Twenty-Three

Little L has recently become a little obsessed with measuring her height. She will stand herself in front of the growth chart and demand that I check how tall she is (35"). Then, after I hold my finger in place on the line where I've already written 23m, she will repeat that she is 23 months. And she really isn't a baby anymore (something else she likes to announce periodically throughout the day). Here's a recap of 23 months:

Reading: Karen Katz, Munsch (Thomas' Snowsuit in particular), Frog and Toad, Lucy Leek, Little Critter, Little People Lift the Flap books, Daniel Tiger books, Seuss, Disney Nursery Rhymes, Little Bunny Follows His Nose and every so often she will pull out a sticker book or her Ye-Ye's Christmas book to play with. For the past few days this conversation has also been happening:

Little L: Have to ask Nana to buy another one!

Me: Another what, sweetie?

Little L: Another book! I don't *know* what happened to Nana's book. I think it was broken.

Me: Yes, it's not here anymore.

Little L: "It disappeared!"

Eating: New foods include Chinese take-out snow peas and veggie spring rolls, apple pears, cereal with milk, lentil snaps, raw cucumber (finally, a legit veg!), flax-breaded chicken breast tenders (oven baked Superstore blue label goodness) with plum sauce, homo organic white milk, McDonalds hashbrowns and Honeycomb cereal (it's her dad's fault). Her preferences continue to be dairy and fruit and sweet and fatty, and she requests ice cream and chocolate throughout the day, complete with toddler tantrums. However, her favourite snack at night is usually ambrosia apple slices. Funny enough, she didn't seem to like the candied apple she got from Miss Bee, even though it was layered with chocolate and was fruit. Weird little toddler!

Saying: "I talk all day long!" Little L is very self-aware ;) She does parrot a lot of what we say or what she hears from stories, but she is also quite good at inventing her own wild sentences and words. "At this point" is a phrase of mind that she sometimes repeats after hearing me say it once. "After drinking nye-nye," said with a mischievous smile, is her all-time favourite response when I tell her or ask her to do something. 

Word manipulation as a game is still one of Little L's favourite things. Recent ones include MythDonalds (McDonalds), tomorrowck (tomorrow), rombone (trombone), octogockagock (octagon), men quen (mean queen), riptar and guitull (guitar). Her favourite non-song that she made up is Binkle Binkle Little Moon.

She is also really focusing on how words feel in her mouth as she says them. She likes to watch herself talk in the mirror or repeat words slowly sometimes. One night recently when she woke up at 11:30 pm after we had already done the whole bedtime routine, I feigned sleep and listened to her talk to herself in the dark for a full hour. She was repeating details from various books and stories she knows over and over again, and interjecting with her own opinions ("I think..." sentences) every so often. It was soooo adorable that, had I not been desperate for her to go back to bed, I would've whipped out my phone and recorded the whole thing!

Funny story while playing on the playground: 

Miss Bee: I have to duck to get under here. 

(Later) Little L: I have to duck! I have to cow! I have to pig! 

Little L: Someone wants to slide off the bed.

Me: Who wants to slide off?

Little L: Me! (insert real name)!

Playing: Lots of pretend-play with her Disney Princess little people, Daniel Tiger figurines, and Little People zoo animals, hide-n-seek with her stuffies, setting up beds with a million pillows, cooking in her kitchen, and hiding from "Music Man Stan" (which is an illustration in a board book and not even a 3D doll).

Little L recently rediscovered her SmartTrike, which I had to switch to a toddler-friendly mode. She isn't pedaling yet, but will finally rest her feet on the pedals and follow along while they spin when she is being pushed around slowly. 

My girl likes to wiggle and have dance parties. She enjoys twirling and climbing and sliding and swinging and running (like a tiger, she tells me) and putting her shoes on to make noises when she boogies away. She likes to kick up one leg in a mock karate/kick-boxing move, and she still likes to downward dog. I'm realizing that Hubbs and I are helicopters when it comes to Little L's outdoor play, so we are working on trying to find a balance between letting her trust her body and still keeping her safe :/

Other activities have included iPad, painting, play dough, playing in a box, playing with all of her balls, bubble bath play, strumming her dad's guitar, playing with her various Dimpleskins salves and balms, and colouring.

Oh, and one last thing: TV. As you know, we aren't big proponents of it. We even canceled our cable because we paid to not watch it for 2 years. But we had bought Apple TV a year ago, and Hubbs had bought a proxy to access US content a while back. Well, when Little L started showing a huge interest in Daniel Tiger, we wanted to let her watch an episode or two online (one being the potty one). But there was nothing for us to watch in Canada (esp without cable)! We tried to buy episodes online, but we weren't allowed to do that either! Oh, Canada! 

So we sleuthed around and finally put 2 and 2 together; we used the proxy on our Apple TV and then checked Netflix, and voila! The clouds parted and the heavens  opened up and angels began to sing. Actually, not quite, but Daniel Tiger did, to a certain familiar Mr. Rogers song :) That was month 22, and now, just a mere month later. my girl is hooked. She can sing both the potty song and her favourite, "When you feel so mad..." One night we overheard her singing a pitch-perfect, "Find a way to play together." We use the "Grown Ups Come Back" song to transition ourselves out the door on date nights, and Little L will now willingly brush her teeth with Hubbs because he sings her the "Brush Your Teeth" song. So I'm still anti-TV.... Unless it's Daniel Tiger, because the real-world applications of her learning from this show are just unreal. 

Wearing: 2T-3T mostly, size 25-26 (a bit big but she doesn't seem to mind, and actually prefers these shoes). Her feet grew this month!

Other new things:

Potty training

This month, Little L started showing interest in sitting on her potties. First, fully-clothed. Then, bottoms off. Now she has a mostly-dry (sometimes totally dry) overnight diaper, and will do her first pee on the toilet (sometimes on mine but mostly on her own potty). I still have to ask her or suggest it in the morning most of the time, but she has also initiated out of the blue. Throughout the day we do ask, but since we are letting her direct this potty-training show, we don't force the issue. She often initiates, but it turns out to be a false alarm or else she doesn't have the patience to sit more than 5 minutes to wait for the pee to happen. One of these days we will introduce her to training pants or else try to do a totally pants-free weekend, but for now I'm happy with even just 1-2 successful pees each day!

Phobias

I'm hoping these aren't permanent. Little L has shown an avoidance of, and possible anxiety associated with, strange loud noises (eg. Magic Bullet, her toy microwave), strangers, and fuzzy textures (eg., our wool laundry balls, plush or fuzzy clothing linings).  It's not a wailing out of fear kind of thing, but she comes a-runnin' or else she will hide (behind my legs). She also hates having dirty hands, and I've caught her cleaning them off on my pants or the table a few times; otherwise, she holds them out palms up and heads for the sink. 

Oh how I am loving watching this little pea grow! I probably won't continue with monthly updates since she's turning two (Two!) and that's when we start counting in single numbers again. But I will try to give a periodic update as milestones are met. As she becomes more independent, she also requires my full attention more. Blogging is a backseat venture :/ but I think spending the time with my little girl is well worth the sacrifice, don't you?