And 15 months quickly pass by

It is never ceases to amaze us how quickly time goes by when raising a child. In the three months since turning one Linnea's unique personality is becoming more and more pronounced.

Warning! This is our, "We are totally in love with our daughter, thinks she is the best ever, bragging post." May only be stomachable by Grandparents and possibly and Aunt or Uncle.

Linnea is an observer, she watches the world around her, very intently, and then reacts. When in a new location or around new people she is very quite and very serious for the first 5 to 10 minutes. But once observed all hesitation is abandoned and Linnea bounces on the new situation with full force. More than once we have heard, "Wow, she is really outgoing!."

Linnea is a problem solver. We believe that L's problem solving skills are rooted in her observation, for she watches everything we do and then does it herself. Most recently, Linnea has figured out how the buckles on her high chair/carseat/stroller/etc work. When placed in one she immediately grabs the buckles and tries to lock them. Once we lock them she tries to pinch them and pull them out. We are dreading the day that she is actually strong enough to do it herself. She matches the pieces of her puzzle and puts them correctly together. She can take on off lids, as well as unscrew caps. She eats with a fork and a spoon. She draws with a pen and paper. The list goes on and on. We have realized if we want to teach her something the best way is to do it our self, let her watch, and then leave her alone to try it out.

Linnea is an adventurer! She loves new foods-especially strong flavors. She loves going to to new places. She loves thrill seeking activities like the slide, the swings, climbing high, being thrown in the air and most recently being pushed at high speeds on her riding car (see pics below).

Linnea is a communicator. She understands most of what we say and is constanly trying new words to say back to us. For example, the other day we went over to the Pettits house and as we pulled up into their driveway I said, "Do you want to go play with Claire?" Linnea replied back, "Clee?" When we arrived and saw Claire I said, "Look there is Claire." Again L said, "Clee? Hi, Clee (wave)." She is adding hi to all the names she knows, "Hi, dog", "Hi, duck", "Hi, daddy", etc. She now says all gone (actually, al ga) when done eating, "boo" when asked what a cow says, she can name some of her colors, and just started saying "boom" when she falls. I think dad taught her that one.

Linnea loves music. She turns on the radio by herself. She does her sign for music constantly. She sings to herself, all the time. She sings the melody for the ABC song, she even gets an occasional letter here and there. She loves any of her toys that make music. She loves being sung to. And she learns really quickly with song. Raffi sings a brush your teeth song which I sing while we brush her teeth. Now, when ever the song comes on she instantly puts her finger to her mouth and brushes.

Linnea is social. She LOVES people. She loves it when we go to parties. She loves playgroup. She loves going to the nursery at church. In fact, every time we have picked her from the nursery the attendant has said something like, "Wow, I have never seen a baby so social and content before. She never cries, just plays with the other kids." Once we were told that they love it when Linnea is there because she helps with the crying kids by bringing them toys.

Linnea is a sleeper. She sleeps 13 hours straight every night (since 9.5 weeks!) and she takes a long nap everyday.

Linnea is independent and will happily entertain herself. I can put her in her crib with some books and toys, take a shower and she will be perfectly happy playing in there. I hardly ever do it, but it is nice that I can.

Linnea is an animal and book lover-see previous posts.

There is more to L's unique and wonderful personality, but this post has gone to long as is. So we will end with some cute pictures of Joe pushing Linnea around the living room (Thanks, Amanda P.!)