Update

What the heck happen to March?  I feel like it was Riesling's birthday then a blink of the eye later it was April Fool's Day.  I guess we had a busy month with a little bit of travel, some time with friends and family, and a lot of crazy on the move one year time.  My little monkey is soooo on the go now.  She is clearly a master at walking, indoors and out; quickly picking up speed in the running department; and is now entering a climbing phase.  Did I mention jumping?  Like leaping onto my face causing my tooth to jam into the inside of my lip resulting in a blood gushing 1/2 inch gash, a slightly loosened tooth, and a crying baby with a goose egg on her head.  Yup.  She's into jumping. 

It's pure exhaustion to keep up with her but I really am loving every minute.  I love that she is so active and joyful.  She is like the poster child for living life to the fullest.  She wants to explore every corner, nook, basket, dirt pile, and stone.  Now that the weather has taken a turn for the better she wants to be outside walking the dog at all times (except those moments when she is hungry or thirsty).  She stands at the front door with the dog leash, a poop bag and some kind of dog toy in hand babbling on until you take her outside.  She digs around in the dirt and kindly feeds Sofee little sticks.  She really loves that darn dog more than anything. 

I'm amazed at how much she seems to figure out from day to day.  She's really getting good pretty at understand instructions or applying concepts from one task to another.  She is also started to pick up new words every day it seems.  We are trying to teach her some sign language and I think that is helping her apply meaning to more words.  She definitely knows quite a few signs but we typically have to provoke her in order for her to use them.  She seldom will start a sign without us first asking and showing her the sign.  Sometimes she will repeat the sign of her choice (i.e. more or all done) and sometimes she just tries to say the word.  I'm not sure if we're not using proper methods to teach her or if she's just trying to skip right to the word instead of the sign. Either way it is helping us communicate and eliminating some frustration for both parties.

I can see how this stage could be frustrating and complicated for parents.  It's tough to find a balance between having fun, allowing exploration, and keeping her safe.  I remember once thinking the same thing about her crawling. hahahahaha.  Silly first time mommy.  Crawling is the simply stuff.  Not only is she scaling chairs trying to get on top of the kitchen table, she also has a strong willed independent personality to handle....not to mention she is 25+lbs and pretty darn strong.  Parenting is so darn fun! 

I'll have to check Jim's phone to see if we have any decent pictures from the last few weeks.  Most of them are her running away in a blur.  This video is from about 3 weeks ago.....