Parenting

The thing I'd pass on about parenting is that it's a loop of you "get" what's going on with your child, you do life for a while, and suddenly find yourself back at uncertainty. For me it usually takes a few consecutive frustrating days to {again} realize a new phase of development has started. Then I demand, "Where's the book??" or Noah will say, "Where's the manual??"

For us, the book right now is Happiest Toddler On the Block by Harvey Karp. Not that we ascribe to all of its evolutionary insight, but we do appreciate the information about her brain structure and why she does what she does. More than just telling us milestones she'll hit (like pretending to talk on the phone), it tells us what is normal for her development (like being an emotional yo-yo, thin-skinned, and extremely energetic).

She's a Knee-High Neanderthal right now and sometimes just knowing that's what she compares to helps a great deal.

We have a rule around here that we name and claim our feelings. You can feel whatever you feel, but own it and get help dealing with it. The last few weeks, by the time 6:30 rolled around and Daddy came through the door, I was so spent with toddler behaviors that Attila the Hun (who my grandma says would have been fine for a day or two) or a reliable dog would have been acceptable baby-sitters.

When I read, "Toddlers and parents constantly step on each others' toes" it was relief for me. I could name and claim the feelings Georgia and I were having. Suddenly the preacher's recent exhortation that we do the Bible's "one anothers" helped me a great deal. Sometimes we just have to bear with one another, make an extra effort to love one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, etc.

We do love her to pieces and will love her right through the two's. We're enjoying this good place and watching for signs of Clever-Cave Kid to emerge.
The book says she might know up to 50 words by now. We started counting and rattled off these:

cat, dog (gof), elephant, tiger, monkey, mouse, bird, bear, giraffe, frog, butterfly, bee, flower, heart, star, happy, sad, up, down, more, back, stuck, yes, no, hot, cold, ow, uh-oh, open, close, eyes, ears, nose, toes, teeth, paci, hair, belly, shirt, pants, button, snap, shoes, socks, hat, coat, diaper, poo-poo, necklace, swimsuit (bim-boo), towel, bath, pool, naked, milk, bread, berries, apples, spoon, cado (avacado), nay-nay (banana), yogurt, cottage cheese, vitamin, juice, cracker, hi, bye-bye, car, lawnmower (bam-bo-er), vacuum, money, keys, phone, stroller, blanket, Georgia, Daddy, Mama, Pa-Pa (she's named all her grandpas this!), Nana, Grammy (ma-eh), Adi, and she'll repeat most names (this week we tried Noah, Courtney, and Coco),(shower) poof, sunnies (sunglasses), book, baby, crayon, paper, pen, pencil, blocks, Elmo, Dora, tickle

She has a few phrases: there you go, where's daddy?, no more cheese?, more milk, thank you, please, Georgia's (mine), take this

It's amazes us how much she uses her words (we head off whining by telling her to use her words...a parenting tip we learned from the Yarbs!) but it is astounding how much more she understands, responds to, and will verbalize later.

Her associations are great. I was reading about how important it is for her to name and describe her feelings so I started with a happy and sad face on the fridge. She immediately started clapping for happy. Her daddy sings her "If You're Happy and You Know It" a lot!

She tries to get us on these leaving kicks. If she can get us to agree to shoes, she goes on down her list: Shoes? Bye-bye? Car? If we say no, she says go-bye-bye-car and shakes her head yes. If we say night-night, she says bye-bye. We say bed, she says car. We compromise by letting her wear her shoes to bed!

She knows when she's right. If we tell her differently she gets this uh-uh big eyed, open mouthed, shake her head, adamant tone. There are a lot of times she is right about the issue!

She's smart, funny, and friendly. We might just pop if we were more proud of her!