Phoebe, this one's for you

You'll be 15 months old on Friday. You are solely walking now, having given up crawling two weeks ago. You are getting better at it every day--much less teetering and more stability. You prefer to carry something at all times, but it does not matter what you carry. You like your purple fleece coat. You love your shoes. You like the theory and ritual of reading books, but you could do without the actual reading. (You love to pick out a book--say "book"--and bring it to Daddy or me; then you turn yourself around and back up until you are right next to one of our laps and plop yourself down; then you wait patiently for us to open the book and begin to read. You like to turn a page or two, but you often get up as soon as the reading begins. Then you will pick out another book and start the process over again--we do this at least 10 times a day and actually only completely read two or three books.) You also love to jettison your books through the slots of the gate at the top of the stairs. Actually anything that poses as a slot gets items slipped through it. You like to put your legos through the slot created by the lever that lowers the side rail on your crib. You are great at mimicking--you will copy almost any noise we make and you try to say most words that we say--if you can't pronounce the actual word (which is most of the time) you copy the inflection of our voice and the length of the sound. The difference in your pronunciation of "juice" and "shoes" is indistinguishable, but you enjoy saying both words. You smile with four teeth and you laugh hysterically when you think you are getting away with something--like crawling up the bottom steps and waiting for me to notice. You love giving and receiving high 5's and playing peek-a-boo in any variety. Climbing in and out of your hamper is endlessly amusing. You make a kissing face, scrunch up your nose and breath audibly when you are intently working on something. You clap your hands when you accomplish something new. You love to put your hands in my mouth to find my teeth. You love to hug and pet Henry and watch him run around when he gets excited. You are good natured and generally happy--although you have your crabby spells especially when you are tired. You take a while to warm up to new people or people you don't see every day. You don't willingly go to the arms of a stranger. You are curious but cautious. You are beautiful and amazing, and you teach me something everyday. I just thought you should know. I love discovering life with you.