More about Helen at 16 months

I guess I wasn't complete enough in my previous description. Helen, as a fourth child, won't have the complete record of first words or all those other firsts that I (mostly) managed to write down for James. But, every now and then, I will try to get down a bit. These lists are in no particular order.

Helen's current favorites list

Toys

1. The baby doll stroller that was Maggie's 2nd birthday present from Great-grandma Root

2. The orange plastic choking hazards...I mean, traffic cones... that came with a remote-control car set. I have collected them all up and put them away many times, and she still manages to find more every time I turn around. She seems to love that they just perfectly fit in her mouth.

3. The nerf darts/bullets that go with all the nerf guns in the house. Where do these choking hazards come from? These are ditto to item 2 above.

4. The baby hairbrush. Jeremy occasionally would take it out of the bathroom drawer and brush her hair. From this, she has taught herself to sneak into the bathroom, open the right drawer, feel around in the drawer(over her head) until she  has it (she isn't tall enough to actually see in the drawer), then brush her hair. This makes her laugh excessively if she gets this far.

5. Any toy from Maggie's room. She doesn't care at all which one. She just seems to love getting into Maggie's room and playing with something, because it gets such a rise out of Maggie. Maggie tries to keep her door shut all the time to ward off Helen and Barbarians (in that order). Helen watches for the door to be unlatched then darts in and pulls things off the shelf willy-nilly. She is often quite sneaky, but sometimes, she gets to giggling and squealing so delightedly that it gives her away. 

6. Anything to do with the toilet: Toilet paper, bowl brush, just the water in the bowl itself. We have all learned to keep the bathroom doors shut, and to listen for the telltale splashing sounds that mean she has found an open door. No plumber calls yet, but some pretty unpleasant clean-up jobs. I sometimes thinks she does this just because she likes a bath so much, and she always gets one after splashing in the toilet.

7. Keys. Key fobs with buttons to push are best.

If you are keeping track, you might have noticed that nothing on this list is actually a toy intended for Helen's use. 

We are relieved that her interest is waning in her past favorite toy - the drawer under the oven. It seemed cute enough that she liked to pull it open and climb in, but then we discovered that when the oven was on, it was hot enough above the drawer to burn her. Ouch!

Books

1. Goodnight Moon. Endlessly.

2. Any of the "Peek-a-boo" board books - like Baby Baa Baa  (we have 3 or 4 of them). She finally stopped chewing them (mostly). 

3. Any book that doesn't last too long.

4. Any book that does last too long, as long as she is allowed to eat it when it gets tedious.

Activities

1. Taking a walk, outside. She will deliver shoes and jacket to you if you are too slow to take her out.
2. Riding a bike. Her new trick - she begs and whines to be put up on the bike in front of one of the older kids. She acts like she doesn't realize that she can't reach the handlebars or pedals, and is actually just biking along on her own.
3. Driving the car. If left free in a (parked) vehicle, she makes a beeline for the driver's seat, where she stands up and holds the steering wheel, flipping on every lightswitch, wiper blade, etc. She will briefly pause every minute or so to shriek with delight.
4. Buckling a buckle. She likes to buckle carseat buckles, highchair buckles, whatever she can get to. We have left her old infant seat in the living room just for her to buckle. If it is already buckled when she finds it, she comes and pulls on me and chatters worriedly at me until I come open it for her so that she can buckle it again.

Foods

1. The new baby food "pouches" that are baby self-serve. They have what seems to be regular baby food, but she can suck the food out of them like a baby bottle or juice box. She loves to be able to feed herself this way. 

2. Watermelon. Quickly replacing bananas as the one food guaranteed to make her jump up and down and point and squeal.

3. Baby cereal mixed with applesauce. (As long as she gets to feed herself - a messy undertaking. But if you try to feed her with a spoon she will turn her face away repeatedly and defiantly.)

4. Apple chunks.

5. Any dessert. She now recognizes cake, cookies, ice cream.

6. In developing news - she apparently fell in love with salt and vinegar potato chips today. She begged for one; she made a terrible, puckery, surprised face when she tasted it; then she reached out and begged for another.

Baby Signs

1. She shakes her head "no" to answer "yes" to a question. But she grins while she does it, so we can tell she means "yes." If she actually means "no," then she just grimaces and turns her face away.

2. She claps her hands to ask for "more, please" when eating.

3. She points a finger into her mouth to ask for a drink.