Year in Review - Sirah

Well it has been a very big year for Sirah as it is for most children her age. Sirah is now 1 and a half and a fun, beautiful and energetic little girl. She is very independent, very happy and very demanding. She is what some might deem a "high-spirited" or "high-need" child and she wants to be held constantly. But her smile is cute enough to melt you into doing it and if that fails her insistent screaming is annoying enough. LOL! But we do not always give in lest you fear we are raising completely spoiled kids.

She loves dogs, real ones, stuffed one, plastic ones and she calls them all "antock" which is the way she pronounces the name of one of our Australian Shepherds. She can also say dog but she prefers to call them antock consistently. She can almost always be found holding or carrying a dog around or laying on the floor with our two Aussies (who are EXTREMELY patient and forgiving) thinking she is one of them. She will let them lick her face and lays on top of them, they let her poke at them, stick her hands in their mouth and do things you can not imagine a dog would tolerate and they are very gentle with her. We are always there of course, it is cute to watch her lay down between the two of them on the floor and lounge or play with them.

She is definitely our stuffed animal child, which up until now we have never had. She loves little ones in particular and gets very adamant about having two in her hands. Her current favorites are a little cheetah, monkey and dog. She also loves playing with the museum quality plastic animals we have that are very realistic. Surprisingly her favorite is not a dog but the panda bears. She also enjoys knocking over blocks, especially if her siblings just built them, driving cars, rolling balls and dancing. She dances with her playsilks and to music. She still loves music and has taken to banging on a drum.

This year she learned to crawl, walk, run, walk backwards, and her favorite climb. She is amazing climber, some days it simply drives me bananas truth be told. She thinks she is older than she is because she is the youngest with siblings close in age so of course she believes she should do everything they are. She walks up the stairs without help on two feet and can get onto countertops and tabletops with ease.

She has begun talking in little bits. Some of her vocabulary includes dog, no, frog, hi, bye, go, up, please (used very infrequently, antock (dog), eye, ear, nose, nannies (nurse), down, dada, mama (also used infrequently), gentle, and baby. I may have missed a few. She prefers to not use words though she has gotten much better about using words in just the past few weeks. She clearly understands far more than she speaks though and can follow all simple directions and even some complicated ones that involve going into another room and retrieving something.

She loves to play peekaboo though sometimes she takes a long time to move her hands from her eyes. She sings songs she made up and tries to sing her abc's. She has the cheesiest grin once the camera comes out and the saddest face when she is sad and the cutest mad face that you are trying so hard not to laugh at. She loves to brush her teeth and goes to the bathroom and says "eeee" which is what she says while you brush. She carries toothbrushes and shoes around and we always need to find them somewhere in the house. She brings you books and climbs into your lap waiting for you to read to her. She still likes to chew the edges of books atleast board books finally taste better to her then the corner of adult paperbacks!

She has moved into a big girl bed, sleeping on the bottom bunk, sharing a room with Rhiannon. She still does not sleep through the night, but hey we haven't yet in over 5 years and someday we will again. She is into the taking all her clothes off stage and would prefer to stay that way. Unfortunately she has also learned how to take off her diaper. She wants to be outside all the time but it is far too cold and she is picky about which shoes and coat she wants to wear. She picks her clothes out each morning, or atleast part of them.

All in all she is a joy to be around. She is fiercely independent doing things her way and happy to entertain herself for short periods of time. Yet she is also fiercely dependent, wanting to be the center of the universe, demanding to be held and still climbing into our bed each night for atleast part of the night. She is learning so rapidly, enjoying life and growing up. We are enjoying every minute of her, even the temper tantrums.

Peace,
Tenn