Eighteen months
What? When did this happen?
Bat Girl is definitely a full-on toddler now, with the mobility and attitude to match. She is generally a pretty sunny kid, except for when she runs up against something she can't do, either because she physically can't manage it or because we won't let her. Then the tantrums start. I think the more she is physically able to accomplish, the more she realizes she can't do, and boy does that piss her off.
She's always been a pretty verbal kid, but in the last month or two her vocabulary has really exploded. Often she'll say words that we have no idea how she picked up, like how she told me the other night that cheese is her "Favit!" (favorite). BG is also speaking in longer and longer strings of words, and this, combined with her apparently finding voice for her ego, has resulted in actual sentences like:
"I wanna go out!"
"I want to pay dat!" (I want to play with that)
"I don' like dat!"
"Look at me!"
Other fun sentences lately: "It's so good!" (re: Cheerios) and "It's sooo hot!" (re: the weather). And if you correctly repeat back to her what she's trying to say ("You want to sit in the chair by yourself?" "You want to play with the car?") she will chirp, "Yes!", very pleased that you were smart enough to figure it out.
She's been doing this cute thing where everything is plural--if you point to a bird and say, "What's that?" she says "Birds!" Or she'll hold up a little dinosaur figurine and say, "Di-soahs!" But that's already starting to fade away. As are other cute mispronunciations of the recent past--if I ever say "nana" or "mato" to her, she looks at me and carefully says, "BA-nana" or "TO-mato," like, poor Mommy, she doesn't know the right words. I will be more than a little disappointed when she figures out that "belly button" is not actually called a "butty."
Speaking of "What's that?", it's her new favorite phrase. Every five minutes, "Oos-at?" She is obsessed with naming things. Sometimes she points to something she knows the name for and says, "Oos-at?" I'll say, "What do you think that is?" and she'll grin and say "Doggy!" or "Cars!" or "Daddy!" She loves to exclaim, "Lookidat!" (look at that!). And she seems to be grasping the concept of a question--she'll say to me, "See Daddy?" when she wants to go to her dad, or "Where she go?" when she's looking for the cat, all with the correct intonation.
She counts to ten, but doesn't really get number theory--it's just a string of syllables to her. If you ask her "How many ___ are there?" she will start rattling off "one, too, fee, four" but it has no relation to the actual number of objects.
She still doesn't have much hair. Apparently my husband and his sister were both nearly bald until they were two. I was born with a foofy Asian 'fro and had hair down to my shoulders by 20 months. Clearly she takes after her dad's side in this. What little hair she does have still resembles a mullet.
She is obsessed with garbage trucks ("Pick up gar-bidge!") and firetrucks.
She loves books and often we'll find her in her room, having made herself comfortable in the rocking chair with a pile of books, which she's "reading" aloud to herself, sometimes even hitting on a correct phrase or two by memory.
She's been sleeping through the night (meaning 9 pm to 6 or 7 am) more consistently, but still requires a bottle (which she still won't hold herself) to go down for her nap, something that I'm hoping her day care provider (oh yes, she's going to be starting daycare in September) can help us change. As for bedtime, she has a bottle of milk, then we read stories, then I lie down with her on our bed until she falls asleep, which can take up to 45 minutes on a bad night. Still, as exhausting and time-consuming as it is, I do love having the time to snuggle up and chat and sing to her at the end of the day. And there are other rewards. The other night, as I was lying down with her trying to get her to settle down and go to sleep (and getting a little frustrated with the process, to be honest), she suddenly sat up, leaned over me, and gave me a big wet kiss, right on the mouth. And whispered, "Goodnight."
*****
In other news, we had BG's 18-month checkup this morning. Only one shot, hooray! Unfortunately she seems to now remember that the doctor's office--particularly the room where all the weighing and measuring and needle-poking occurs--is a place of great evil and terrible things, so she freaked out and didn't even want to be weighed, resulting in a bad and wiggly weigh-in which made it seem like she had not gained any weight in the last 3 months. I insisted that we redo (with me being weighed with and without her in arms) and it turns out she has gained more than 2 pounds, which I knew. Also that she has shot up the height curve, which I also knew. She is now 30 inches and 22.5 pounds--a little skinny thing, like her parents.
