words: your signing
and your verbalized words are both improving exponentially. someone asked me if i was keeping a count of
all your words, and i, shamefully, am not...but i think it's because you say a
new word almost every single day. recent
additions to your vocabulary: toadstool ("toe-tool"), flower, bath,
happy, outside, beans, berries, please
(peas), peas (also peas, but with no accompanying sign language), socks,
shoes, tee-tee, and moon. you sign
please and thank you, mine, change my diaper, and frog, in addition to the ones
you've been doing for a while now. i
cannot tell you how rewarding and awesome it is to be able to communicate with
you with language instead of guessing what you might want.
food and sleep: your
eating is up and down, as it always has been.
there are days that you out-eat me and your dad (this past weekend we
had brunch with some friends and you ate more than 3.5 and 2.5 year old boys combined!),
and there are other days that you are just too busy or distracted or tired to
eat a whole lot (this happens most frequently at school, where there is always
something fun going on). fortunately,
when you are interested in eating, you are still not picky at all and do a
great job getting lots of veggies and protein in. fruit is still your favorite thing, with
graham crackers coming in a close second.
oh, you also say "cracker" now, too. i'm still nursing you in the morning and at
night...some friends suggested i do a kind of don't-offer-don't-refuse plan,
which is a great idea….but you're still asking at the regular times, so it
looks like we're still at this for at least a little while longer. i never thought i'd breastfeed this long, but
i've really loved it.
anyway, the sleep is
still great as well, thankfully. you
have pretty much dropped your second nap all together, but will still take it
one or two days a week. you sleep 7-7 most
nights, and your nap is usually around 11:30 and lasts 2-3 hours, depending on
if you're at home or at school.
activities: your
level of independence continues to increase as well (the heartwarming and
heartbreaking duality of motherhood).
you try very hard to put on your socks and shoes (socks are a huge
challenge but you're getting ok at shoes).
you use a spoon or fork to eat (and successfully make it into your mouth
most of the time!). with direction, you
will help put your toys away or throw your laundry in the hamper, etc. you lift up your plate to let us know you're
done with your meal (at school you walk your plate to the bin after meal time,
but at home you're confined to a high chair, so that doesn't happen). this led to a broken plate and a few tears
last week, but is mostly pretty awesome.
you're very happy to sit and read books by yourself, or to toddle around
the living room investigating various things while i get dinner/breakfast
ready. you laugh to yourself all the
time and it cracks us up. you love to
look at and point to things in the sky: birds, planes, the moon, etc. you are endlessly amused by making animal
noises and we cannot get enough of those.
your favorite song right now is head, shoulders, knees, and toes. you especially like to sing it in the bathtub
and you giggle like crazy when we grab your toes.
you are starting to
demonstrate a bit of a stubborn streak at times. in no way does this surprise me. you've had your own opinion about everything
since day one, but you used to be much
more easily distracted. now, your will
is stronger, so you throw little mini-tantrums when you want something more
immediately than i can get it to you, or when you get frustrated that you can't
quite perform a task yet. for example,
yesterday when i put you in the car, there was a cup of milk i had forgotten
about in there (gross, i know. i totally
have a mom car now. sigh.). you saw it but it was out of your reach, and
obviously i couldn't give you old gross milk.
you were signing and saying milk and please, but i told you i'd get you
milk when we got home (future is not a concept you understand yet). anyway, you were SO mad. i felt horrible, but there really was nothing
to be done. i'm working on figuring out
the best ways to work you through these moments. i want to be firm and i want to discourage
unacceptable behavior (duh), but i also am trying to think about how you're
processing information and to be reasonable about my expectations for your
reactions. it's an interesting
dance.
we got you a potty
for valentine's day (so romantic, we are), and you love it. it's hilarious. your teachers have a potty and help you sit
on it during diaper changes. it's
obviously too early to be thinking about potty training, but we just like to
encourage familiarity with the potty and an understanding of what it's used
for. you like to ask to sit on it and
then immediately tell us you're done.
you then wave bye bye to the non-existent business in the potty. this is clearly my fault from our cloth
diapering and the way we dispose of the poop.
i would always say bye bye when flushing it after changing you, and now
this is how you process what happens after toileting. i can't decide if it's super weird or really
cute. ha.
your fifteen month appointment is today, so i'll update with stats in a couple of hours...
your fifteen month appointment is today, so i'll update with stats in a couple of hours...
