Spelling is Important

I took this picture the last time I went to the St Louis version of the DMV, which is actually run by AAA.  This is how not to spell Tiffany.

Fire Station Tour, or House of Horrors

Part of the tour scared him, but he was all smiles when it came to the fire truck.

Our playgroup toured a local fire station last month.  As much as Henry loves fire trucks and red hats, it was not all fun.  Part of the tour is they show a fireman in full protective gear to acclimate children to the appearance of a rescuer.  Henry was terrified.  The fireman became a sort of brown version of Darth Vader in all his gear.  Henry would not go near him.  He hid behind me.  He made me pick him up and hold him.
The firemen stressed the importance of family fire drills, smoke alarms, and fire extinguishers.  But with this age they said the really important thing is to teach them not to hide from fire fighters in an emergency.  Henry was too frightened for that message to really sink in, so we will have to go back for another tour in a few months.

Gigi at Almost 16 Months

Gigi is almost sixteen months.  In many ways she is still a little baby, but she is completely her own person.  She is very determined and strong willed, but there's a lot she will do if we simply ask nicely.  She hasn't let me feed her any pureed or baby foods since just before her first birthday.  She's still very unskilled with a fork, so as a result her face is usually messy because of her wild ways of feeding herself.  She also hates to have her face wiped off.  She will eat some fruits, but I can't trick or bribe her into eating vegetables.

She loves to play on the playground, and she would spend all day on the slides if we would let her.  She's figured out that if she holds up her feet, she will go down faster.  Last week she started going down some of the slides head-first.  She's pretty much fearless.

Most of her clothes are sized 12 months (which generally means a 9-12-month-old would wear them.)  I just recently put away most of her nine month clothes, and both of these pictures are 9-month size.  Often people are surprised by what she can do, because they think she's six months younger than she is.  Often I get asked if she's walking yet, and moments later they see her running away from me.

She loves clothes, shoes, and accessories.  Not only is she a fan of her own wardrobe, she loves everyone's.  She brings clothing items to me that she wants to put on.  There is a particular pair of heels in my closet that she digs out over and over again, then tries to walk in them.  She doesn't get far.  She also loves to have her nails painted.  On the rare occasion I put make-up on, she wants it too (but doesn't get it.)

I think she's just about to take off talking.  She says a handful of words that even a stranger would understand, but I know she's trying to say so much more.  She clearly says, "Mommy, Daddy" and most emphatically, "me! me!"  "Me" is her word for everything she wants.  Dallas joked that we should change her name from Gigi to Mimi.  You could interpret it as "Give it to me, please!" or "Help Me!" or "Give that to me now or I will cut you!"  She's very persuasive.  She yelled "mine" for the first time two days ago.  She is just beginning to say "thank you."  She says "oww" for up and out.  She also seems to have music aptitude.  She can keep a beat and seems to have a talent for matching pitch.

We have had to trim the back of her hair because it had become too much like a baby mullet.  Nick cut it.  We figured since barbers used to be surgeons, can't the reverse also be true?  She is still using my hair as a security blanket.  When she is really tired, you will still catch her sucking her left thumb and playing with her hair with her right hand.

She loves all of Henry's toys, and as a younger sibling does, wants to play with him a lot more than he would like.  She's been making "vroom" car noises for months.  She likes hugging her stuffed animal, which Henry has never done.  She also likes to cuddle with a blanket, and maybe even carry it around for a while.  She seems to like baby dolls, somehow not realizing she is a baby herself.  

I think she's going to be more mischievous than Henry was, but it may be because she has him as a tutor.  A few days ago she shampooed the carpet, meaning she took the pump of shampoo from the bathroom and squirted some onto the stairway carpeting.  She is a skilled climber, and is getting better and better at opening things she shouldn't.  

She and Henry are still sharing a bedroom, and it works pretty well for the most part.  She just finished getting her upper K-9 teeth, and is now working on the lower ones.  She hates having her diaper changed and tries to escape before you can get a new one on her.