Fifteenth month developments.

My Madame turned 15 months last week, and the older she gets it seems like the fewer big milestones there are for her. She's walking everywhere now, can understand almost everything I say to her, and has developed a real personality completely independent of my wife and I. Eventually I'm going to have to stop measuring her developments in months, but for now I'll try to keep it up.

• Walking. She was walking last month, but now she's really a pro. Up and down hills, uneven surfaces, rocks, you name it - she's walking on it. She's finally got the hang of shoes as well, which is a good thing. Because when we first put them on her we didn't think she'd ever wear them. As it turns out the shoes we were putting her in were a little too small, so we skipped right to size five and we haven't looked back since.
• Eating. We turned a corner the other day at lunch time. She was being kind of finicky with her yogurt (which she normally loves) so I decided to let her take the spoon herself. Now she insists on feeding herself, which is good and everything but it definitely slows things down. So now thanks to a moment of simple (but brilliant nonetheless) insight from modern day mom, we rock two spoons, one for Madame and one for me. Between the two we're having much more success.
• Kisses. No matter what I do, I can't get her to give me a kiss on the cheek. She's great at hugging. If you ask usually she'll give you a squeeze and a pat on the arm, but no kissing yet. She's never been a very cuddly kid so I guess it makes sense, but it's kind of funny how that one thing she just won't do.

Comments

[Grandma Cookie]

Maybe it's that prickly beard of yours that's the problem. I'm sure she would kiss a clean shaven modern day dad. Just a thought from Grandma Cookie.

[AJ]

Hey now, don't buy into any grandmother propaganda.

Toddlers learn affection from family members. So cut down on the squeezing and arm pats while increasing the smooching. And keep Grandma Cookie at arm's distance or Madame will pick up cheek pinching.

[William Young]

I don't think you'll ever stop measuring accomplishments in months, until you start measuring them in years (maybe). I haven't, and I've got a 48-month-old and a 22-month-old.

As for the affection part, well, just wait until the lil' one starts telling you she doesn't love you, and doesn't like you, and you're standing there bewildered, kinda certain that your lil' one doesn't know what she's saying, but upset anyway.