15 months

You are amazing, spectacular, beautiful, a genius... Honey, I can't believe how much you keep learning. Every day you say new things. Seriously, when I read you a book, you sometimes repeat the last work on every page. You can speak in short sentences, like "Mommy cook" and "baby sit." You use many of these. You also sometimes say three-or four word phrases like "sit on mommy" or, most recently, "up in the sky." (Okay, it sounds like "up in kye," but I know what you mean.) You also say "I see a Mommy," "I see a baby," "I see a Mina," "I see a ball," "I see water," etc. I'm not 100% sure you know what you're saying, but I'm impressed nonetheless.

You can climb steps, scoot yourself down a slide, dance (your moves include stomping, head-nodding, turning around, and clapping), climb down from couches and beds, and you're starting to run a little (or at least walk fast). You can give high fives, you are learning to shake hands, you wave very well, and you blow raspberries regularly (usually just when someone has complimented you).

You can point to your eye, mouth, nose, ear, head, hand, arm, leg, knee, foot, cheek, chin, and tummy. When we went to Oregon, your grandma asked to see your tummy and you came running over and lifted your shirt. You can take something like a ball and follow instructions to put it in, on, under, on, and off other things, like a chair or bowl.

We have been taking swim lessons, which are more focused on getting you comfortable in the water than anything, but they seem to be effective. Today we put you in Grandpa John's pool, and it was the first time you'd been in a big, cold-water pool, and you were totally cool with it.

It is finally summertime. The very first thing we did when I got out of school was go to Oregon to visit our family. You had a wonderful time playing with your cousins and aunties especially.

Your hair has grown a lot since your first birthday. It's still noticeably copper-colored, but I think it's coming in a little lighter. My favorite thing is that at the back of your head, there are some crazy little ringlets. I suspect you're going to have very curly hair.

You are very sweet. You give kisses and hugs, and even though you are frequently on the go, you still like to be held or sit on our laps and have stories read to you. I just can't get enough Zadie time.

I love you very much,

Mom