"There once was a girl who had a little curl..."

At 15 months old, Molly has taken on quite a personality. Since I've never parented a toddler before, I have no idea what "typical" behavior is, if there is such a thing. But Molly has developed quite a repertoire of emotions lately. She can go from giddy to cuddly to sulking to frustrated to downright mad in a matter of moments. I'm sure it has to be frustrating to navigate the world at this age. Her mind is going a million miles a minute, but her body is still catching up with her. She wants to run and climb and communicate, but all of those skills take time to learn and, in the meantime, life can get a bit frustrating. Her behavior reminds me of a poem my mom used to recite to me when I was a kid:

"There once was a girl who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good, she was very very good,

But when she was bad, she was horrid."

I'd like to think my mom recited it to me because I had curly hair and not because I was horrid, but it could be both. The first part doesn't really apply to our little Molly who's still working on overcoming her newborn baldness, but the second part is definitely applicable. The majority of the time, she is very very good. She loves to laugh and has the most fantastic belly laugh when she's playing peek-a-boo. She's playful and curious and just so darn cute. She absolutely loves to play outside and has been having a blast tromping through all the leaves in our yard, as you can see.

But lately, we've been running into a few occasions where our "very very good" little girl has turned "horrid". Usually this happens when we're expecting her to do something that she has set her mind against doing or we tell her NOT to do something that she has decided she MUST do. For example, we went to the North Carolina Zoo last weekend and most of our pictures turned out looking something like this:

Why??? Because Molly did NOT want to sit in her stroller and Molly did NOT want to be carried in any way, shape, or form...not in the Beco, not in our arms, not even on Daddy's shoulders. What did Molly want to do? She wanted to walk! Well, the entire walking trail through the zoo is about 5 miles and Molly's legs are about 14 inches long so walking was not an option. This led to lots of kicking, screaming and tantrum-throwing. An interesting day, to say the least.

On the homefront, it's a little easier to give her the freedom to explore and move about. One of her favorite things to do is climb up and down the front steps of our house (and rearrange the pumpkins). The bricks make me so nervous, but we keep our hands close behind her and she has actually gotten quite good at navigating the stairs safely and efficiently by herself.

She also likes to practice her walking skills on the front walkway.

Most of the time, she is confident enough to toddle around independently...
But, occasionally she still likes to grab onto one of our hands for that extra dose of reassurance. (I just love this Daddy-daughter moment! Aren't they so cute together???) One sure-fire way to "calm the savage beast" is by reading. Molly LOVES to read and has a collection of about 20 favorite board books that we read through regularly. And there's nothing I love more than coming home at the end of the day and snuggling up on the couch with my sweet girl for some reading time. Her dolly has also become a regular participant in our story time lately.

Molly also likes to "read" by herself. She empties her bookshelf at least once a day, if not three or four times. It's so cute to watch. She plops herself down, takes off one book at a time, flips through it page by page, and then tosses it down to grab the next one. She'll "read" every book and empty the entire shelf, then walk away. We're still working on the "putting away" part and probably will be for a long time :)

A few other 15-month updates: Molly now weighs 19lb. 9oz. and she's 28.5 inches tall. She is at the low end of the growth curve, but her height and weight are still perfectly proportional and she's strong and healthy. She's just petite. Molly is also very "talkative". She doesn't use any distinct words yet, but she's constantly jabbering on in her own little Molly-language. Her little language is constantly cracking us up because she'll constantly switch back and forth between nonsense syllables, sing-song tones, high-pitched squeals, clicks, and other little mouth noises. I think she just prefers to speak in her language because it's just so much more fun than plain old English. It's incredible how quickly she's developing new skills, from walking and vocalizing to imaginary play. It will be fun to see how much changes over the next few months.