I thought I'd write another Peyton update, since I know that's what everybody out there wants to hear about. She is doing fantastic! Now almost 15 months old, she is making great strides in both physical and mental development.

Obviously, she's getting very good at walking now. She even sort of "runs". She is also a real climber and amazes me by doing things like going up the ladder to the slide at the playground.

She still doesn't say many words. The only really recognizable ones are "banana" (she says "ana") and "backpack" (she says "bap pap"). I think it's pretty funny that she says those words and not, "mama" or "dada" (she does say those things, but not regularly enough to know if she understands them).

She does babble a lot though, and in the last couple months the babbling has changed to a very complex-sounding "language". She talks about this stuff very seriously, even reading it out of her books and whispering it early in the morning. She'll say full sentences of things that sound like: "Umpilchee lup kula duk".

Also, we've been trying to teach her some sign language, which we started at around 6 or 7 months of age. Back then, we didn't seem to be getting anywhere with it. However, we kept it up for some of the things we commonly talk about, like the dogs and cats, eating and drinking, etc. Slowly she started catching on. Now at this age, she is very in-tune with learning new signs. If we show her a new one she really watches and tries to mimic, and seems to understand it. She now knows signs for dog, cat, horse, cow, pig, monkey, elephant, bird, rabbit, bear, eat, drink, more, hat, and more.

Her memory, communication skills, and general "smarts" seem to be developing on the fast track right now. It is amazing to watch. I can't believe how much she has learned in the last year. We are constantly surprised and amazed by what she knows and understands. "How does she know that?" or "How did she remember that?" are things often heard in our house these days!