22 Months

My greatest brag of the last month is that the Bean learned to say that she loves me, rather than just sign it. It sounds something like "I'll mama," rather than "I love mama," but I'll take it. She also says "I'll daddy/Beebee/Mimi/Papa."

Other Things She Says:

Her speech and language development continue to amaze me. Then again, I'm an SLP for a reason.

She's had a few multi-word sentences, but they are usually a bit punctuated - "Daddy. sit. right there."

She says plurals and possessives correctly - "Mama's bed" and "cows."

This, that, there ...

She says orange with a bit of a French accent like "ohwanjjjjj."

"I'll bosth" = like a boss.

She sometimes says "shy" before talking on FaceTime to anyone, or going over to play with friends.

"Picpuh" = show me all 1,000 pictures in your photo stream at least two times.

Orders Alex "right here" and points to the exact spot she wants him to sit while she takes her bath.

Tells Alex "get" when she wants him to chase her.

Reliably says "poop" when she does indeed have a poop in her diaper, but then fights a diaper change 50% of the time. That girl can wiggle.

"Popo" = let me grab at our ponytail.

Insists "song" in the car. I now understand the beauty of a solo work commute - alone time to listen to music rather than provide it

The other day she shouted "hey baby!" while I was driving her in the car. She said Daddy taught her to say that, but he denies any such claim.

Things She Knows:

Alex and my first names. She just picked up on someone calling her Daddy "Alex," and then found herself saying it, which made us laugh. Then we taught her my name, although she mostly still thinks my name is "mama."

She knows the names of most colors, but is not reliable with what they represent. Most things are still "purple," but a lot of her clothes/shoes/accessories actually are purple, so she's got a good chance of being correct. She knows that school buses are yellow and snot is green and the light is red if we're stopped and green if we go, but if presented with just a color swatch, would perform only slightly better than chance.

She's learning her letters, but I think she's more interested in dancing to the alphabet song than learning the alphabet itself. A neighbor gave us this LeapFrog talking magnetic letter thing the other week, and when my dad babysat he spent a lot of time playing with the letters. She can reliably identify the correct letters for Mama, Daddy, Beebee, Francie and Papa. She seems to associate the letters more with the names they represent, rather than actually knowing the letters themselves.

I continue to be amazed by what she knows, especially when  I know we didn't teach her, like when I said the word "yoga" and she proceeded to do a downward dog, or when she shouted "hey!" at the right time in Jingle Bells, or when she pointed and said "Gas. Daddy." at the gas station where I happen to know they filled up together a day or two before.

Things She Does:

Takes naps by herself at 12:30 on the dot at daycare, and goes on strike when at home with both parents.

Does "Cheers" with her cup.

Insists on attempting to dress herself.

Successfully puts on her own boots.

She likes to sit on the potty for just a few seconds, then say "try!" and clap for herself. She did go pee on the toilet once this month, but I think it was just luck. She's still very interested in all things potty, and wants to sit on the stool next to the toilet and hold my hand while I pee. Weird. So far she thinks getting to "wipe" or "fush" is a reward for peeing on the potty. We haven't had to resort to candy yet.

Nurtures any and all humanoid or inanimate objects - she gives pat-pats, shushes, rocks and covers everything with a "blanket," even if it's just a bottle of travel shampoo when the blanket is a Kleenex. She has also taken to giving me and Alex pat-pats and covering us with blankets. And I kinda like it.

Pretends to change Baby's diaper, using what we've come to call the wiggle-and-drop method, as in, "I will wiggle this poop off of you and then drop you on the floor before I put a new clean diaper on you." Baby doesn't seem to mind.

Now hates my car. Insists "daddy's" when we go to leave the house. The one time we had no choice but to take my Volvo, she threw a bit of a fit.

Continues to experiment with hitting me, and we continue to experiment with discipline. So far we've used "time outs" - which equals about 20 seconds of sitting on the stairs, then complying with our requests for an apology, and a brief re-explanation of her wrongdoings. 

Beebee babysat a few weekends ago and it actually went well? "Well" being that she cried hysterically for "mama" and "home" for 15-20 minutes before settling in to look at photos and play ABCs for the rest of their evening together. She even woke up the next talking and asking about about Beebee.

She still cries at daycare drop-off 95% of the time. Her teachers tell me she usually stops in just a minute or two after my departure and carries on just fine the rest of the day, only occasionally asking for one of us.

She loves to drink the leftover milk in her cereal bowl.

And yes, there are tantrums. They don't make it too high on this recap of the last month because they really are a blip on the radar. She's clearly emotionally dysregulated, but I figure she's just a normal toddler. I'm surprisingly patient with this "misbehavior," and just let her work it out on her own, or try to distract her. Unless it's a matter of safety, which it so rarely is.

And, as always, I have to note that I think she's the coolest and just the bee's knees. We got lucky, I believe.

Other favorite photos from recently:

We finally made/finished/hung a growth chart for her, and marked her length/height at birth and her first birthday, and included our own heights as well. We welcome any and all guests to measure themselves as well!

I repurposed the frame frame that I used to hang out Christmas cards into a decoration for the small hallway between Francie's and our rooms. I had these Instagram photos printed via Print Studio almost a year ago - a few of my favorites from her first year of life - but never had any ideas on what to do with them. The Bean LOVES looking at photos.

Daddy and Bean reading together. Makes my heart happy.

Wearing the new tie-dye shirt Jess/Hunter made her, and trying to do that thing where you put your fingers upside to your eyes like some sort of goofy owl - my dad was trying to teach her and this is what we got.

A terrible picture but good memory of our attempt to get the Bean's passport photo. I think the postal worker had an IQ of 7, and was frustrated that when Francie looked directly at the camera as she asked, that she smiled. "Tell her she can't smile." Right, like we can make a nearly-2-year-old do anything.

 

And the final shot. She looks like a baby bank robber.

Girlfriend likes apple pancakes from Original Pancake House.

Rockin' her yellow one-piece at the SWCC pool, where she went down that waterslide in the back no fewer than two dozen times. Maybe she's a shy adrenaline junkie?

Shooting some hoops. Definitely not court-approved attire.