Week 82:
She was excited about Bill staying home from work at first, but since he was home sick, he was really boring.
We did open her new LovEvery box. She was having so much fun with everything. I thought the two books on getting ready for potty training were super funny and cute. She was really good at the shapes puzzle and the animal pockets. The box with locks on it is rated for 12-22 month, but she was opening them just fine on day 2 of playing with it.
Her main modes of moving around are regular walking while guiding someone, on her tippy-toes, taking short steps while stomping loudly, or toddler running. Her toddler run looks so much like Olympic Speed Walking. I keep trying to get videos, but haven't managed to get a good one yet.
I made a simple spinach dip to put on her meatballs for lunch. At one point she got some on her arm and was very concerned about it. I told her to just eat it, but she kept trying to shake it off without losing any on her fingers. I mimed eating something off my arm and she got a big smile while eating the spinach off her arm.
Since she is so good at howling like a puppy and making a Ssss sound for fish, Bill started working with her on other sounds. She started saying Mmm and then switched to Oohh for a cow sound. To help keep the sounds different we emphasized the Mm sound.
She's seen me apply deodorant enough that when I apply mine she wants some. I put the cap on and rub it under each of her armpits.
Week 83:
We got Chipotle for dinner and got her fruit with her meal. It was a small orange. Bill tried giving her the whole thing, she took a bite of the peel, made an unhappy face, and handed the piece to me. Bill helped peel it for her, but she wanted more pieces after she finished it.
More and more often she tells us where her bedtime friends should get tucked in. She has even started helping us to tuck them in or getting up to re-tuck them in if they become uncovered. First she pats the bed where they should go, then she pulls the blanket over them and will pat them when they are covered.
We ran out of apples at a time when both Bill and I were getting over a cold, so I had to improvise. I put banana spears in a soup take out container and called it a Banana Bucket. She likes her new Banana Bucket and smiles when I hand it to her.
I got some Spicy Skittles gummies and she insisted on trying them. They were spicier than expected. She started to eat one, got a confused/concerned look on her face. She took it out, after the spicy sensation went away, but it back in and finished it. She ate the second without any problems.
We were getting ready to leave the house and I had the charity donations and her bag in the car already. I asked her if we were missing anything and she grabbed some knitting off of the table and handed it to me.
We went to Target to get her apples and a few things for me. She carried her 3lb bag of apples through the store. At one point she tried to give the bag to some other person. She sat on the basket holder and played with a used gift card while I checked us out.
After lunch we let her play at the table some on the bench. At one point she kept turning around and giving the backrest of the bench a kiss. She did it so many times, but never does it to us
She is getting very good at holding our hand so she can walk around. She will even stop when we do to get through parking lots. She held my hand all through Target, even though she usually gets to run free when we go.
She has seen us blow on her food to cool it enough times that she tries to help. She's even listened when I told her it was too hot and we had to blow on it before we could touch it when it was within reach of her.
A surprise new friend showed up in the mail. Steven got her a little Easter Bunny. She helped me open the package. She hugged her new bunny and at one point we put them in the pull wagon she has. It's pretty small, but the bunny fits into there very well.
She was pretty successful with a spoon. She was putting it in her mouth to eat the food instead of taking the food off of it with her hand. Half the time she was putting the food into the spoon with her hand, but we're getting there.
Week 84:
She wore her orange bunny ears to the Wegmans craft group and was very good at holding my hand in the parking lot. She ate most of her food and played with her new shark plushie. In the past she has spent a good chunk of the time dropping things and getting someone to pick them up.
I drove around to get her to nap, but it ended up being a short one. I kept having to find places to stop because Bill got a later start on our taxes than I thought he would. I stopped at a park to find some information and that was one stop too many because she woke up. After I got the information we walked around a bit before heading home. Turns out it was a golf course where we stopped and there was a wedding going on. She found a small pencil and a golf ball. She didn't want to hold hands anymore on the way back to the car, so she ended up getting carried.
We don't know if she caught some of the cold Bill and I had or if it's allergies. She's not coughing too badly during the day, but it gets worse at night. From Saturday to Sunday was pretty bad. She didn't get the best sleep because of it.
Her cough and congestion got worse throughout the day. We got her some Vicks BabyRub and a set of cough syrups for ages 1+. She loved the Hyland's Kids cough syrup because it was mostly honey, but it really seemed to help.
