16 Months

Little Heidi Rose is 16 months old! Its crazy to think that this is the age Asher was when Leif was born. Its even crazier to think that Heidi won't be much older when she becomes a big sister. Although I'm pretty sure she has no idea the surprise she is going to get in 3 months, she likes to pat my belly and say "baby" especially if the boys are patting it and talking to the new baby. She is pretty verbal and I've tried to explain to her using one of her dolls, but I think she doesn't really get it. She is so sweet and even-tempered though that I'm sure she won't be jealous.
Heidi's favorite activities lately include opening and closing cabinets and doors. She especially likes opening the under-sink kitchen cabinet where we keep the garbage can, opening the lid, and putting trash in, then closing the lid and closing the cabinet. Its obvious that she is very proud when she does this. She also has an attraction to toilets and toilet cleaning brushes, so we have to watch her carefully to keep her out of bathrooms.
Heidi loves shoes and clothes still. I find everyone's shoes scattered all over the house along with clothes that she has scavenged from dirty clothes hampers. She usually tries to put the shoes or clothes on herself for awhile before discarding them in whatever room she happens to be in. I've tried to remedy things a bit by starting a kids' shoe basket by the back door for the kids to keep all their shoes in. Its helped a little, but she hasn't gotten the idea of putting shoes back in there yet, although I'm sure she will soon since she likes to help clean up. 
Heidi has become smitten with a really soft muslin blanket that Austin bought for her a few months ago. Throughout the day she goes into her room, pulls it out of her crib and drags it around the house intermittently putting it over her head to walk around or wrapping it around herself to roll on the ground. Austin thinks we need to buy another one for her because it looks like she is going to wear it out with all the love and she is so attached to it already, but I thought just buying the one was too expensive, so we'll have to have a good discussion about it. She is also pretty attached to two bunnies that we keep in her crib- one that I bought for her before she was born in the high hopes that I would get a girl someday and one that Austin bought for her on his last business trip (she got a really nice ballerina bunny stuffed animal while her brothers got Russian chocolates- notice a trend of Austin spoiling his daughter? ;) She doesn't drag these around as much as her blanket, but I've had to have the boys do a search several times before nap or bedtime to find her beloved sleeping articles.
Heidi also loves to color and is very often tempted to go sit in her little purple chair at the kids table. We usually keep the markers out of her reach, but sometimes she gets them when the boys have them out.I'm really impressed with her fine motor skills, but I think the boys just didn't develop as quickly because they are boys. 
Heidi is getting a couple molars and finally getting one more front tooth. She loves to get into the freezer whenever I have it open and get out an icey to chew on for a bit. (Or she just gets ice cubes out to play with :)
Here are a few pictures of her from today. She looks very serious in all of them because she was quite involved in what she was doing and didn't want to be distracted for photos.