Language development: she can say "Mama", "Daddy", "doggy", "kitty", "yeah", "no", "Hi", "Bye-bye", "yum yum" {which means "feed me"} and "hmmm" if she's thinking {this is accompanied by putting a finger to her temple}. If we ask "what does kitty say?" she will reply with "meow". When asked to sneeze she says "ahhhh-choo". If you ask her to point to her head/nose/toes/ear she'll be more than happy to oblige with the correct answer. She can point out a duck, bear, Elmo, flower, pig, or fish in a book if you ask. She's big into pointing now. She points at everything wanting to know it's name - she's like a sponge these days.
Physical development: She's totally mastered not only walking but running as well! She's go go go now and into EVERYTHING. The "megadome" that we have set up in our family room is no longer big enough to contain her tromping around and since she's into climbing over the couch now it's no longer the safe haven it once was. Cheyenne & I are planning on giving up on the family room having an adult friendly section and just make the whole thing baby-proof. We've already started the process by moving his office into the garage {the last bastion of "man land"}. Since the weather has been so wonderful {75-85 degrees} she's been doing a ton of outdoor playing each day. Between the local pool, her baby pool, the park, her sandbox, and baby gym at the local community center she has been falling asleep the moment her head hits her mattress at night!
Eating: Last year by the end of July she had tried rice cereal and avocados. Now she's a bit more of a gourmand. Thus far Peanut is a vegetarian. We've done a lot of research on it and it's what we have decide is best at this time. After her 2nd birthday we'll introduce poultry and fish for added protein then beef will come after her 3rd birthday. In the meantime she has a diet that consists of lots and lots of fresh organic fruits and veggies {her favorites are mango, pineapple, avocado, and green beans}, grains {lots of quinoa, whole grain cereals, sprouted breads}, protein {eggs, beans & lentils, tofu & tempeh, "Chick'N Nuggets", walnut & almond butters} & dairy {organic whole milk, yogurt, & cheeses - her favorite is feta if you can believe it!}. She's naturally a grazer and prefers to stretch out her meals to a few bites at a time throughout the day. Since it's better metabolically and she's doing so much growing I think it's totally fine if not better than the 3 meals a day schedule. That being said, we do sit down as a family each night for dinner and she eats - just not a full meals worth {she usually finishes what she doesn't eat as a pre-bed snack}.
Likes: her very VERY favorite activity on plant Earth is reading. She loves to be read to and she loves to sit quietly next to the cat and read to herself. If she had it her way Cheyenne & I would take turns reading to her for 4 solid hours followed by a brief break while she reads to herself then 4 more solid hours of being read to. We love & encourage this passion {why hello there Harvard} and read to her all of the time though for the sake of our mental well being & voices we go for 20-30 minute increments instead of the preferred 4 hours.
She love love loves our cat, Sully. Luckily he's a sweet boy and allows her to cuddle all she wants and even has a good patient demeanor when she's a little rough. One of the very first words that she learned to recognize was "gentle" and she's actually really good with both animals because of it. She's so good at understanding what "gentle" entails that we use it for other things as well {the plants, our faces, when she's with other children} and it really works.
She loves to go to the park and get pushed in the swings. What kid doesn't though?
Daddy lets her play next to him in his office and she likes to bang on her keyboard & talk into her phone just like Daddy does {he gave her an old keyboard from a PC we no longer use and he took the battery of my old cell phone for her to play with - she loves them}.
Speaking of phones & Daddy, Cheyenne has downloaded some toddler friendly apps onto his Android and she loves them! If you have a toddler & like to eat in public from time to time I strongly suggest this idea! It also works well for car rides when the kiddo gets a bit annoyed with being the the car seat yet again.
Exploring. She loves to squat down and examine everything. She'll pick up something simple like a leaf and turn it this way and that and trace the veins, smell it, give a small lick, rub it on her cheek, then hand it to me and point which means that she wants me to tell her it's name and color. She takes things apart and figures out how they work all of the time. Cheyenne is beyond thrilled that his need to tinker has been passed onto his baby. They sit together and work on this all of the time. It's exceedingly precious.
