Carissa is 15 months now and totally into doing whatever anyone else–especially Wesley–is doing.

Just off the top of my head, lately I’ve observed:

— Wesley stamping his feet and Carissa copying.
— Wesley tossing crayons off the table onto the floor and Carissa copying.
— Wesley playing with a helium balloon by the ceiling fan and Carissa copying.
— Wesley rolling toys down the stairs and Carissa copying.
— Wesley tossing diapers and other objects over the second floor stairs balcony and Carissa copying.

But sometimes the copying is good. She picks up so much so quickly and is really coming into her own.

They both love playing in the sink. But after I took the first two pictures below, I decided it’s best if it’s not at the same time.

They like playing with the same toys (leading to spats, of course). That’s the next three pictures below. Notice Carissa standing on the ride-on toy. She is always trying to stand on anything that looks like it might be fun and dangerous. Today I pulled her off the back of the couch just as she was trying to stand up. It doesn’t back up to anything, and it was a fall waiting to happen. I’ve seen her take a step up the stairs all by herself, standing upright and holding onto nothing. But she is braver than she ought to be because her balance isn’t ready for walking upstairs by herself yet. Hopefully she won’t do that when I’m not looking.

Carissa is quite the character. She loves wearing her sparkly red shoes. They are her favorite (picture #6).

I have a hard time cleaning out or filling the dishwasher when she’s around because it’s one of her favorite play things–especially the silverware basket (picture #7), which she carries around and fills with toys. I usually have to do a quick search before starting the dishwasher to rescue any stashed matchbox cars. She also loves getting into cupboards and the pantry. Anything and everything works as a toy for her.

I like that she’s big enough I can set her on the counter while I cook dinner and work in the kitchen. Sometimes she and Wesley sit up there together. It’s some of my favorite time, having both my kids around me while I cook.

Last weekend we were on a family outing to a store. Carissa was having so much fun circling the apparel racks, waiting for me to peek around each one to find her. She’d shriek and giggle and then run away for more.

One of these times, she tripped and fell head-first onto a display rack, hitting her head on a long metal rod that hangs merchandise. When I pulled her from the floor I saw blood streaming down her face. I went to the front and asked the single clerk for a tissue. The young lady was totally flustered and not only couldn’t find a tissue but also couldn’t direct me to the bathroom when I asked her for that instead. Thankfully the manager was close by and led us back to the restroom where I cleaned up Carissa’s face and hands. The manager brought us a first aid kit and I put a Band-aid on the wound. The bleeding had slowed, but her bandage was fairly bloody and her forehead was still splotched with blood. By the time I finished cleaning her up, Carissa had stopped crying and seemed to have forgotten what happened.

So we went on with our afternoon. Next on the list was grocery shopping. Adults and kids were staring at Carrisa’s face and saying things like, “Wow, ouch!” when we passed by.

After a while John asked me how deep the cut was. I didn’t really know. He mentioned that we may want to see if she needed stitches. This hadn’t occurred to me.

We stopped at an instacare facility and had a nurse examine her owie. She thought Carissa could use stitches, but that she’d need to be sedated and they didn’t do that there.

We went home, fed the kids dinner, got Wes to a neighbor’s house to play, and then headed to the ER.

Carissa was in a good mood at dinner…

…and even in the waiting room of the emergency room.

And then her happiness came to a crashing halt. We went back to meet with the nurses and the doctor right around 7 pm–Carissa’s bedtime.

She screamed while they took her weight, her height, her temperature, her oxygen levels, and her head circumference. And then she screamed more for good measure. After a while the nurses started to stand several feet away as we talked to give Carissa more space.

The doctor gave us some options. He could give Carissa stitches with local numbing, but we’d have to hold her down. He could sedate her with a shot. Or he could sedate her with an IV. We didn’t want to sedate her, so we opted to just get it done.

The nurse put a topical anesthetic on the owie and let it sit a few minutes while they set up for the stitches. When it was time, they swaddled her up so she couldn’t move her arms and they assigned a male nurse to hold her head and another nurse to hold her arms. John and I stood right by her as the doctor worked.

He gave her a shot to further numb the area, and that made her cry louder, but after that she was really pretty good. She was still crying, whimpering, making noise, but she was actually calmer than all the time the nurses were taking her vitals and preparing her for the stitches. She did really well, all considering.

It took only a few minutes for the doctor to give her four stitches. The second he was done he said, “Mom, pick her up” and I did. I gave her a bottle of milk and within a few minutes she was sound asleep in my arms, even before we had left the ER.

She’s been wearing a bandage with Neosporin on it all week long. It looks like the wound is healing well. It hasn’t bothered her at all. Here she is the morning after, just after bathtime and before church.

We go back tomorrow to remove the stitches. And hopefully that’s the end of our experience with stitches and the ER!

Our Thanksgiving today was simple and sweet. My brother came to dine with us on our non-traditional take-and-bake pizzas, salad, cookies, and sparkling cider.

We have much to be grateful for. Just glad we could spend the time together today, remembering.

Drink before bed…

Brushing teeth…

Prayer time…

John and I painted the pottery we made.

It was fun to paint, but we really had no idea how exactly the pieces would turn out. The paint on the pottery looks very different before and after firing.

BEFORE:

John’s bowl

Shannon’s bowl

Shannon’s vase

A week or so later I went back to bring home our painted babies.

AFTER:

John’s bowl

Shannon’s bowl

Shannon’s vase

Carissa is 15 months old today.

We are continually in awe of how fast she grows up. She catches on to things fast. She seems bright. She is silly. She is starting to test boundaries. One of her favorite games is, after I tell her “no,” to keep doing it and watch me with bright eyes and a smile to see how I react (usually it ends in tickles and giggles, hence the game).

She uses two signs: “milk” and “more.” She is starting to say more words. It used to just be “keh” for “cat,” “meh” for “milk,” and “oh-oh.” Now she says “baby,” “ite” for “light,” and sometimes I think she’s saying “mama.”

Tonight at dinner we watched her use a cup really well.

Ironically, Wes is just starting to practice using a cup (instead of a straw cup, which is what we finally graduated him to after bottles. In fact, Wes is finally 100% weaned off of bottles–except for the ones he takes from Carissa–as of last week).

Carissa likes to eat at the table with all of us–no more booster chair nonsense. Tonight she ate about five strawberries, signing “more” after each one.

I wonder what kind of talker she’ll be in another year?