Elizabeth is 16 months old. When she was a new baby we called her “so sweet.” Now we say, “What a little scoundrel!”

Her personality is emerging more every day, along with her vocabulary and propensity for trouble-making. Some of the words she says:

No! (her first word, I think)
Shoe (her second)
Yeah (“Yes”)
Mom! (obvious)
Da! (“Dad”)
Ni-Ni (“Night-Night,” meaning bedtime)

And today John her her say “Up” when she wanted to be picked up.

Those are her only clearly distinguishable words but she is talking all the time. Gibberish, but obviously it means something to her. If you try to translate it into something like, “Oh, you want to go outside?”, she’ll nod her head and say, “Yeah.” So we communicate.

She likes ice cream cones.

Sometimes we stick her on the potty to practice.

Elizabeth loves a good time and is playful and mischievous. This is where the “little scoundrel” part comes in. One of her favorite pastimes is running up behind Carissa, grabbing fistfuls of her hair and pulling for all she’s worth. Poor, poor Carissa. All I can do is tell Carissa to run away and climb to higher ground to save herself (except now Elizabeth has mastered climbing onto sofas and beds, too).

She has also figured out that if she’s getting into something she knows she shouldn’t, she should find a nice dark corner, or an empty room, in which to do her badness so we’re less likely to find her. If I don’t know where she’s gone it’s usually bad news.

She has learned how to unscrew lids, and she knows where to find everything with a lid that we don’t want her to open. Namely:

– mascara
– concealer
– deodorant
– toothpaste
– Chapstick
– really, absolutely ANYTHING that she can open

She also knows what items I don’t want her to have, but this seems to attract her to them all the more. Like my toothbrush. I can’t tell you how many times a day I find her with my toothbrush in her mouth, happily gnawing away.

If I remove her from something I don’t want her to be into (such as my earbuds, which are usually in my bedroom on the second floor), and I take her all the way downstairs and to the far opposite side of the house, the very moment her feet hit the floor she pivots and like lightning runs straight back to the problem situation.

(P.S. She ate my earbuds, so I had to buy new ones.)

She LOVES to wear her shoes and is always bringing them to me to help her put on. She feels like one shoe is sufficient for going outside. She loves to be outdoors. Her favorite things in the backyard are the sandbox, slide, and water table.

She chases after Wes and Carissa with tremendous joy. She loves being in the action and part of the gang. She enjoys wrestling with Wes (who is not as gentle as I would like).

Her hair is long enough that it usually hangs in her eyes. I tried a million hairclips, but they last only a millisecond before she pulls them out. So I finally found these tiny, rubbery elastic bands that she actually lets stay in.

Her hair is lighter than Carissa’s but straighter (on a sad note, after a recent haircut Carissa’s curls mostly disappeared; apparently they were just baby curls. I’m still crying about it). But Elizabeth’s hair curls right after a bath, so that gives me a little joy.

When she learned to nod her head. We were proud parents.

Elizabeth loves blankets and snuggling in them. I always forget that I can’t try to fold a blanket while she’s in the room because she ambushes it every time. She runs straight into it and rolls around on the floor, a giggling mass of blanket and baby. Her favorite blankets to sleep with are crocheted ones, like the one from Grandma.

She goes to bed around 6:30 pm and wakes up around 7 am. I think she is finally sleeping pretty well through the night (let’s hear a hallelujah for that!).

She recognizes her tummy and bellybutton and head, and gets really excited when she sees our cats. Lately her new things is sitting on top of the couch at the picture window in the living room and watching the world go by. Wes used to do that a lot, too.

Yesterday I dropped some chocolate chips on the floor. No sooner had they touched the floor before Elizabeth scurried over and ate them all up. Today I gave her a chocolate chip granola bar. Guess what was gone first? (Hint: not the granola part). She also likes M&Ms.

When you take a picture she makes a sound like “Cheese!”

She loves to play in the sink and will stand by the step stool and make noise until I drag it out for her.

The other day I was sitting on the couch by Wes with Elizabeth in my lap. He indicated he wanted to hold her. They were so cute together I had to quickly grab my camera for a shot. Naturally Carissa wanted in, too, and–naturally–she only adds to the sweetness of the scene.