I love the developmental and emotional stage my daughter is currently in. I will preface this with a disclaimer: Yes, I think my kid is really cute and I know I am biased. I am her mother after all. In the interests of full disclosure, I do not think everything she does is cute. I know that she is not perfect. She does things I do NOT like and that I am trying like crazy to nip in the bud so that they don't become habit. This post is not about those things, but rest assured, they exist. I'm sure I will be posting about them later. That said, this post is about cute and sweet things she does that I love and that I know I will miss when she is a teenager. If that is not your cup of tea, I suggest you stop reading now. Disclaimer over. On to the fun!
She is super cute with the fractured sentences she has started to put together. Though many of them are focused on bossing me around, I can't help but smile. This sometimes makes it hard to discipline her because I can't keep a straight face. She is getting more verbal by the day and she has a mostly sunny disposition. The terrible twos have not yet hit with full force. She has tantrums, don't get me wrong. And boy is she stubborn. (I am sticking by my story that she gets that from her father. 100%. My mother tells me it won't hold up in court. Hmm.) But her tantrums are more like a passing summer shower than a massive hurricane.
She will sit still long enough for me to read at least a couple pages of her books to her. I was a little worried early on because everyone says to read to your baby from day one. Which worked until my baby girl became mobile. Reading to her required chasing her around the house and/or trying to read two words before she flipped through 5 pages in 1.5 seconds. Now she will sit and participate, pointing to characters or objects she knows, identifying colors, and otherwise enjoying the story. She still flips multiple pages and gets impatient if the story is too long, but on the whole, reading with her is a lot of fun.
Monkeys are her favorite. "Monkeeee!" She loves the 5 Little Monkeys song and will shake her finger and sing along, "No more monkey jump bed!" when we come to the line, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" If we happen to be in bed at the time, she will also jump on the bed, sit down, and pat her head while saying, "bump". Smart girl!
She sat still for pigtails for the first time yesterday...and actually left them in! Woo hoo, progress! This is good, because she won't keep barrettes in. I was beginning to think about keeping her hair cut short until she's old enough to take care of it herself.
She will take her little people and put them in their beds or arrange them around a table. She likes to pour tea for Mommy and Daddy and herself and "drink" it. By the way, love this little tea set, one of the cutest toys ever! She will talk to her little people, which is also really cute. She sounds just like Boo from Monsters, Inc. Love that!
She runs everywhere. She climbs the steps very well. Despite her mother having a heart attack from time to time watching her do so. She loves to play with sidewalk chalk and blow bubbles. She will finally wear the swimming bubble that lets her be as independent as she would like to be in the pool. (Of course, just in time for cold weather. Guess we'll be joining our local YMCA this winter.) She seems to think that she can swim already. This one is cute and stressful at the same time.
If she thinks I am not paying close enough attention to her, she will very gently put her palms on my cheeks and turn my head, looking earnestly into my eyes while trying to get me to understand what she wants. This is one of the things I know I will miss when she truly becomes a big kid. It's right up there with how she holds my hand as we walk along and putting her arms around my neck and her head on my shoulder when I carry her. She's getting too heavy for me, but I know I will carry her like that as long as I can because the day will soon arrive when she doesn't want that anymore.
She is in that stage where she refers to herself in the third person. She has been able to say her own name for quite a while now, and says it clearly and with glee. There is a happy exclamation point at the end of it, I can almost see it when she says it. We found naming her to be a challenge, we wanted to make sure we got it right since it will be with her forever. Hearing her proclaim it so clearly and with such verve, it is another affirmation that we got it right. I can't imagine her with any other name now.
Of all the things my sweet girl is doing now, my favorite is this: when I arrive to pick her up or come home from being out and about without her, her little face lights up with a big smile, she says, "Mommmeeee" and comes running for a big hug. It doesn't get any better than that!!
No comments:
Post a Comment