Ah, toddlerdom.
It's like constantly caring for a drunk friend... I love her dearly, but she acts a fool constantly and sometimes embarrasses me in public. She'll break out in random singing and dancing for no reason, go from happily playing to crying and shouting "noooooooooo!" for no reason, fall without warning, and CANNOT EVER BE REASONED WITH. Toddler= miniature drunk person.
So what has the mini drunk person been up to?
Food- progressing slowly. She'll now eat chicken nuggets dipped in ketchup or barbecue sauce, she LOVES tacos, and will gladly eat a PB&J- or just straight peanut butter. If it's a fruit, she'll likely eat it. If it's orange, she'll hesitate, and if you try to feed her carrots, you'd better duck and cover because she'll fling them at you. She's better about actually trying things- sometimes- but has the amazing ability to be able to survive on only macaroni and cheese, yogurt, fruit pouches, and graham crackers. Oy vey.
Teeth- twelve! She has one full set of molars now (both sides, top and bottom) which has contributed to her better eating habits. She can chew things much easier now... the bottom molars were the first to arrive and made her miserable. The top ones kind of sneaked in and when I saw them up there I thought "ah, ok. That's why she's been a little grumpy." No big deal. So obviously the two-year-old molars will be complete and total hell. She's been a little chompy lately and I'm guessing new teeth are on their way.
Potty training- Yep, we bought a potty. A cute, bright pink, shiny Baby Bjorn potty. The pediatrician gave us the go-ahead because her verbal and cognitive skills are so far advanced for her age. So far, we've had one stray poo nugget and a whole bunch of toots that have landed in that potty. Every drop of pee and actual bowel movement have landed in her diapers (or the bath. GAAAHHHH). Why? BECAUSE SHE'S SO STUBBORN. Upon advice from my dear aunt, I haven't pushed it at all. In fact, I'll occasionally ask if she needs to go potty, and when she shouts "NO!" I leave it at that. I'm sure she'll do it when she's ready and when it's her idea. I think part of it is that she does not like actually sitting on the potty with her bare bum. The other major contributing factor is that she's 20 months old (what?!) and is obviously the one in charge here. I do think that when she seems to show some more interest, I'm going to try the boot-camp-style-potty-training-in-three-days approach, although I'll have to take some time off from work to do so. "Oh, you're on vacation next week? Where are you going?" "Nowhere. I'm staying home and cleaning pee and poo all day long" Woo.
Sleep- That's the big change going on currently. My amazing sleeper/napper suddenly went AWOL and left behind a crazy animal who refused to sleep well most days. She would sleep fine for the AM nap, then run circles around her crib while squealing and laughing like freaking crazed animal when PM nap time came around. After about 45 minutes, she'd pass out and sleep for maybe 45 minutes or an hour. All signs pointed to shifting to one nap. I decided to bite the bullet and just make the switch, since the time change was that weekend and her whole schedule would be screwed up anyways. Why not add to the mayhem? Day 1, Saturday, was the neighborhood's garage sale, so she accompanied me and Grammy all around the neighborhood in the morning, and breezed right through nap time without even realizing she was tired. She ate a decent lunch, then completely passed out when I put her in bed around 12:45. I had accounted for some settling-down time, not realizing that she would fall asleep before I could make it across the house to turn the baby monitor on. And then... she woke up about an hour and a half later. UGH. I was hoping for a 2+ hour nap since she was only getting one. I suddenly heard her shouting "ELMOOOOOOOO" and saw that she was desperately trying to reach out of the crib (she apparently had enough and threw Elmo out of the crib, then realized how terrible of an idea that was). When I walked in her room, I quickly realized she had a poo in her diaper and that was likely the culprit of the 1.5 hour nap. I changed her diaper, and put a wildly protesting toddler BACK INTO HER CRIB. Yep, I went there. I put her back down. She cried, then settled down and appeared to fall asleep again. About 15-20 minutes later, she popped up like a prairie dog and threw her Elmo out AGAIN. Nap time over. Sigh. The next day- same thing. An hour and a half into her nap, a poo appeared in her little diaper and woke her up. I changed her, and again put a very upset toddler back into bed. She whined for a few minutes, then laid down. 15-20 minutes later... she was asleep. Asleep! Hooray! And slept for a little over an hour. Score one for mommy.
