Piper - 15 months

At 15 months, Piper is relentlessly active. She still loves being cuddled and held, of course, but she is curious and adventurous and a little bit dangerous. I'm not sure how much you can really tell about a person's eventual personality by their toddlerhood antics, but if I had to make a guess, I'd say Libby is going to be my cautious critical thinker and Piper is going to be my fun-loving go-getter. (Both are great.) Piper just keeps charming people left and right with her adorable smile and has little to no fear of running away from me in public. She doesn't necessarily like for strangers to pick her up (she will allow it if she's in a good mood), but she will follow them all over the place.

A few more of Piper's habits/characteristics:

She loves putting things in the trash can. Any trash can, really, but especially the one under the kitchen sink. Just in the past couple of days, she has tried to throw away Jared's iphone case, several legos, a bowl, and an uneaten apple. I hate to think of what she has thrown away without me catching it. But her attitude of helpfulness is appreciated.

She is crazy about dogs. Whenever she hears a dog bark, she points to or races toward the window, squealing "dog! dog!" Usually we can't see them because of trees/fences, but when we do, she gets even more excited.

She usually sleeps with a small cat, a small dog, a white crochet blanket, and a few board books. She likes to be holding all of these things while I nurse her in the rocking chair before bed. After that, I tell her to go put her animals and things in her bed. I either carry her over or she walks over and enthusiastically throws them in. More often than not, she will get into bed happily after this routine. And unless she is sick, she is almost always sleeping through the night now. (Please don't let me jinx myself by saying that.)

She is obsessed with silverware, mostly spoons. Now that she can push kitchen chairs around to get into the silverware drawer, I can't keep her out of it. She climbs onto the kitchen table about 10 times a day, too.

She says mom, dad, dog, cat, uh-oh, drink, cheese and a few animal sounds (moo, meow, ruff). She understands so much, it blows my mind.

She is learning to get dressed. She puts her arms in sleeves, she tries to put on socks, and she is great at putting on boots. She will stick her legs in her pants if I hold them out for her.

She takes a lot of abuse from Libby, although I know Libby loves her. Piper just needs to get a little stronger so she can wrestle Libby right back. :)