Every day with Phoebe brings so many interesting things- she is learning and growing so fast. I don’t want to forget these little moments which just fill me with joy at the little independent girl she is becoming.
Words she’s trying really hard at at the moment involve ‘beh’- bear, ‘mah’- more, ‘mow’ – mouth, ‘maw’- miaow, and her favourite ‘mmmmm’ – moo for cows. Her chatting is getting really expressive and she makes really high pitched noises when she’s surprised or looking for something. New things recently are saying ‘uh-oh’ when her railway track falls over or she drops something, and ‘shh’ing things. We’re trying to get her to say thankyou- which so far involves her going ‘aa-ah’ in a kind of grunt whilst eating whatever it is she wanted. Sometimes she now does it spontaneously if we forget to ask her to say thankyou, which is very cute.
She loves patting her head so you sing ‘heads, shoulders knees and toes’, and her dancing repetoire is increasing from spinning to head waggling, arm waving, feet stamping and copying actions others do. Her little legs, when she stands on tiptoes to try to reach something are just the cutest, even though most of the baby chub has gone. If you say ‘ready, steady, go’ she will run really fast as if she’s in a race, laughing the whole time. Her attention span is still quite short but things which occupy her for the longest time are her train track, which she can now occasionally put together, pretending to eat/drink, and her baby doll.
At the moment she’s obsessed with cutlery and often asks for a spoon, even if she’s eating toast. She likes to pretend to cut things, even though that obviously doesn’t work so well. Drinking out of real glasses is her favourite, and she usually sticks her little finger and index fingers out whilst doing so. She will also hold toast really daintily in a couple of fingers, and is getting really well coordinated at eating things out of a bowl with a spoon with minimal mess (yoghurt, jelly etc).
Slight chaos is ensuing in the form of dvds, dvd players and the tv. She likes pulling all the dvds off the shelf, opening them, trying, and sometimes succeeding in getting the disk out. She can also turn the dvd player (now ps2) on, open it and tries to put the dvd inside. Often she asks for the tv on, although then ignores it as soon as it is. The Simpsons occupies her attention occasionally, but she won’t sit down to watch it, just wriggles off your lap and stands in the middle of the floor looking.
Colouring is still a favourite although she likes to experiment with drawing with her felt tips on dvd boxes, magazines, chairs… so we have to make sure she’s well supervised. Crayons still go straight in the mouth, but I’m hopeful she’ll grow out of that soon so we can do some more creating! As of yesterday she’s in her new nursery routine. Josh dropped her off and whilst I usually have to sneak out, apparently he said he was going, she gave him a hug and trotted off. They said she did lots of action songs and cared nicely for the baby doll, which didn’t surprise me. She loves holding her baby, patting her, putting blankets (baby and adult sized) on her and feeding her, as well as getting very cross if her pram gets stuck in our limited space.
In the mornings she comes into our bed and wraps her arms tightly around my neck whilst starting to softly chatter and then touches my face, my nose, my mouth ‘mow’. I love those few minutes with her big bright eyes and happy nature, and she loves pulling the duvet up to cover her. Sometimes if she’s getting dressed for bedtime in our room she’ll sit on a pillow, pull up the duvet and pretend to sleep.
Obviously there are frustrations that come with being a toddler who can’t express yourself properly, and she typically gets cross when she can see her plate or bowl or food, but can’t have it that second. That said she’s learnt to blow on her food really well, and ate a load of peppers, tomatoes and then pasta last night. Exciting as it was seeing her learn to crawl, walk and climb things, the ways she’s expressing her personality these days, and her stubborn independence and lack of patience, as well, are amazing. The more I think about it the more things she does, which make me laugh and say ‘you’re so cute!’. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to write them all down or remember them all. I can kind of visualise her, bigger, walking around, a child who can talk and do things. I’m looking forward to being able to do things like baking, and crafts with her when she actually grasps instructions better, but really relishing these baby toddler steps along the way.
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