Alice, nearly sixteen months

Funny girl, Alice, has discovered her baby's binky is quite wonderful. It's got only the tiniest of nubs, that you can wedge inside the plastic doll's mouth. But she latches on to that and howls if you take it away.

She has learned to use a spoon pretty well, thanks to her daily bowl of yogurt. She doesn't often let me feed her any more. And, her breakfast has to be just the same as brother's and sister's. One morning I gave her a bowl of cheerios and she wouldn't touch it until I poured some milk on it.

Her vocabulary, slowly expanding, now is "mom!" and the occasional "da." She's got all sorts of nonverbal communication, nods and head shakes and pointing and waving and grunting and, the newest, giving high fives. Oh, and don't forget the shrieking. That's always fun. We're working on the signs for "please" and "more" but she'll only do them if they're first modeled by Nathan and/or Clara. The other day at breakfast we had nearly the whole family doing the sign for please, but with cantankerous Nathan shaking his head no, it was nothing doing. And if you ask any question, she'll raise her hand. "Who's hungry? Who's in favor of nuclear war?" She's up for almost anything.

We went swimming the other day at the Clearfield aquatic center, which has an outdoor kiddie pool that's 18 to 24 inches deep. She was quite in her element, which seems to be a sort of drunken sailor motif. She wouldn't let me hold her hands, so with the slightest off-kilter step she'd keel over in the water, not at all phased with water in her eyes, or up her nose, or anything. I'm thinking the reason she didn't want much dinner is all the water she swallowed.

She's very invested in keeping up with those older siblings, be it drawing with sidewalk chalk or getting a sucker from the bishop's office after church. What a determined, very grown up girl. She's so fun. And when she stopped pinching and scratching me all the time, I'll like her even more.