Livvy: fifteen months

My sweet girl.  I have said it before, and it's just so true every time we go through it: I LOVE one!

They are too hilarious, precocious and adorable the whole year.

Olivia began walking just a few days after the 15 month mark, making her my latest walker of the bunch.  She isn't much of a talker, either.  Where Leah and Logan both had somewhere around 50 words or more, she has just a small handful.  Primarily, "MAMA!"

I asked the pediatrician about her words, and she told me that it's no surprise if a third or subsequent child is a later talker or walker.  Obviously, it's not a "one size fits all" situation, but third children have more siblings around who will pick them up and talk for them, so it happens quite often.

She loves to make animal noises, however.  She knows duck, dog, monkey, lion, tiger, elephant, cow, pig and a few more.  She loves to find animals in books.

Speaking of books, her favorite book is Olivia, and every time we get to the part where Olivia paints on the walls, she says, "Uh-oh!"

Even though she's not much of a talker, she is definitely eager to communicate.  She grunts, points, uses sign language and gesticulates like crazy.  If you don't happen to understand what she's saying, she will absolutely lose her crap on you and start yelling, screaming, kicking and throwing herself every which way.  I kid you not.

Actually, there's rather a lot of yelling and crying in Livvy world.  It's hard to be a baby!  Especially when all you want in the whole world is to be an only child and have Mom all to yourself... but in reality, you're the third child.  If she's not entertained, she spends the whole day following me around, crying and begging me to pick her up.  And Heaven forbid I should try to go to the bathroom on my own.  Yowza.

She has finally begun to branch out, and will let other people hold her for short periods of time.

Although, she is still insistent on being with me.  Her favorite spot to be by far is perched on my hip.  If I try to pick her up any other way, she pushes me and shifts herself so that she's straddling my left hip.  It's the best way to travel.

She is pretty good at keeping herself busy.

Of course, I've also gotten wiser over the years about the things that will occupy a new toddler.

The sorting, exploring, pulling things out and finding ways to get into anything they can.

I've got your number, kid!

She is an awesome sleeper, napping for 2.5-3 hours and sleeping from 7 to 7, quite often longer.  I am sooooooo grateful that this one sleeps.  She demands a lot of attention during her waking hours, but is easy to put to bed and almost never needs me in the middle of the night.

She absolutely adores her blanket, and will not go to sleep without it.  She pulls it up over her face to go to sleep.

Speaking of sleep, she sucks her thumb, but literally only as she is falling asleep.  And the blanket has to be over her head.

She holds the blanket with her fingers, and puts the thumb in her mouth.  Otherwise, it's no deal.

She has 8 teeth in, plus she's in the process of getting several more, including those molars.  She is the world's worst teether; it can take literally a month for a new tooth to push through.  And she's miserable the entire time.

This baby loves to dance!  She will grin and wiggle and shake her groove thang as soon as she hears music.  It's adorable.

She's the perfect midway between Leah and Logan, both in terms of looks and in personality.  She is feisty and loud and demanding like brother.  She does things on her own terms.  She loves animals.  But she also loves letters like Leah.  Loves to help tidy up and put things away. Follows directions.  And, of course, isn't super social, where Logan was a social butterfly.  And, like her brother, she never ever stops chattering all day long.

And, those siblings of hers are her world.  Her very best friends.

She wears 12 month clothing, size 3 diapers and size 3 or 4 shoes.  She's just itty bitty, in the 18th percentile for weight.  Her head is only in the 85th percentile - which, for a child of mine is tiny!

On her good days and her bad days, we are just so grateful for this little one.  She brings so much joy to our family, and we know we're lucky to have her!