Also, apparently Bat Girl's lead level is "only" 1 ug/dl. (Blood was taken at her 15-month appt--state law mandates testing at age one and two.) I would prefer that there be no lead whatsoever in my baby's blood but our pediatrician said that in our neighborhood, it's normal to see levels of 3-6 (anything over 10 is considered "elevated")--and I just did a little googling and discovered that the national mean for kids age 1-5 is around 2. "I've never seen a kid with a lead level of zero," the ped said. "It's in the air and in the soil, so even if you don't have lead paint in your apartment, you can't avoid it." Hooray, urban pollution! Of course, I'm still going to make our landlord cover the peeling paint in the kitchen. Hooray, poorly maintained pre-WWII housing stock!
Bat Girl is definitely a full-on toddler now, with the mobility and attitude to match. She is generally a pretty sunny kid, except for when she runs up against something she can't do, either because she physically can't manage it or because we won't let her. Then the tantrums start. I think the more she is physically able to accomplish, the more she realizes she can't do, and boy does that piss her off.
She's always been a pretty verbal kid, but in the last month or two her vocabulary has really exploded. Often she'll say words that we have no idea how she picked up, like how she told me the other night that cheese is her "Favit!" (favorite). BG is also speaking in longer and longer strings of words, and this, combined with her apparently finding voice for her ego, has resulted in actual sentences like:
"I wanna go out!"
"I want to pay dat!" (I want to play with that)
"I don' like dat!"
"Look at me!"
Other fun sentences lately: "It's so good!" (re: Cheerios) and "It's sooo hot!" (re: the weather). And if you correctly repeat back to her what she's trying to say ("You want to sit in the chair by yourself?" "You want to play with the car?") she will chirp, "Yes!", very pleased that you were smart enough to figure it out.
She's been doing this cute thing where everything is plural--if you point to a bird and say, "What's that?" she says "Birds!" Or she'll hold up a little dinosaur figurine and say, "Di-soahs!" But that's already starting to fade away. As are other cute mispronunciations of the recent past--if I ever say "nana" or "mato" to her, she looks at me and carefully says, "BA-nana" or "TO-mato," like, poor Mommy, she doesn't know the right words. I will be more than a little disappointed when she figures out that "belly button" is not actually called a "butty."
Speaking of "What's that?", it's her new favorite phrase. Every five minutes, "Oos-at?" She is obsessed with naming things. Sometimes she points to something she knows the name for and says, "Oos-at?" I'll say, "What do you think that is?" and she'll grin and say "Doggy!" or "Cars!" or "Daddy!" She loves to exclaim, "Lookidat!" (look at that!). And she seems to be grasping the concept of a question--she'll say to me, "See Daddy?" when she wants to go to her dad, or "Where she go?" when she's looking for the cat, all with the correct intonation.
She counts to ten, but doesn't really get number theory--it's just a string of syllables to her. If you ask her "How many ___ are there?" she will start rattling off "one, too, fee, four" but it has no relation to the actual number of objects.
She still doesn't have much hair. Apparently my husband and his sister were both nearly bald until they were two. I was born with a foofy Asian 'fro and had hair down to my shoulders by 20 months. Clearly she takes after her dad's side in this. What little hair she does have still resembles a mullet.
She is obsessed with garbage trucks ("Pick up gar-bidge!") and firetrucks.
She loves books and often we'll find her in her room, having made herself comfortable in the rocking chair with a pile of books, which she's "reading" aloud to herself, sometimes even hitting on a correct phrase or two by memory.
