kate_nepveu

SteelyKid and I have been sick for nearly all of the time since the last update, and so I've been sunk in apathy and sleep deprivation. But we're both better and she's been so busy that I had to squeeze out time for an update tonight.



This month she moved into the "tidy" phase of toddlerhood. This is apparently a recognized phase, but she seems to have a particularly strong case of it, judging by the remarks of the daycare staff when Chad picked her up and she was running around putting toys away. Tissues are one of her two favorite things this month: get a tissue; wipe her face, almost blow her nose, or scrub at the floor; run to where she can throw away the tissue; demand another. (See "Tissue Relay" and "Cinderella Blogging" in the list below.)

Also a lot of imitating adults this month. She so badly wanted to play with our remote control, phone, keyboards, and trackballs, that we eventually just gave her obsolete versions of all of those to play with. This doesn't stop her from reaching for ours, but at least it lets us say "No, that's mine, yours is (wherever)."

This was also the Terrible One and a Thirds: she learned to say "no" and really did not hesitiate to convey it. The extreme freakouts at being thwarted (or simply not being attended to quickly enough) seem to have tapered off somewhat recently, however, so perhaps her cold was exacerbating things.

(Other new words are "sock" and "shoe." Still doesn't greet me by title like she does Chad.)

In motor skills news, her dancing continues to get more varied--she's added a foot stomp and something like a penguin wiggle to her previous bopping up and down and twisting from side to side. And her other favorite thing is writing implements: crayons are good, but pens with caps are better because they're more complicated. She's still almost exclusively in EKG-mode for drawing, but occasionally scribbles up and down, or in circles, instead of just left and right.

She is easy to amuse. We can get her to laugh for ten minutes by grabbing a food wrapper out of her hand and letting her grab it back, or wiggling our eyebrows at her (which she tries to do back), or dipping her backwards, or just pointing a finger and moving it in a circle.

She had a cold for practically all this time, as did I, but I think she's finally kicked it (I hope, I hope, I hope). I also think we may have turned a corner on her stomach and her sleep, but I'm going to withhold judgment for now, because her sickness was messing with the data for so long. (She has, however, transitioned to sleeping on a cot at daycare with no trouble. In fact, they say she sleeps better because she and her best friend would play peek-a-boo through the crib slats at naptime (OMG SO CUTE).)

I'm convinced there's more, and I'm also convinced that I won't remember until I hit post. So have some pictures and videos:

http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2009/12/thursday_baby_blogging_121009.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2009/12/big_shoes_to_fill.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2009/12/thursday_baby_blogging_122409.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2009/12/the_tissue_relay.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2009/12/thursday_baby_blogging_123109.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/01/tiny_bubbles.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/01/thursday_cinderella_blogging_0.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/01/thursday_substitute_parent_blo.php
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/01/thursday_baby_blogging_012110.php

ETA: did remember something else. Achievement Unlocked: tooth-brushing! Achievement Not Unlocked: gracefully giving up the toothbrush.