Alice suddenly seems to understand everything we say – well not everything but a lot of things. For a very long time now (months) she’s understood the word bath. Whenever we say “bath time” she takes off running for the tub. Now she seems to understand so much more. When we’re getting ready to head out Alice sits down by the shoe tray and tries to put on her own boots which is hilarious to watch. I think she hears me hassling Norah about it being time to go. If I ask her if she’s hungry she’ll go to her high chair and reach up – because of course she’s hungry! She’s ALWAYS hungry. She has had a voracious appetite lately. That day we went to Costco with my mom? Alice ate half a Costco hot dog and a 1/3 of a churro and every single sample she was offered – which was a lot. I think she might have eaten the other half of the hot dog if we hadn’t given it to Norah. Today, after feeding Alice a Greek yogurt, a clementine, and half a banana, Norah requested a piece of toast. Norah wandered off after eating just half of it and when she came back it was gone. She complained to me that someone had stolen her toast and I thought she was just being her clever self trying to tease me before saying “just kidding mom, I ate it” but she insisted her toast had been stolen. Low and behold Alice was hiding in a corner eating her toast. I didn’t realize she could reach the table! Here she is quickly trying to destroy all the evidence of her theft.
Notice the doll in the picture. Alice LOVES this doll. I put the doll to bed in the doll crib in the playroom every night and every morning Alice gets her out of the crib and pushes her around the house in the doll stroller. It is very consistent. If it doesn’t happen before breakfast it certainly happens after. That doll couldn’t ask for a better mom – although lately Alice has been taking her clothes off constantly. 
Another cute thing she has been doing is bringing us books to read her. Confession: We barely read to her during her first year of life. We didn’t think it was important when she was a little baby and we were just trying to get Alice to bed so we could read to Norah. Before we knew it, she was one and we felt shame. We moved the board books to the living room to promote literacy and it hasn’t taken long for Alice to develop a love of books. When she brings me a book she usually holds it with her arms straight up so she’s holding it over her head and and then she walks toward me, turns around and slowly backs up to sit in my lap. It's so cute I can’t stand it. 
Other random things – Alice wakes up before anyone else – usually a little before 6. Bryan gets up with her because I pretend to be asleep and they have their own special routines together. This morning I witnessed Alice bring Bryan his shoes (unprompted) when he sat down to put on his socks and I was amazed but Bryan told me she does it all the time. Then he told her he wanted the brown ones (while pointing) not the black ones and she went and got him the other pair! She also always gets a “baby tax” which is some of his cereal.
Alice is joy to be around. We just need to get her to stop waking up at night and we need her to start saying a few more words so she’ll stop her ear piercing squawk every time she wants more food.