She still really loves music and dancing. We've been going to Music Together since last year and she enjoys it more and more with each new semester. Because she likes her classes so much we've given her several baby instruments to play with {maracas, shaker eggs, a Remo drum, etc} and they are her favorite toys}. During the day when we play we always have music on in the background and she bops along with it in the cutest way.
For all of her techy Daddy stuff that she likes she also likes to play with Mama's makeup brushes, Velcro rollers, bras {she wears them as lovely hats}, and loves to brush her hair and brush my hair. She that perfect mix between girly and tom boy. I love that.
Dislikes: There actually aren't a lot of dislikes. She's always been such an easy baby and now she's a pretty easy toddler {as far as toddler ever are}. There really isnt one thing that she consistently dislikes but throughout the day there are varying things that she doesn't want to cooperate with. She's super independent and wants to do things for herself these days {isn't that the way with all toddlers} so her biggest "dislike" is having something done to her that she would rather do herself or when she would rather be playing {washing her hands and face after eating for example}.
Schedule: Cheyenne & I have always kept scheduling & routine as a top priority and although it's at times inconvenient for us {leaving parties at 7:30pm for example} the pros far outweigh the cons and I attribute a good portion of Amelia's good nature and lack of fits to the peace of mind that she has from knowing what comes next. Our daily routine looks like this:
7:00am - Wake up. Daddy gets her out of the nursery & brings her to our bed with her cup of milk. She drinks about half of it while snuggling with us then she gets up and plays around in our room until the alarm goes off at 7:30am.
7:30-8:00am - Breakfast. Usually either warm cereal or yogurt with fruit and a cup of milk.
8:00am - Say bye-bye to Daddy then begin morning playtime in the house {either upstairs or down depending on her mood}. This involves lots of reading, petting the kitty, chasing the doggy, and quiet play with her toys.
10:00am - snack. Usually cut fruit or any breakfast that she didn't finish.
10:30am - more indoor play. If we spent the morning upstairs then we'll mix things up by playing downstairs or vice versa.
12:00pm - Naptime
2:00pm - Wake up, have a cup of milk while she wakes up.
2:30pm - Outside play which can included any and all of the following: sandbox, a walk, going to the park, going to the library, going to the market, swimming in the pool, playing in the backyard, or going out to visit friends.
5:30pm - Daddy gets home! Cheyenne swoops her up and doesn't put her back down until dinner time.
6:30pm - Dinner
7:00pm - Daddy reads to her until bathtime
7:45pm -Bath
8:00pm - Read "Goodnight Moon" then lights out and a little rock in the rocking chair.
8:15pm - In bed
Toddlerhood: Oy vey! I swear to you, dear readers, that my sweet tiny baby turned into a toddler over night. I put her to bed one night and she woke up a toddler. We've been experiencing the first rounds of tantrums and fits when things don't go quite the way she wants and we've had to start practicing discipline which seems very surreal since I would have sworn that it was only yesterday that she was born. Changing her diaper, for example, has become a battle of wills and God forbid that I go pee alone {sorry for that visual} or not read "How Does a Dinosaur Clean His Room" in just the right tone. I will not raise or tolerate a brat so Cheyenne and I are a united front when it comes to nipping that behavior in the bud but man oh man is it a doozy when Mademoiselle doesn't get her way. Though, her sitting in time-out with her lower lip sticking out is so cute that I have to bite my cheeks to keep from giggling at her.
The future: So much as changed since last year that I can't imagine what she will be like in another 18 months. Mind boggling. Time has gone by so fast that we're already looking into preschools which seems just shocking. We have it narrowed down to three and to be safe we're on the wait list for all three. We're choosing between The Montessori House of St. John's, Trillium Charter School, & Cathedral Park Cooperative Preschool all of which are fantastic and have a long list of pros and a short list of cons. We're not yet sure which we're going to go with since we have to wait another year to see how her personality changes and develops. There's also violin and ballet classes to look forward to 18 months from now. Not to mention seeing how she reacts to being a big sister. Three is going to be great. Im going to focus on three while I wade my way through 18 months-3 years aka "the terrible twos". Wish me luck!
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