16 Month Old Link Summary

In Link's 16 month he became especially chatty; he loves to experiment with all the sounds he form but he still doesn't consistently use a ton of words. Some things he does say consistently include:

• counting to three forwards and backwards (except he usually skips "one" going either way)
• eat
• kitty
• tickle
• mama (usually said when fussing)
• go away (probably because Meo says this to him when Link tries to snatch his toys)
• dada
• thunder 
• cheese
• noodle

Link has also started singing songs. He doesn't actually sings the right words, he kind of babbles along, but he nails the tune. One song we really love to hear him sing is "Misty Mountain" from the Hobbit movie. He also regularly sings "thunder" as sung in ACDC's classic "Thunderstruck".

He has lots of favorite songs right now; he's just very musical and is always entertained and happy when we sing. We try to do an opening circle every day during which we all sing songs with gestures/movement and this is one of his favorite times of the day I think. Some notable favorite songs are:

• The Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Baby Baluga
• 10 Little Fingers (from music together)
• Puff the Magic dragon
• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
• Ring around the Rosie
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• The Little Bells of Westminster
• Misty Mountain
• Life is a Highway
• Thuderstruck
• Still I Fly

He has such a love for music that it's not surprising that a lot of his favorite books are ones that are sung. Link really loves being read to, so much so that it has gotten to the point that I am a little fearful to end a book. Link can be a little fireball and as soon as I finish a book, and don't start rereading it immediately, he has a little temper (yells at me, throws himself onto the floor, pushes the book into my hand if I dared to put it down). So I usually read the same book over at least twice (usually more), unless he brought me a stack and I quickly move onto the next book in the stack before he has time to react about the first book ending. He is very passionate about story time. Some current favorite books include:

• Trains by Byron Barton
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star by Sylvia Long
• Hush Little Baby by Silvia Long
• The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani
• Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow
• Baby Baluga by Raffi
• Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker
• Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle

Other things Link loves to do include:

• play outside (he will actually bring his shoes to me and sit down when I ask if he wants to go outside because he loves it so much),
• help cook (he's started helping me pour ingredients when we bake)
• play "ball in the hall", a nightly routine in which Meo and Link run/roll my giant exercise ball back and forth down the hall to each other
• play "chair trucks", a game in which they pretend their little chairs are trucks and drive them around the kitchen
• play trains
• splash in puddles
• swing
• be tickled and wrestled with
• pretend to be an airplane or car with Meo and do laps around the first floor of the house while listening to music from Disney's Cars or Planes Fire & Rescue
• Play planes and/or cars with Meo
• Paint/color
• Do flips with Daddy
• vacuum, sweep with his little broom, help with the washer/dryer
• sword fight with Meo
• play with his Dinosaur Train toys, his music block, or his musical puppy (if he's feeling sleepy)
• play with Moby