happy-go-lucky: Fifteen months! I know, nifty title!

It's all true! Isobel is indeed, true to the title of the post, fifteen months today.
No, not one year and three months, but fifteen months. I guess you start counting different when you have kids. It's my birthday on Sunday and I am going to be 44 - or 528 months! Holy moly! But I digress.

It is also a year ago since Isobel and I went out into the world of meet ups and baby n me classes and baby massage. Since I went solo in the day time and dragged my poor three / four month old everywhere with me in an effort to "get out and about" and to make mommy friends. Now we have known those people for a whole year, their babies are now toddlers and we all still enjoy each others' company. Oh wow, that sounds so hokey and idyllic I know. It wasn't without some trials and errors along the way. And seriously we didn't make fast friends with everyone we met. But the ones who have stuck have stuck and I'm so glad Isobel has friends and so do I.

I have to tell you that is Isobel has definitely perfected the art of scooting. Yes, she was doing it at the one year mark post, but now she is absolutely proficient. She can do it with both hands, one hand or no hands. She can do it backwards! She can scoot holding something in both hands. Naked or clothed. Outside or inside. On the wet grass or the soft sand. Isobel's scooting brings smiles to the faces of sour puss strangers and opens up many a conversation with a passer by. It often brings criticism in the form of "get that child off that filthy floor!" But really one cannot stop Isobel scooting if there is a flat surface that her mamas deem vaguely sanitary!

Isobel continues to turn into a fun sweet and yes, still Happy-Go-Lucky toddler. She loves reading books by herself (and just tonight started putting the books right side up while reading them!), "sorting" clothes - which usually means throwing them around her neck or over her shoulder, playing peek a boo ( still a favorite), doing laps around the kitchen island, carrying her baby dolly around and putting her hat on. She becomes frustrated if she can't put the dolly's hat on and asks us for help if she can't do something ( we think it's "help" - although it sounds a bit like a whine!) She has figured out how to make her cars go forwards sometimes ( though they often still go sideways) and has matched her first shape ( a star ) to its corresponding hole. She loves fridge magnets and just got some magnetic animals and letters so our fridge door is very full. She recognizes her favorite song, The Adventures of Isabel by Natalie Merchant, introduced to her at a very young age by this lovely blogger and bops and dances to it, as she does to most music.

Isobel can identify and say the words for cat and pig and she knows a cow says moo and makes a very cute monkey sound. Her favorite words at the moment are cool and no ( with a shake of the head - where did she get that shake from - I don't shake my head when I say no!) She has taken her own shirt off and loves to get in the bath and play independently with her toys, while I sit next to her and get splashed every so often. Our Christmas lights are still up on our mantelpiece and they reflect on the ceiling and walls with big circles of light - which delight her. At night time we turn all the big lights off and all just look at the LED light show and marvel at it. Last night Isobel deliberately sat down in a red circle of light that was reflected onto the carpet.

Our little free spirit really hates having her feet covered - to the point that when we tried putting footed pajamas on her after a long hiatus, she cried and screamed till we took them off. Socks and shoes get similarly short shrift - although the other day she kept them both on for about 3 hours - in the car, at the play date and home again. Not sure what that was about but it has not been repeated.

Yes, we live in a technological age and ours is quite a techy household, thanks mostly to mommy. I would still be in the dark ages without S, but we have our fair share of technology beginning with "I" and one beginning with flat screen "T". Yes, Isobel knows what the remote control is and she picks it up and says "T" when she wants to watch. Yes, I know, horrible mommies. When I was pregnant and before, I would never have expected myself to let my kid watch TV, and I wish it was in a different room hidden away, but it's in our living room and it's omnipresent. And we like it. We usually only watch when she has gone to bed, and we let her watch kids TV when we are exhausted or sick or both. She usually loses interest after 10 minutes or so. And her favorite I Pad app was Peekaboo barn for the longest time but she has suddenly developed an intense dislike of it and cries and shakes her head if we try to put it on.

For those of you who are shaking your heads at our TV watching, I have to tell you that she is deeply interested in the guitar, dulcimer and banjo that we have in our dining room and can bang a lovely rhythm on the drum. And just started doing Wiggle worms, where she dances in the middle of the room to the music and practically ignores me - which I take as a welcome sign that she is securely attached to me. To my delight does look over her shoulder to check that I am still there and that I am taking notice of her.

We have had our second and third cold / virus and also experienced vomiting in a taxi in her new convertible car seat. Fortunately we were inches from home and the clean up wasn't too bad. Just call it a rite of passage.

And of course you want to know if she is walking. Well, she took her first steps about a month ago and for a few days was interested in practicing sporadically, usually in the evening, and usually her walking and standing practice was permeated by bouts of walking around on all fours in a circle. But then she stopped and has not really tried since. Except today she pushed a cart along at our play date, and at Wiggleworms when we were doing a circle game and everyone was walking, she let me guide her by holding her up and she actually propelled herself forward with some motivation. And she stands all the time - usually leaning on something while she does it. We are trying really hard to be cool about it. "She'll walk when she is ready.."

Did I tell you about her divine scooting?

Happy Fifteen Months, Isobel, from your besotted mama and mommy!