Soccer Dad

19 months

At 1:15 AM this morning she turned 83 weeks old.

The communication continues to improve. It seems that not a day goes by when she doesn't discover a new word. (Or that we don't discover that she knows a new word.)

One day I asked her what a horsie says. She told me "naaay." She's just about ready to take the SAT's.

Of course there are special speech patterns that I have to get used to. "Bottle" for example means both bottle and cup. So if she asks for a "bottle" and gets increasingly frustrated with me for offering her a bottle, it's because she wanted a cup. That is pretty typical from what I've observed. Babies often use general terms before they learn specific incidences.

(Our next youngest used to call all animals "Max" after my in-laws dog. It wasn't just dogs that were Max, but all animals, until she learned to differentiate.)

She also now eats by herself a lot more. She can drink from an open cup. When we eat together, there's a pretty good chance she'll come to me and motion for my glass. At that point she wants to drink from my open glass - even if its water - than drink from her own cup.

She also feeds herself a bit. My wife showed me a way around the yogurt problem. It's to pour yogurt into a bowl and hand her a spoon. She will eat like that. It's not neat, but it accomplishes the purpose of getting some food into her. (Even with crackers, for example, seemingly she'd rather take them out of the packaging than have me hand them to her!)

One thing she does really well is going down stairs. She just goes limp and slides. I sometimes get a jolt when I see how fast she moves!

As she approaches two, she is increasingly contrary and manipulative. She loves to fight me when I'm dressing her. She'll run away and force me to catch and restrain her. And it's not common for her to kick.

If she doesn't want to do something she will twist her body to make it more difficult to lift her. And she really has the head shaking/"no" thing down really well.

Sometimes it can be a little frustrating when I'm in a rush and I have to chase her down, but of course, she's extremely affectionate and when she runs to me when I come home at night, there's no better feeling. Often then, we also play a rigorous game of hide and seek.

Previous related posts:
18 months, 17 months, One month, two months, three months, four months, five months, six months,seven months,eight months, 9 months, 10 months, 11 months, One year, 13 months, 14 months, 15 months, 16 months.