She's been sleeping through the night (meaning 9 pm to 6 or 7 am) more consistently, but still requires a bottle (which she still won't hold herself) to go down for her nap, something that I'm hoping her day care provider (oh yes, she's going to be starting daycare in September) can help us change. As for bedtime, she has a bottle of milk, then we read stories, then I lie down with her on our bed until she falls asleep, which can take up to 45 minutes on a bad night. Still, as exhausting and time-consuming as it is, I do love having the time to snuggle up and chat and sing to her at the end of the day. And there are other rewards. The other night, as I was lying down with her trying to get her to settle down and go to sleep (and getting a little frustrated with the process, to be honest), she suddenly sat up, leaned over me, and gave me a big wet kiss, right on the mouth. And whispered, "Goodnight."
*****
In other news, we had BG's 18-month checkup this morning. Only one shot, hooray! Unfortunately she seems to now remember that the doctor's office--particularly the room where all the weighing and measuring and needle-poking occurs--is a place of great evil and terrible things, so she freaked out and didn't even want to be weighed, resulting in a bad and wiggly weigh-in which made it seem like she had not gained any weight in the last 3 months. I insisted that we redo (with me being weighed with and without her in arms) and it turns out she has gained more than 2 pounds, which I knew. Also that she has shot up the height curve, which I also knew. She is now 30 inches and 22.5 pounds--a little skinny thing, like her parents.
Also, apparently Bat Girl's lead level is "only" 1 ug/dl. (Blood was taken at her 15-month appt--state law mandates testing at age one and two.) I would prefer that there be no lead whatsoever in my baby's blood but our pediatrician said that in our neighborhood, it's normal to see levels of 3-6 (anything over 10 is considered "elevated")--and I just did a little googling and discovered that the national mean for kids age 1-5 is around 2. "I've never seen a kid with a lead level of zero," the ped said. "It's in the air and in the soil, so even if you don't have lead paint in your apartment, you can't avoid it." Hooray, urban pollution! Of course, I'm still going to make our landlord cover the peeling paint in the kitchen. Hooray, poorly maintained pre-WWII housing stock!
Labels: Bat Girl
posted by electriclady at 3:00 PM
7 Comments:
Hooray for 18 months. I remember the joy that I had when I celebrated this milestone with Ben. It was a huge turning point for him.
It took the Mini a LONG time before he'd hold his own bottle. He still gets one in the morning, which he holds himself, and still gets one before bed, which he won't hold if I'm putting him to bed, but will hold it if anyone else does. Who has me pegged for a sucker?
He also loves to read too. I always find him in his chair reading and mimmicking the tones in which we read to him. It's kind of funny.
Such a sweet heart. I love babies' intonation patterns, too.
OMG...I can't believe how grown up she is.
Your post just reminded me that I need to take B to get his lead testing.
Congrats on the 18 month mark, and a good appointment! It's always nice to hear how your little girl is doing. I have to admit that yesterday I was bored out of my bonkers and read through most of your old pregnancy and bedrest day posts. Hope you didn't mind :-) Why I did was because once I started I couldn't stop because I have never in my life come across something that so exactly explains how I feel at the moment. From the UU to the bleeding throughout early pregnancy to the contractions to the bedrest to the worrying to the feelings about others, gosh girl....are you sure I didn't just somehow have your pregnancy revamped into my body? Even what you said about being lopsided and lying on your side not really working and your belly smushing into the mattress left me saying - yup - I did that last night! The feelings of not being able to get things ready the way I want, (even waking up with a sleep orgasm = big scary contraction!) all that...I hear you loud and clear. Don't utter that last one to a soul - okay? Anyways - just wanted to say thanks for putting it all out there, because it's helping my sanity these days knowing that someone has been through most of this crap before and things have turned out okay!
Yeah for 18 months! It sounds like Bat Girl is doing fabulous!
I love all these cute stories. Thanks for sharing them.
I love hearing updates on her because she's so close in age to my Beans. This age is just so fun watching them learn so many things (and I'm always happy to meet another toddler with a mullet -- mine is really working one).
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