This week Luke was in Mexico (he got back last night), so it was just me and Lila. We had a lot of time together and I feel like I got to know her even better.

My favorite time from this week was Tuesday before her afternoon nap. I took her into her bedroom for some wind down time. I sat in the rocking chair watching her play for awhile until she crawled over to her basket of books, retrieved one and handed it to me.

I pulled her onto my lap and we “read” the book, which means she turns the pages quickly while I describe the image on the page. About four pages into the book, she shoved it aside and crawled to the edge to the chair to peer at the basket with all her other books.

She grunted a few times and when I asked her if she’d like me to pick another book, she grabbed my hand and pushed it toward the basket. So I picked another book and she settled in my lap to flip the pages again.

This process continued until we had a pile of 15 different books at our feet and she was ready for bed.

As I walked out of her room after saying “night, night,” I smiled to myself. This was one of the first clear-cut times she has led an interaction with me and been able to communicate exactly what she wants.

It feels like lately Lila has begun to really understand our words and actions. In addition to our reading routine, this week she’s also started signing “all done” and “more” during meal times, she is clapping and waving bye-bye without prompt, and she has been calling for her “Da da” on repeat.

Most of the first year of life you don’t really know what they’re thinking. It’s a guessing game and I had so many questions about her. What does she want? What interests her? What is her personality like? So now that I’m getting more and more glimpses into how her mind works, it’s brought a whole new exciting experience to parenting.

It’s funny to me what I find exciting these days … my baby clapping or touching her hands together to tell me she wants more blueberries has me calling anyone who will listen to tell them about her latest “trick”. I just love that I’m finally getting some answers to all those questions I had floating around in my head for 11 months.

I have a feeling the more I learn about her, the more this parenting thing is just going to get better and better.