Just keeping up with Eliza’s increasing language acquisition is insane. The latest: Every night when her evening episode of Yo Gabba Gabba goes off (we watch it after dinner as a wind-down for bedtime), the DVR stops and she says “Uh oh!” Last night, it went off, she said “Uh oh!”, then paused and shrugged and said “Daddy fix it!”
Indeed, Daddy fix it.
She’s 15 months old. I’m scared of her at 2.
She’s turning into Linus, which is something I always feared would happen.
The sacred pink blankie used to live only in her crib or be brought out for naptime at daycare. But now that she can say the word “blankie,” she can ask for it whenever she wants. Today, she demanded to take blankie and Minnie Mouse for a ride in the stroller. She went to her room, pointed to the crib and shouted “blankie!” I gave it to her. She then carried it into the living room, where the stroller was parked, and tapped it, saying “ride! Mommy…ride!” And so we went on a walk, despite the 58 degree temps. And then blankie stayed outside with us and got nice and dirty as she dragged it around the yard. When I protested, took it from her, and told her no, she FLIPPED OUT. Will she be one of those kids that has her blankie in the grocery store, on the playground, at the doctor’s office? Gah, I hope not. Well, at least it’s “blankie” and not “binky.” She has classmates at daycare who are much older than her who still suck on the “binky” all day long.
Me, I pick my battles.
Poor Eliza ended up with a double ear infection, thanks to the RSV. This coincided with her first week in a new room at daycare. Needless to say, the transition hasn’t gone smoothly.
She seems to be missing her old classmates and teachers. She asks for a few of them by name every morning. And she isn’t sure about her new teacher, whose tone of voice is a little harsher (even to my ears). She’s also a little intimidated by the bigger, faster, more mobile kids.
She cries at drop off, and she cries a little bit throughout the day, although we hear she’s crying a little bit less than before. Who knows how long it will take her to get comfortable in her new surroundings. Eliza is bright and intuitive, which means she’s also quite sensitive (to change, to others’ feelings, to chaos). I am beginning to see glimpses of the special challenges involved in raising this kind of child. But I am also seeing the joy.
Eliza is simply mind-blowing. She can now say some of her numbers in the correct sequence. I was helping her climb the stairs, counting them as we go. I said “One…” and she said “two…” Flabbergasted, I continued: “Three…Four….Five…” and she said “Six…” I almost fell down the stairs. So I kept going: “Seven….eight….” and Eliza added “nine…” and I shouted TEN! And scooped her up and hugged her, amazed. I don’t know where she learned this. Wasn’t from us.
IMG_7478.JPG, originally uploaded by griffey.
RSV, you are the bane of our existence.
Eliza’s RSV turned into a double ear infection plus sinus infection so bad that she has yellow gunk pouring out of her eyes. Yay! The fun continues.
Meanwhile, she is loving the piano Daddy got her. As much as she likes to wear sunglasses and anything she can put around her neck (like a boa), we call her our little Elton John.
Eliza is now refusing to be carried, pushed around in a grocery cart, or anything of the sort. She can walk and so she wants to walk. Everywhere. All the time.
In the store, she started asking, “Mommy…out? Walk? Out? Walk?” So we let her lead me around, looking at all the fun things on the shelves. Her favorite is cat and dog food (with pictures of the animals on them) and bottles of shampoo and body wash that she carries around and then puts back when we ask her to do so. She LOVES leading me and Jason by the hand. If it’s too cold to go outside, we just go laps around the house, Eliza in the lead, yelling “walk! walk! walk! walk!” as we go.
Eliza’s sickness continues. With her, a sick day is one long rollercoaster. She feels ok, then plays, gets tired, gets grumpy, then wants to rest. You hold her for awhile, then she’s rested, and feels ok, and wants to play.
Rinse, repeat.
Since we’re not taking her out this weekend, the day became a “what can we play with” day. She’s bored out of her mind with her regular toys, so today we played with balloons. She seemed mildly interested.
Eliza was having a banner week at daycare, practicing for her transition (Monday) to the toddler room. She loves it over with the “big kids,” and seemed to be extremely happy with the idea of moving up.
Then, bam! Sick yet again. I think she had three healthy days? Maybe four. Now she’s got a horrible cough, runny nose, and is very contagious.
We are sooooo over this whole winter thing.
Hobbies: pretending to feed people, pets, stuffed animals, dolls, even pictures of people in books; pretending to cook; playing on playgrounds; looking at books and magazines; pretending to write; putting stickers on paper; learning new words; looking at photos of people she knows; talking to Pop and Nana on the phone
Favorite toys: bowl/spoon combo; pens, pencils, crayons; shape sorter; Little People school bus; anything she’s not supposed to play with (like mommy’s underwear and the toilet scrubbing brush)
Favorite books: her newest one by Matthew Van Fleet (Cats); any book that has Elmo in it; any book with animals
Favorite foods: cheese of any kind; yogurt; bananas; chicken noodle soup; mandarin oranges
Favorite music: she is currently in an Elvis Costello phrase and demands to hear the song “Radio Radio” at least once a day; also enjoys anything by Laurie Berkner (from Jack’s Big Music Show on Noggin)
She learns to say new words almost every day. This week, she added “boots” and “apple” to her vocabulary, as well as another classmate’s name, Addy. She can also say “bite,” when she wants a bite of something, which I forgot to put in the list below. Yesterday, she repeated “hummus” when I asked her if she wanted it for dinner, and she also repeated every single syllable of the phrase “cracker with cheese.” No kidding. Her best “sentence” to date has been: “Cookie …más (more in Spanish)…peese (please)”? She said this on her own, with no prompting.
The amazing thing she did yesterday: we were looking at a book, she pointed to a picture of a man, and I told her “farmer.” She immediately started singing “e-i-e-i-oh” (from the song “Old McDonald”).
Yet another story: Indiana (our dog) was in Eliza’s way the other day and I said, “Indy, go lie down. Go to bed.” Eliza looked at Indy and said “Night night!”
This kid blows my mind. She is not quite 14 months old.
Best story of the week: Betsy was in Eliza’s room with her, reading books. Our two cats, Cola and Hootie, came in to see what was going on, but we don’t usually let them in Ellie’s room. So Betsy says “Get out, cats!” and chases them out.
Eliza takes a beat, stands up, walks over to her stuffed animals. Picks up her stuffed animal cat, walks to the door, and throws it into the hall.
She’s far too smart for her own good.
