The Danial Family: 14 Months

Alyssa is 14 months old and growing more independent and bigger every day. She now sits in a forward-facing car seat and loves looking at all the cars that drive by. We packed away her infant car seat along with other equipment and had to lower her crib again. It is sad each time we put away things that Alyssa can no longer use or wear, but it is exciting to see her use and play with new things as she learns more and is able to do more "big girl" things.

Alyssa continues to practice walking and loves to cruise around and use her push toys and cars. Her primary mode of mobility is still crawling, and it is hilarious to see her do a "gorilla walk" when she wears dresses. She loves when we chase her, and she has learned to climb stairs after practicing at Teta and Jiddu's house since they have only 2 steps in their family room. She now completes the task quickly so we timed her one day, and she climbed our staircase (which is 17 large steps) in under 1 minute. She is so happy when she reaches the top!

Learning to go up the steps at Teta and Jiddu's house

Climbing the stairs at home

I made it!

The "gorilla walk"

Alyssa also learned to pull up on the lower shelf of the pantry and the refrigerator. It is funny to see her grab snacks, and she always closes the pantry door when we leave it open. In addition, she now opens drawers and tries to reach doorknobs. As a result, we had to put locks on the cabinets, and it is only a matter of time before we will have to childproof the doors too.

Getting into trouble

Alyssa's vocabulary is improving, and the following list includes the words she says on her own on a regular basis:
Mama
Dada
Teta (Grandmother in Arabic), which sounds like "Te-ta"

baby, which sounds like "Bebe"

bubble, which sounds like "Bubba"

bye-bye, which sounds like "bah-bye"
hello, which sounds like "hey-o"
nena (Arabic baby-talk for food), which she says when she is hungry and/or when she hears the microwave or toaster oven beep
uh-oh, which she says any time she (or any one else) drops something

Alyssa also signs "more" and puts her hands up for us to hold her in addition to waving hello and goodbye to everyone. She also waves her hand to say thank you. When she hears the phone ring, she automatically puts her hand to her ear and says hello. She also loves to put on anything that resembles a bracelet or necklace. I am not sure where she learned this. Alyssa also imitates much of what we do and loves to feed herself and (pretend to) wipe her mouth when she is finished with her meal. She eats more food and takes less time to do so, which Mommy likes since I do not have to distract her as often during meals now.

A girl has to accessorize

Here is what we have been up to the past month:

Alyssa helped Mommy volunteer and deliver the development's monthly newsletters. We spent one afternoon walking to each of the houses, and Alyssa loved watching Mommy deliver the calendars and waving to all the neighbors.

We traveled to Cleveland again for our cousin's wedding and the July 4th holiday. Teta Samia had a birthday cake for Alyssa as soon as we arrived. Since Shereif's parents had just returned from Egypt when we saw them last time, they did not have a chance to celebrate Alyssa's birthday so we sang Happy Birthday again and ate more cake (Alyssa's 4th birthday cake). We also visited Teta and Giddu each evening while we were in Cleveland. We also visited great grandma and great grandpa. Great Uncle Chuck and Deb visited Alyssa one night too.

Before the wedding, we went to Aladdin's bakery, which was the first time Alyssa was in a Middle Eastern bakery. We bought bread, spinach pies (which Alyssa loves to eat), and feta cheese pizzas.

Our family at the wedding

Packing to go back home

We returned to North Carolina and attended our friends Scott and Rochelle's wedding. Shereif's friend from Michigan, Tim, and his girlfriend Marcia stayed with us for the weekend too. Alyssa was sick (with her second viral infection) and was not her sweet self. She was extremely fussy, and she developed a rash after her fever broke.

Alyssa had a great time at Connor's 1st Birthday party, and we loved the monkey theme and eating banana splits for dessert. Alyssa especially loved playing with all of Connor's new toys. The Rinaldis were kind enough to give Alyssa a favor bag filled with a monkey toy, a snack, and a bowl with a picture of Cinderella on it. It is Alyssa's first Disney Princess item, and I am sure she will get many more in the coming years.

The theme for the month for Baby Fun Time was farm animals.

We went to the pool a couple more times this month, and Alyssa and Mommy even went on our own. We had fun in the baby pool and trying to learn to swim in the big pool (which entailed Mommy "dragging" Alyssa while she kicked and splashed).

Likes

Climbing stairs
Necklaces and bracelets
LOVES to eat cheese and toast!
Riding toys
Watching Daddy cut the grass: Alyssa loves to watch Daddy from the front door, patio door, and living room windows. As soon as she hears the lawn mower, she races to the window while making a "rrrrrr" sound.