Since then, the one-nap-a-day schedule has gone well. Knock on wood. She's down around 12:45 and falls asleep almost immediately. Today, she let me know it was nap time by saying "nap. Night-night." Yesterday, she slept from 12:45 until a little after 4, when I woke her up. I'm guessing that was a fluke. She goes right to sleep at bedtime, too, and seems to be a much happier kid now that she's on this schedule. We survived! So far. And omg. It is so liberating to have a one-nap toddler in the house. We can go places now and not worry about overtired toddler meltdowns or cramming trips in between naps.
Development- I don't know if she truly is a genius child or what, but she seems to be pretty advanced for her age. Some preemie. She knows 6 or 7 colors now and a few shapes. She can grab two identical objects and says "two!" Hubby counted to five the other day, and she said "six seven" when he was done. She actually freaks us out when she does those things... it comes out of nowhere. She can name her books, and has the majority of them memorized. i.e. her opposites book. I say "big" and she'll follow up with "small." And so on, through almost the entire book. She's been stringing together two words since about a month ago, starting with things like "puppy cold," "grandma's house," "mommy's shoes" and "daddy's shoes." Now she'll say "I get you" and one time (probably another fluke) she said "I want a cookie." In the car on Friday, she said "hungry. Eat. Mac n cheese!" and she loves to say "go, baby!" God, I love her. My favorite thing for her to say, still, is "Mommy." She sometimes says a drunk-sounding version of "love you."
She had her 18-month appointment and is actually a bit of a peanut now. She had been short and fat, then tall and skinny, and now she's short and skinny. The doctor isn't worried at all, and said we're doing a great job with her. She has one more shot, and then she's done with vaccines until she's 4. Whew. Otherwise, she's incredibly healthy. She may have a touch of asthma and we're going to get that checked out, but it's to be expected since I have asthma and she was a preemie.
Friday (3/14) sucked. Majorly. I could use some prayers... I'll go into more details when I know more. I've been a nervous wreck all weekend. I'm so glad I have my little miracle child to keep me occupied and make me smile- I just love her to pieces, and I hope she always knows that.
Since then, the one-nap-a-day schedule has gone well. Knock on wood. She's down around 12:45 and falls asleep almost immediately. Today, she let me know it was nap time by saying "nap. Night-night." Yesterday, she slept from 12:45 until a little after 4, when I woke her up. I'm guessing that was a fluke. She goes right to sleep at bedtime, too, and seems to be a much happier kid now that she's on this schedule. We survived! So far. And omg. It is so liberating to have a one-nap toddler in the house. We can go places now and not worry about overtired toddler meltdowns or cramming trips in between naps.
Development- I don't know if she truly is a genius child or what, but she seems to be pretty advanced for her age. Some preemie. She knows 6 or 7 colors now and a few shapes. She can grab two identical objects and says "two!" Hubby counted to five the other day, and she said "six seven" when he was done. She actually freaks us out when she does those things... it comes out of nowhere. She can name her books, and has the majority of them memorized. i.e. her opposites book. I say "big" and she'll follow up with "small." And so on, through almost the entire book. She's been stringing together two words since about a month ago, starting with things like "puppy cold," "grandma's house," "mommy's shoes" and "daddy's shoes." Now she'll say "I get you" and one time (probably another fluke) she said "I want a cookie." In the car on Friday, she said "hungry. Eat. Mac n cheese!" and she loves to say "go, baby!" God, I love her. My favorite thing for her to say, still, is "Mommy." She sometimes says a drunk-sounding version of "love you."
She had her 18-month appointment and is actually a bit of a peanut now. She had been short and fat, then tall and skinny, and now she's short and skinny. The doctor isn't worried at all, and said we're doing a great job with her. She has one more shot, and then she's done with vaccines until she's 4. Whew. Otherwise, she's incredibly healthy. She may have a touch of asthma and we're going to get that checked out, but it's to be expected since I have asthma and she was a preemie.
Friday (3/14) sucked. Majorly. I could use some prayers... I'll go into more details when I know more. I've been a nervous wreck all weekend. I'm so glad I have my little miracle child to keep me occupied and make me smile- I just love her to pieces, and I hope she always knows that.
