Okay. Now that we're done with the obligatory things, let's get down to the nitty gritty. I'm not sure what that even means. How "nitty gritty" can we get when talking about a toddler??
Anyhoodle...
My kid is nuts. Except I think she's just a regular toddler. I went back and read my 15 month post and I've realized that not alot has changed. Except that EVERYTHING has changed!! If only I could write a coherent sentence. Toddlers do that to you.
In my last post I wrote: "Jayna is doing wonderfully. She's discovered running and has thus discovered falling down ALOT. She throws tantrums and gives the sweetest kisses. She uses her charm to her advantage. She's learning at the speed of freakin' light. She still adores Sesame Street. She loves her doggies more than ever. And she is so cuddly right now that I melt atleast once a day. And that kid loves me. I mean, she absolutely loves me. She asks for me and looks for me when I'm gone and is happy to see me when I return. We're on the same page again and I can't get enough of it."
That pretty much sums it up, folks. Except that we are NOT on the same page lately. All that other stuff is true. But she's now learning more and more that she has the ability to make choices. And those choices often do not coincide with what mommy and daddy think is best for Jayna. And that creates alot of tension, frustration and walking away.
She is perfecting the tantrum including the "follow mommy into the kitchen and continue the tantrum in there since she walked away from me and can't see my pitiful little crying face thus can not properly feel sorry for me and give me what I want." Her tantrums are actually pretty hilarious. It takes everything I have to not just laugh at her sometimes. She is so...committed to the tantrum. She is very good with the follow-through. She'll first throw herself onto the floor by sitting down and folding herself over. Then she'll smack the floor with her hand just one time and scream. Then she'll kick the air. And then she'll look at you and if you haven't given in, she'll lie down like she's going to sleep and cry and scream like you've just beaten her. I just leave the room. And she now follows me and has even gone as far as attaching herself to my leg. And I just pretend like she isn't there. And I laugh on the inside. But I don't give in.
She is saying more words now but only sporadically. She says doggy, cookie, car, shoe, trash, fish, wash, lala (for Elmo because of the song), mommy, daddy, moe, bubba (her cousin), nana, pawpaw, book, boot, shoe, bus, that, this, bye bye, night night, nano (no more) and some others that don't come to mind right now. I really hope she begins talking more for the reason below.
Her frustration level with things is very high right now. She is having trouble communicating things because of her lack of vocabulary. We're working on it. When she asks for something with her classic series of pointing and "uh, uh", we make sure that we say a one word description of what we're doing atleast 3 times before giving it to her. If she points to the kitchen counter at the animal crackers, we say the word "cookie" 3 times and then give her a cookie. If she wants to sit on the couch (she can't get up onto our couch yet because it's very high) we say "up" 3 times and then put her up. We're trying to engrain these words into her brain. And I'm sure she'll get it eventually. My friend Laura has a little girl who is 3 months older than Jayna and she speaks in sentences. I'm not sure that there is one word that the kid can't say!! I think to myself that it must be easier that Layla can talk, but harder at the same time. Because I'm sure the backtalk will soon begin if it hasn't already!!
Jayna is so sweet. She loves things and she loves them big. She kisses everything and hugs everything. Her emotions are pretty intense right now. And it's sooo cute.
She thrives on routine. We have a routine for almost everything we do. We sometimes don't follow it and she's okay with that, but she'll still insert her own little parts of the normal routine. If we skip bath for some reason, she still wants to turn off the bathroom light. She's learning choice. What a wonderful thing to learn...
And here are some fairly recent photos, as if you haven't seen enough from the holidays...
Family snapshot at the Mall when our friends Mark and Charlotte visited.
Hangin' on the couch reading before bed.
Jayna loves to sit inside boxes and containers and things. She sat in this one for about 15 minutes and watched Sesame Street.
Don't worry...it's empty. She put her baby doll in there and carried it around. It's her Not a Box.
So there you have it. Next month I'll have a 1.5 years update with info from the doc. I dare those bitches to tell me she's overweight...
2 comments:
You tell em'... tell them bitches!
Thanks for the update! I remember wishing that Ellie would learn to talk. Well, she did learn. And hasn't really stopped since...
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