SLOANE AT 15 MONTHS

She is learning SO much these days.  It makes me want to cry, and laugh, and pee in my pants all at the same time.  I hope you know what I mean by that.

I don't know if this is actually true things or if i'm just looking for evidence of Ken and I in Sloane's developing personality, but I find myself making lists of the ways she is like her dad and the way she is like me: 
She likes fruit like her mom
She doesn't like egg yolk like her dad
She likes music like her mom
She likes to put things away like her dad
She likes the outdoors like her mom
She likes to dance like her dad
She likes to laugh like both her mom and dad
I like to think that when she gets cranky she is being her like dad...
Ken likes to think that when she is bossy she is being like her mom... 

I see Ken's facial expressions in her sometimes, and then when i'm looking in the mirror, I catch an expression on my face that is undeniably, Sloane's facial expression in my own.

Not only is she the cutest bug, she is helpful as well! She is contributing around the house already by helping me put groceries away, throwing away any trash she finds on the ground, 'sweeping' the floor, putting shoes away and putting laundry in the dryer.  

Since she is so much more aware of things, she is realizing that she has so many more needs to communicate. This means she gets frustrated when we can't understand her, and upset when she can't have x, y, and z and can't quite understand why. I can see these thoughts happen across her face. 

She still loves to be read to but she also takes the book to read to herself now and then, too.  When we read through Dr. Seuss'  ABCs, she sounds out some of the letters with me.
She understands so much more of what we say now. 
She says, 'wow!', 'pease (please)', 'socks', 'eye', 'moa (more)', 'bye', 'hi', 'bu (book)', 'eee (eat)'.... 
She has 'ruh-ruh (rusty)' and 'bababa (papa)' down; i'm still waiting for 'mama'.

The other week she woke up way too early and wanted to get in bed with us.  I brought her in and as she lay next to me, she spent the next half hour just looking at me. stroking my face, rubbing my eyebrows, honking my nose, tugging my ears, feeling my hair .....I was half asleep but I felt her little fingers all over my face and every time I opened my one eye, I could see her deep black eyes looking back me.  

She still snuggles into my neck when I am holding her and singing her a bedtime song - it makes my heart swell up to my throat.