20 Month Birthday

Favourite Food:  Finally can-cakes have been dethroned!  They still hold #2 on the top 3 list, but I do believe that Goldfish Crackers have now surpassed them.  Oh, and pizza would probably be #3.  Pizza is her standard answer to “What would you like for dinner?”, even if she had it for lunch.  “Pitha” will do for every meal.

Favourite Toys:  Colouring is her passion in life.  And she’s very, very good about only colouring on the page.  But just in case, we use washable crayons and Colour Wonder markers.  She’s also very into puzzles.  Loves them.  Oh, and purses, or as she calls them, Mommy’s Pack Pack.  Mommy’s Pack Pack usually contains two pairs of sunglasses, a marker, and as many Little People as will fit.

New Words:  Like I said last time, she can say them all.  There are just some that she hasn’t tried yet.  She did say the longest sentence I’ve heard her say this month.  “Oh, dear, glasses too big”, even though they were too small.  Still, pretty good.

What Makes Her Laugh:  Yelling.  Apparently the look of pain in people’s eyes as their eardrums burst is hilarious.  And jumping on our bed.  I guess just being bad makes her laugh.  But it makes us laugh, too.

New Skills:  Doing puzzles is a new skill that is absolutely amazing to us.  She is so good at them.  She’s doing puzzles labelled for 5 year olds.  And well!  She’s even making puzzles out of other things.  Like she’ll take stickers off of their sheet and put them back into their correct spaces.  And she likes to match objects, like a princess magnet with a princess in a book.  She’s smart and I’m impressed.

Bedtime: Still 7:30pm

Times Awake:  Usually once, but sometimes she’ll be nice and not wake up.  But that’s rare.

Naps:  Same as before.  One for between 2 and 3 1/2 hours.  Sweeeet.

*** 

Nevermind the exhaustion, the stress, the mayhem, raising a toddler is actually more fun than I could have ever imagined.  She’s funny in so many ways, on purpose or not, and makes me laugh at times when I really shouldn’t.  This is such a good thing.  So good for the soul. 

She breathes life into the most lifeless of situations.  Without trying, she reminds us how to have fun; reminds us it’s not all death and taxes.  And for that, I’m grateful.

19 Month Birthday

Favourite Foods: Still cancakes, french toast, waffles…pretty much anything you put maple syrup on.

Favourite Toys: Anything you can colour with; blocks.

New Words: She knows so many words, it’s hard to pick out which ones are new and which ones she’s just improved her pronunciation of.  She’s picked up some longer words like ‘crocodile’ and ‘thunder’.

What Makes You Laugh: Loud, strange noises like “Blah!”; doot-doot’s (a version of tickling that is basically just poking her in the chest).

New Skills: A skill she’s been working on this month is threading words together to make sentences.  Our favourite is “Here I come!” because that usually means we’re going to get some kind of hug and/or kiss.

Bedtime: Still holding at 7:30pm.

Times Awake: When she’s not teething, none.  But if her mouth is bugging her, it can be up at 4 or 5 times.  Ick.  Stupid yet-to-be-born, nerve-piercing, pointy teeth.

Naps: One at around 1pm for around 2 to 3 hours.  She used to be the 20 Minute Nap Queen, so this length has been a huge relief.

Eirinn has become increasingly independent this month.  She does everything herself, practically, and loathes help.  Her language skills have improved immensely, with the beginnings of sentences and phrases popping up here and there.  She knows many, many songs now, both their lyrics and the tune and it’s the cutest thing to hear her perform them along with the actions or some made up dance to go with it.

With this independence comes a great deal of exhaustion.  Mine, of course.  It’s a constant sprint, chasing after her, saving her from dangers.  She wants to be doing everything RIGHT NOW, and that means I have to be doing everything right now.  In a span of five minutes, she’ll go from colouring to climbing the stairs (no hands, one step per foot at a time) to riding in her push car to running through the halls to sitting nicely reading a book to running laps around the table to poking the dog.  And I’ll be right there with her colouring, climbing stairs, strapping her into the car (and immediately unstrapping), running through the halls, sitting her on my lap to read, running laps with her (as per her insistence), and blocking Bosco’s nostrils from probing toddler fingers.

But I find the energy somewhere.  You have to.  With parenthood, being too tired is not an option.  This means I often sleep through my favourite shows at night, but that’s ok.  That’s what God created the PVR for. 

18 Month Birthday!

Favourite Foods – meatloaf, can-cakes, Cheerios (of course)

Favourite Toys- Princess blocks, Princess cellphone (Pin-cess Hello?), crayons

New Words- dude, Phwiper (Swiper the fox from Dora), play (usually a command), thank you

What Makes You Laugh – still likes to be ‘eaten’

New Skills – counting along with us (as in she points and repeats the numbers).  We did up to 15 the other day.

Bedtime – unless she’s especially cranky, 7:30pm

Times Awake – usually once at about 4, usually to trade one green fuzzy blanket for another identical green fuzzy blanket.

Naps – 1, for between 2 and 3 hours.  My favourite development!

This month had a lot of highs and lows, mommy/daughter-wise.  Vacation started great, but got rough because mommy and daddy are not nearly as fun and exciting as Bugba (Grandma) and all her daycare kids.  So she therefore punished us for our inadequacies by entering her Terrible Twos 6 months early.  But we quickly recovered and now she is the sweetest, most affectionate baby I’ve ever seen.

She loves giving out kisses now, which before were reserved for bedtime only unless you were up for a fight or had a lot to barter with.  And following each kiss is a great big hug and the accompanying sound effects (Ahhh...).  Every hug and kiss feels like the most heart-wrenchingly touching hug and kiss, especially given last week, and I cherish every one of them.  I’ve never been a very emotional person, but these enthusiastic displays of her love for us melt me into a puddle of popcorn butter.