hunt once we reach our destination. Her shoes manage to hide better than you'd imagine, so I've taken to bringing her shoes with me but not on her feet.


Trying on Mom's shoes

Annabelle reached 14 months of age on October 25th. The day before, I took her to the pediatrician because her left eye was red and puffy, in addition to its typical goopiness. The doctor felt fairly confident that she just had an ant bite on her lower eyelid, although we did watch it. Poor baby. Her eyes still collect goop in the corners, but I haven't seen the degree of inflammation that was there a few weeks ago. Her ophthalmologist had suggested back in late August that she might have allergies, and we have a follow-up appointment in January. By the way, while at the doctor, we weighed Annabelle -- only 19 pounds.


Bella loves music and dancing


Annabelle makes up the funniest dances

In addition to butt-wiggling or torso-swaying dances that accompany music, Annabelle has developed funny poses for everything. When she walks around the house these days, she'll lean forward and hold her arms behind her as high as they reach backwards, with her finger pointing up. It reminds me of a swan, although the pose is more reminiscent of a peacefully gliding swan as opposed to the running, chattering swan Bella becomes.


Bella signing "eat"

Annabelle's vocabulary and communication skills are now rapidly improving. She tries to imitate whatever words we say to her by repeating us, although her verbal skills are not refined yet, so she relies on sign language to get her point across. It's fun to see what things interest Annabelle most. As would be expected from a toddler, she likes animals of all sorts (each to be called "rabbit" until Mommy gives them another name).

Annabelle also strings words together to make sentences, her favorite of which is "Mama" (spoken) rabbit (signed) food (in other words, "Mommy, feed the rabbit"). She'll add treat (pointing to the bag of rabbit treats, or taking my hand and leading me, perhaps even bringing me the bag of rabbit treats) to say "Mommy, I want to feed the rabbit." She laughs whenever she gets to shove a treat into the rabbit cage, especially if Merlin comes close to sniff her fingers. Bella certainly loves that rabbit; we check on Merlin first thing every morning and many more times throughout the day.


Bella outside Merlin's cage, signing [rabbit] food

One of her more amusing communication games is to run away and then turn around to peer at me with a mischievous countenance as if to challenge me to chase her, then wave and say "bye bye!" Of course this game is most fun when I am trying to get her dressed (and she escapes half-naked) or when I'm trying to engage her in a calm activity before she's ready to quiet down. She also attempts to use this strategy to entice me away from chores that don't involve her (such as cleaning dishes or washing my hands after a diaper change) so I'll come play.

Bella created a similar game using her receptive language. She'll hide her sippy cup next to her in the high chair and then ask for a drink (food milk for some reason being her sign for "drink," as if she needs to specify the general food before using her "drink" sign -- the actual drink sign too similar to food for her tastes, so she's replaced it with milk). I'll ask, "Where is your cup? I know we gave you one..." She will smile and look down in her lap, then point before reaching under her tray to triumphantly pull out her drink.


Bella feeding a baby doll

Annabelle is very fond of baby dolls, and "baby" is one of the words she says rather than signing. She hugs and pats them on the back, takes them for strolls around the house, and feeds them bottles just like big sister does.


"Hi, Mommy! I see you; you're distracting, so I'm headed your way now."


Gabi getting in on the baby-feeding action

Still, caring for baby dolls does not consume a large portion of Annabelle's day. She is much more likely to engage in puzzle-type games which reveal her analytical intuition. She enjoys stacking rings, building block towers, nesting cups, assembling toy food from the play kitchen, and other physical manipulation of geometrical objects. The baby toys are great; I'm less thrilled when she's resourceful and finds that household objects can be taken apart. (I remember snapping the springy doorstops as a kid so they would vibrate, but Annabelle pulls the rubber cover off the end, and with that small object in her mouth, then detaches the metal spring from the wall. Annabelle also defeated our first "baby-proof" lock on the cabinet under the kitchen sink, so I had to buy almost-parent-proof locks to replace it.)


Yay! I stacked the rings!


Seven boxes nested, three more to go...


Yay! I did it! They're all together!

I still think Bella's favorite activities are the physical challenges. She has excellent locomotive skills for such a tiny kiddo; people who see her are always amazed.


Annabelle posing before she carries her Care Bear up the slide for a ride

These pictures were taken amid intense slide action. Bella would climb the stairs to the slide in our playroom and slide down repeatedly until she decided to forgo the trip from the bottom of the slide to the stairs. She then insisted on climbing up the slide to slide down. She'll practice her chosen athletic skill again and again until her breathing becomes heavy and the sounds of her laryngeal malacia are marked, yet she'll keep going with a smile and laughter.


Both girls with their Care Bears


Gabi's turn for a photo shoot

Like her big sister, Annabelle loves books. She will pull a book off the shelf and bring it to me with her expectant eyes glowing in anticipation of the one-on-one attention that comes with reading a book. Bella hasn't yet grasped the concept of turning pages sequentially, so we often flip back and forth between particularly interesting pages. Her attention span, however, is such that she often hands me another book before we're very far into the first. She switches between books with as much ease as she does looking from one portrait on the wall to the next. Silly baby.