Nineteen Months

Dear Peeper:
You are nineteen months old today, and maybe it's because we've spent the past few days with BabyJ, who is only two months old, but suddenly you are seeming like such a little girl, and not so much a baby.

We've done MOMS Club activities the past few days, too, and you've just hopped right down as soon as we walked in, and taken off to play with the big kids.

And, speaking of BabyJ, I just can't get over how well you're handling having her around. You are so sweet with her, and so helpful.

Today, at MOMS Club, I was holding her and you came over and sat in my lap, and signed "baby" and "cup" (Which you use to refer to both her binky and her bottle - you don't have either, so you don't have signs for them. I suppose I should teach you the real signs, so we can talk about BabyJ's.) and, possibly "where is it?" but I don't really remember.

I said, "Do you want her to have her binky? Okay, it's in her carseat that used to be yours, over there (several feet away, past a bunch of people) beside our diaper bag. You can go get it."

You hopped down, went to the carseat, got BabyJ's binky and blanky and brought to both back and gave them to her!

Because? You are a genius.

DoulaK and 80% of her children stopped by this afternoon to drop off some things, and I told you "DoulaK's coming over, and she's bringing BabyK" and you immediately signed "phone."

I'm pretty sure that you were telling me that he is the baby-on-the-phone, because that's where you've seen his pictures.

Because? You are a genius.

You are signing in sentences and telling us things like that all the time - things that seem like they should be too complicated for you, or that it doesn't seem like you should remember - but you do.

You've picked up several more signs this month - some of them you've gotten after we only showed you once, and a couple are your own special interpretations of my silly faces when I say certainly words (like the donkey's "hee-haw" or "yuck-yuck-yuck") - but with no audio, so I'm calling them signs, rather than words.

You've also got some new words and animal sounds.

I suppose that we should probably be less-than-proud of the fact that one of the few things that you can say is "ice cream," but my God, it's so cute how you say it, I just want to show it off!

The closest I can come to spelling it would be hhhhh-chkchkchk. It's very, well, I'm not sure if "gutteral" is the word I want or not. It's farther up in the mouth than that, but something throaty going on. I have to get it on video for posterity.

And, speaking of hhhh-chkchkchk and other such things, pretty much as soon as I talked to the doctor and blogged and posted on the Babyled Weaning forum about the fact that you were subsisting on breastmilk and goldfish crackers, you started eating lots more solid food.

Of course.

We have been trying to not have the goldfish so constantly available, and maybe that's helped you to save room for other things, or maybe you just wanted to make a liar of me.

You're really liking cheese these days, and have recently discovered hotdogs, although we're not too thrilled about you having those very often, so you've only actually had a couple. (I quarter them lengthwise to deal with the choking-hazard aspect, but they've still got that whole nitrites and chicken-lips thing going on.)

You've had bananas a few times, and you're still loving the concept of apples, but not so much the reality. Usually, I end up eating most of the apple, with peanut butter, and you lick peanut butter off a spoon. (A bit at a time. Again with the choking-hazard thing.)

You're still not so thrilled with lying still for a diaper change, but we've learned how to distract you long enough to get it done. The most effective strategy is to first let you choose what color diaper to wear, and then to give you a quiz. If you're busy pointing out body parts or telling us what various animals say or showing us signs, you don't seem to mind as much that we're snapping a new diaper on you.

We also usually let you pick out your own clothes, with a bit of guidance. We might offer two outfits to choose between, or sometimes when I really have no preference, I'll just show you which (weather-appropriate) section of your closet you can choose from.

That doesn't mean that you're going to be happy when it's time to actually put the shirt over your head and stick your arms in the holes, but at least we know you'll like it once it's on.

You're also getting a lot less frustrated with things (and us) than you were a month ago, in fact that only lasted a week or two.

Except when we make you get out of the dogs' room, because you're playing in their water bowls or eating their food.

Then you're really pissed.

But, mostly, you're back to your usual happy self, which makes us very happy, too!

Of course, you always make us pretty damn happy.

Happy oh-my-God-you're-closer-to-two-than-one day, little girly!


I love you,
Mama