Pounding little footsteps

It seems this week Leah has started running everywhere she goes. I always hear and feel her quick little footsteps coming up from behind me. A lot of times, she is running around with her arms outstretched while doing her big belly laugh. It's super cute.

She's also started stomping her feet very dramatically when she's either really happy or really mad. For instance, when she sees I have the fridge, pantry, or laundry room door open, she makes a run for it, and if I shut the door before she gets there, she gets really mad and starts stomping her feet and making funny noises in her throat. Along with her new trick of loosening her shoulders when she doesn't want to be picked up, or acting like her legs don't work when she doesn't want to be put down on the ground, I think we're starting to get a taste of the toddler tantrums that are yet to come, but luckily it's still manageable.

When she's really excited and happy about something, she also stomps her feet and starts dancing in place. I recently removed the pillows and things that were protecting the fireplace hearth, and she was so excited. She has decided that this is her new stage. She gets up there and stomps and dances around. She has learned to step down from there, too, so now I can relax a little when she's playing there.

She's also now in the stage where she's bringing us stuff all the time and walking backwards and plopping into our laps. She recognizes the opening lines of four books so far, and without fail, when I start reciting the opening lines of a book, she immediately stops what she is doing (almost like she is in a trance and has just heard the secret code word) and goes and gets the right book and sits in my lap. She loves her books and wants me to read to her all the time.

She is mimicking and watching everything we do now, so now we really have to be careful around her. She can blow kisses with her hand, and she gasps and sighs and screeches back and forth with me in imitation.