15 Months

Alyssa is 15 months old! The biggest news is that Alyssa is WALKING! She has been walking the past few months with the help of push toys and holding Mommy's and Daddy's hands, but she started taking more than a couple steps all on her own at Teta and Jiddu's house while we were in Cleveland. When we returned to North Carolina after Labor Day, Alyssa started walking all around the house. Like with all of her gross motor skills, she was somewhat of a "late bloomer" with walking; but, she is definitely getting more proficient in it QUICKLY. It is funny to see her stumble and be clumsy at times, but she always gets up right away and starts walking again without any problems.

This is a video of Alyssa walking for the first time (which was more than the usual 2-3 steps she used to take on her own).

Walk like an Egyptian-Lebanese!

Alyssa's other skills are also improving. She can put together her Mega blocks now and not just take them apart. She also knows how to push all the buttons on all of her toys. She tries to put blocks in the shape sorter too but quickly gives up by lifting the lid off of the box to put the toys in. Alyssa can reach higher now and tries to grab things off the kitchen counters. We finally put a gate at the bottom of the stairs so that Alyssa would not climb them without supervision.

Practice makes perfect

Get me outta here!

Alyssa's hair is much longer in the back; and her clothes are fitting better and less tightly around her thighs since she is getting taller and starting to lose her baby fat (which makes Daddy sad). She still eats very good and has had many different kinds of foods. She even tasted her first fast food--Chik-fil-A chicken nuggets--and loved them! She also loves to dance. Her dance moves have evolved over the past few months from swaying her head and clapping to swaying her upper body and waving her arms (especially the right one) in the air.

Dancing Queen

She also loves to pretend to yawn by covering her mouth and putting her hand on our mouths when we yawn. She can say "mouth" and "knee" and can point to all of the following body parts on herself or on us:
1. Head/Hair
2. Face
3. Eyes
4. Nose
5. Mouth
6. Tongue: Alyssa wiggles her tongue and sticks it out when we ask her where her tongue is
7. Ears
8. Arms
9. Hands
10. Fingers: Alyssa wiggles her fingers and shakes her hands when we ask her where her fingers are
11. Legs
12. Belly-button: Alyssa lifts up her shirt to look for her belly-button
13. Tummy
14. Feet: When you ask Alyssa where her feet are, she automatically points to her foot or lifts one foot up (usually the right one) and makes her "stinky face" while sniffing. She thinks it is hysterical to pretend that any one's feet are stinky.
15. Toes

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

Alyssa had a play date with Connor at his house. They ate snacks and played nicely until Connor started to climb over Alyssa. It was cute to see Alyssa hold her own, and she loved playing with Connor's refrigerator magnet toys.

"Grown" Up

We stopped by our development's National Night Out with the Ferguson family. We walked to the clubhouse while the girls rode in Mary's wagon, and we ate hot dogs and chips while talking to some of the neighbors. Alyssa enjoyed looking at the fire truck and police car, and the girls received firemen hats.

Fire Chief Alyssa

We went to Cleveland so that Shereif could attend cousin Mike's bachelor party weekend. The guys went to the race track, played golf and paintball, and went out at night. While Daddy was away, Alyssa, Teta, and Mommy went to see cousin Sarah in a fashion show at the mall. Sarah looked beautiful in her back-to-school outfit. We celebrated Teta and Jiddu's 35th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner at Brio's with Uncle Joe and Uncle Patrick.

We went to Chuck-E-Cheese's for our neighbor Tahani's 5th birthday. It was the first time Alyssa rode a ride (other than the Carousel at the park). Alyssa loved riding in the cars with Barney and Chuck-E-Cheese, but she was unsure about the roller coaster and motorized swing. We had our picture drawn and enjoyed watching Daddy play some of the games so that he could earn Alyssa a prize. She loved the bracelets we won and eating pizza with the other kids.

Road rage?

We invited the Rinaldi family over for another play date so that we could go to the pool again before it closed. We had fun talking, playing, and watching Rob jump into the pool.

We got ready for yet another drive back to Cleveland.

Likes
Skype: Alyssa loves to show Jiddu, Teta, Uncle Joe, and Uncle Patrick everything she has learned. It is amazing to be able to talk to and see our family whenever we want even though we live 500 miles apart.
Playing peek-a-boo: Alyssa loves to pretend to hide from us and gets excited when she surprises us.
Walking
Pizza
Finger painting: Alyssa played with finger paints for the first time, and she made a birthday card for Daddy before his special day. She was hesitant to get messy at first, but she loved to swirl all of the colors together with just one finger. I painted her palm so that we could put her hand print on the card, and she quickly wanted to wash the paint off.

Colors!

Peek-a-boo!

Dislikes
Shape sorter
Gates
Getting dirty