19 months
19 months old! Having a toddler sure is an adventure. There are so many fun things that Katherine is doing. I can’t remember what I have posted before so forgive me if some of this is a repeat.
Katherine, you are certainly becoming more independent. This is both good and bad. Actually it is all good, it is just hard sometimes as that independence brings frustration, stubborness, injuries and tantrums from time to time. Almost every day you have a fall and come away with a bruise or scrape as you are climbing, running and getting into thngs. I hate seeing you get hurt but it is unfortunately a part of growing up. Tonight you had one of the worst tantrums I have ever experienced. You did not want to take a bath of all things. How unpredictable. Last night you did not want to get out. You came close to winning the battle but mom did get a quick bath in. You love to say “no” though Nana discovered that you actually can say “yes”. We are entering new terrortory as you are beginning to show deliberate disobedience. It is not fun having to discipline you but it is for your good.
There are fun parts of independence too. You are now more interested in what you wear. You love your shoes. What a girl. You have actually learned how to put your shoes on by yourself. It is hard and you can only do it with your black or brown shoes with velcro but you sure have fun trying. You not only love to try on your shoes but you love to carry them around, bring them to me and trade which ones you are wearing. Today you insisted on wearing your pink Merrel hiking shoes with your maroon (with pink flowers luckily) jumper. Technically it did match but it was not really the right style. I decided to let it go because shoes is not a battle I want to fight with you. It is not important.
You also like to request and play with your bows, hats and belt. The other morning you had me help you put on your hat and belt with your pajamas still on. It was pretty funny looking. You love your bow and it is finally staying in - that is until you pull it out. You ask for it and then you take it out and get upset.
You are doing a lot of fun things. You love to tickle and be tickled. I love your laugh. When the tickle monster starts coming you get all giggly. It is really cute when you tickle us. You laugh as you tickle and it is pretty soft. It is amazing though how you do actually make me laugh.
You enjoy playing hide and go seek. I will run and hide and call your name and you will find me. Then you will hide, usually in the place where I just was. My favorite place to hide is under the covers. You think that is pretty funny. When I find you, you like to say “boo”. Anytime I can’t see you and then I can you say “boo”. The funniest is when getting dressed. When the head pokes out of the hole I am met with “BOO”.
You are incredibly friendly and outgoing. You tell everyone “Hi” and “Bye-Bye”. People think it is so cute. You actually tell everything “bye-bye”. We can be leaving a store and you will say ”bye” to the clothes, the door, the shopping cart, the cars, whatever we are leaving.
You observe everything and learn so much. You know exactly what buttons to push on the computer or TV remote to get your DVD to come on. You know what to do with the computer mouse though you have not connected it to what is happening on the screen exactly.
You are having a language explosion. It is so fun to see what words you know. Sometimes they surprise me and I wonder where you learned them. When reading books you will point to a picture and tell me what it is. Some of your new words this month are walrus, worm, tower, zebra, zoo, zipper, moose, owl, jacks, mole, tights, troll, umbrella and map. I am sure there are more but those are the ones I can think of. You probably have over 100 words now. You are continuing to use sign language too which is a life saver. It makes me realize how much you observe. My favorite new sign this month is octopus. It is pretty cute.
We are starting to work on your colors and numbers. You can say them all by repeating what we say. You are pretty good at labeling blue and yellow (you say lellow). We are working on green and red. You can count to four on your own.
You copy me in everything I do. It is good when that means that you help. If you spill something, I hand you a towel and you clean it up as you say, “mess, mess”. You like to help with the laundry by handing me the clothes in the washer to put in the dryer.
You are still nursing more than mommy would like but it seems that things keep coming up that make it difficult to cut back and wean you. I really enjoy the time but it can be akward sometimes. The funny thing is that you now nurse your stuffed animals and dolls. It is really cute. Here you are nursing your moose.
You are doing better at eating solids. When something is hot, you blow on it but I am not sure you do much good. It is cute.
Whenever you see someone sleeping, be it daddy, the baby doll or the mice at a pet store, you sign sleep, say sleep (actually “peese”) and you put your finger to your lips to say “shhhhh”. The one exception is when you see mommy asleep or pretending to be alseep. Then you shout in her face and even hit her face. I don’t know why I am not allowed to sleep.
For some reason you like to hit. I observe other kids your age and it seems to be common. We are working on being soft. When I tell you to be soft, you say “soffff” and stroke gently three times and then hit. It is progress but we still have some room to grow. At church yesterday there was a 3 month old baby and somehow you understood that you needed to be soft without the hitting. I was so glad.
One of my favorite times of day is in the morning. Usually when you wake up, you join us in our bed. We all cuddle until you fully wake up. Then you get all excited that daddy is there and you crawl on to his belly to bounce.
You have started to sing. It is so cute. You are not really singing any specific songs yet. When we get out the snuggle puppy book, you say “ooooo puppy” because it is a book that we sing to you.
You enjoy drawing. We have an entire notebook filled with scribbles. We don’t worry about staying in the lines, we just hope to stay on the paper and off the furniture.
You are still really small. We are having a hard time with clothes falling off of you. You actually are still wearing your 6-9 month pants from last winter and they fall off your bottom but are too short. I don’t know what we are going to do.
We are having so much fun every day playing, reading, singing, and dancing. It is fun to see you start to develop your personality. I can’t wait to see what the next month holds.