Amazing developments!

Even though I have loved every single second, hour, day, week and month of my life with Lily in it, I must admit that this 16th month has truly been amazing.  It has been amazing in the developments Lily has shown in just a matter of a few weeks.  I am truly in awe of how such a little person can grasp so many things in such a short space of time.  Just within the last 2 weeks since I last updated this blog, Lily is doing the following:

• WALKING!  Lily has now fully grasped how to walk and is happily alternating between crawling and walking.  She walks with a unique style consisting of both her arms up with her little hands in line with her head - simulating the feeling of walking while holding onto our hands.
• Her understanding of little body parts has expanded and she now knows where her head, nose, eyes and toes are.  I think this is due to us singing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" to her on a regular basis.  It is too cute - when we start singing, she is used to us pointing at her correlating body parts so she then starts pointing, but randomly just pointing at her stomach in tune with our singing!  However, when we say head, she does point to her head.  Such a giggle watching her!
• She is starting to communicate a lot better with me which is making my understanding of what she wants or needs a lot easier.  I've discovered that when she is finished drinking or eating, she says "ka".  I couldn't quite work out what she meant initially, but have since realised she is trying to mimic "gone" which to her understanding means she is finished.  So "ka" is often mentioned when I've made her bottle a little too full or when I'm trying to encourage vegetable consumption.  
• Lily also says "da da" for her dummy.  Whenever she wants it she asks for it.  I presume "da da" originates from me saying "dum dum".  We don't get confused between her wanting her dummy or her dad as dad is very accurately pronounced "daddy".
• Whenever the phone rings, she says "who's tha?" (without the "t" on the end of "that") and when we hand her the phone she confidently says "hello".  Actually, whenever she hears a beep or ringing tune, no matter if we're at home or out shopping, she will put her hand to her ear and say "hello" as though she is in fact answering a real phone.  Earlier today I was reading a book of words with accompanying pictures to her and showed her the telephone picture.  I said "telephone, hello!".  We then continued to the end of the book and then started all over again.  When we got to the telephone, I said "what's that?" and she blurted out "hello!" and put her hand to her ears as though she were legitimately answering a telephone call!
• She has now learned and fully understands the word "no".  She says it with pointed finger as well!  Whenever the dogs bark, she sternly points her finger and shouts "no" at them.  She also says no when she doesn't want something or gets annoyed.  She says it sternly and with such conviction!
• Lily now also knows how to say "shhhh" and she does so with her finger over her lips.  A few days ago, I was telling her not to climb on the coffee table.  She turned around, looked at me, put her finger over her lips and said "shhhh"!  It took all my strength not to start laughing - it was truly hilarious!  
• Every night after I have given her a bath, I wrap her up snugly in her towel and we say bye bye to the baby in the mirror.  Lily waves and says "bye bye"!  We then walk from the bathroom to her bedroom and in between, Lily shouts "daddy!" for her dad to come up the stairs to kiss her goodnight.  It is truly heartbreaking to hear her calling her daddy when daddy is still at work and isn't there to answer her calls.
• Other words in her vocabulary that I can remember at this moment are "wow", "wee" (whenever on a slide or swing or in a lift), "te te" (for Teletubbies), "mum mum" (for mom), "more" (when she wants something I'm eating or drinking), "baa" (for what a sheep says), "moo" (self explanatory), "birdy" and "copter" (helicopter).  I'm sure I'm forgetting a few...
• While out shopping, she is such a friendly little character.  She loves handing the tellers bits of shopping to scan and will happily chat away to them.  When we leave, she says "bye bye" and gives them the cutest little wave.  Then, while I still have her sitting in the trolley while I'm unpacking our grocery bags into the car, she waves excitedly at all the cars driving past.  I love watching the surprised and touched faces of the passers and drivers by.  I'm sure it must lighten their day... Well it most certainly lightens mine!

Watching my little angel grow and flourish is truly an amazing gift.  I treasure all these precious moments and am so grateful for this medium to be able to capture these memories, never to be forgotten.