Becca changes and grows so much every day. It's funny to think that we were so worried when she wasn't crawling at 10 months... even though she isn't walking yet there is nowhere that this little girl can't go.
She has become an expert at climbing up the stairs and has recently perfected coming down backwards all on her own. She likes to sneak up when no one's looking and when we find her midway up to the top, she just smiles and giggles like it's the best game ever. Along with climbing the stairs, if a laundry basket is left out, you can bet that she will be sitting up there as proud as can be if you turn your back on her for a second. She can now climb herself onto her Princess car and ride it around, she climbs herself onto Ethan's exercise giraffe bike and straddles it and pushes it around, but her favorite is Ethan's rocking horse. She climbs herself up there and just "rocks" out back and forth with a huge toothy smile on her cute little face.
And if there's somewhere she wants to get without crawling, there is no toy that she can't hold onto and push around the house to get wherever she wants to go. I know she'll be walking soon, but just like crawling, she will do it all in her own time. Ethan didn't take his first step until he was 16 months and she doesn't seem to be in any rush. She can get wherever she wants, however she wants, and is perfectly happy.
She LOVES rocking out and dancing to any music that is within earshot. Her little head starts bobbing, her arms start waving and the feet start kicking. It is the cutest thing!
Along with her gross motor skills improving, her fine motor skills are getting better every day too. She enjoys finding one of the many balls in the house and starting up a rousing game of "roll the ball" with anyone that will play with her, for as long as anyone is willing to play with her. Stacking and sorting objects from one place to another is also a never ending source of fun and amusement.
In addition to improving all of her motor skills, it's great to see her starting to understand communication more and more. "Uh oh" is one of the first words she learned. She is more than happy to let you know if anything in her line of sight happens to fall on the ground. Just follow the sound of "uh oh" and you will surely find something on the ground that shouldn't be there... She can verbally say "thank you" and knows now what it means. A great game is that she will take a toy, give it to you and say "thank you" and then put her hand out to get it back and say "thank you" and then go back and forth like that, over and over. And when she's all done, she is very proud to tell you that she was a "good girl!" She says "mama", usually only when she's very upset, and can clearly say "dada", usually when she's very happy.... hmmm.... She has recently started saying "papa" and "up"... tonight she said "apple" for the very first time. She tries to say "brother" and "Ethan"... and even though those are a bit harder, those are her most expressive words as her big brother is the light of her life.
She has also starting becoming very proficient non verbal communication. She waves hi and bye. She blows kisses loves to play peek-a-boo. She can now sign "all done", "more", "please"... and just tonight she started signing "milk" and "eat".
Above anything else, talking on the phone is what she loves the most. If you dare to talk on the phone in her presence and don't give her an opportunity to put it up to her ear and say "hawo!" then you will definitely get to experience her temper.... it doesn't come out very often, but not letting her use the phone will definitely bring out her "sassy" side...
Becca is such a sweet and fun little girl. It is so much fun watching her develop and grow and interact with the world around her. The best part is watching the relationship grow between her and Ethan. You can just tell how much they love each other. Walking in on him giving her a spontaneous hug is my favorite part of being their mom.