She didn't want to take the cough syrup in the morning from the cup, but was okay with it when I put it in a feeding syringe. We both hated the snot sucker, but I was able to get one go at each nostril. What really seemed to help was a warm bath and her baby rub ointment. She also had a low grade fever and thought it was hilarious when I used the temperature reader on her armpits.
When Bill and I got back from boardgame night she and I played a new game. We stacked some round pegs and then she knocked our tower over. She and Granma C had come up with the game.
We had a rough morning. I was trying to change her diaper and she had a coughing attack. I was trying to get her to drink something, but she kept wanting to hug me. Putting some baby rub on her chest really helped.
At lunch she instead on sitting in the chair that Bill usually uses. She did really well using a regular chair at the tall table.
I think she has realized that the baby-rub helps her feel better. Before her nap on Wednesday she lifted her shirt when I pulled out the jar. She also sat down and wanted some on her legs. I put some on her chest, back, and neck. I rubbed her legs with any that might have still been on my hands.
I say "hi" to her a lot throughout the day. She has started saying it back sometimes. It sounds more like "eye" than "hi" but I'm not being picky about it. However, it can be hard to get her to repeat it by request because she's so used to us asking her to wave hi instead of verbally saying it.
She wanted me to put a dab of lotion on the back of her hand. She would get frustrated when it would come off. I tried to put a small temporary tattoo on her, but it must have been too old because it didn't want to stick. I tried to think of what else to use. I didn't have any face gems or small stickers. I remembered I got an eyeliner with a star stamp on one side. It was somehow still good and wasn't dried out. She loved it and I gave her plenty of stamps.
Week 85:
Since it's the second Saturday of the month, Miss Spud came to knitting with me. She loved the playground again. She even figured out how to go down the slide on her own. We would probably still be there if she had her way.
We made it to the farm. She wasn't sure at first but then got into it. The sheep and their babies were on the way out to the pasture when we got there. The pigs were asleep, so she wasn't impressed. She was a bit afraid of the mama sheep who kept bleating, though she also kept looking back at her. She got to pet a chicken. She really liked the goats and tried to talk back to them in their goat language. She also got to pet a bunch of dogs while we were there. It was fun to watch the chickens come out of the coop and it was hilarious when two other little girls tried to feed them grass. She ran over to the fence when she saw the cows. She watched the sheep get fed and they quickly captured her heart. She kept trying to talk to them as well.
At lunch she colored a little but then had fun putting the crayons back in the box. She was worn out enough from seeing all the farm animals that she just sat on the bench next to me. We got to meet Hoopz, a four foot puppet. He was really cool and though it took Miss Spud a second or two, she warmed up to him. Greg Payne said he was working on a girl soccer character.
After I was done checking our tax information at my parents' house we went to play outside. She was having fun with my old school bus and plane that came with little people who fit into the seat holes. After that we put some plastic shapes onto a cardboard box. However, when she spotted Grandpa doing some yard work, she had to go and help. She grabbed the bowl my mom had put the blocks in and followed him. She picked up some pinecones, some sweet gum tree spikey balls, and some sticks. My mom got her some dandelions, a piece of bamboo shoot, and some maple tree helicopter seeds to add to her bowl. She got tired of trying to find new things, so she would just dump the whole thing, laugh, and then collect them again.
We went for a walk before lunch and collected dandelion puffs. Before we headed out she put a whole bag of peanut puffs into a full sized paper bad and brought the whole thing to the front door. She wanted to collect all of the puffs we saw, but I tried my hardest to keep her out of people's lawns and driveways. She waved to a FedEx delivery driver who drove past us. She also got to pet a fluffy dog that lives down the street from us. Her main goal was to hold onto all the stems, even if all the seeds had blown off. She tripped and scraped her hand, but didn't lose her puffs and stems.
I offered to have us eat dinner on the porch. She was excited for the idea, but I had to change our plans. Instead of eating her banana spears she just kept following Tank around, offering them to him. He sniffed the bowl each time she offered but never tasted any. She was mad when I brought her inside, but it made dinner go a lot smoother.
I had the urge to watch a movie and eat too much popcorn. So after her nap and before dinner we got some movie snacks. We ate dinner quickly and then started our movie. How to Train Your Dragon 2 was leaving Netflix, so I picked that for us. She had her puffcorn and I had my popcorn, but we each had some of both. She wasn't very interested in the movie, but we both had a fun time. Bill even joined us at one point. He tried to go back downstairs to get some things done, but she wouldn't let him. She ran after him and then did a trust fall at him from the top of the stairs. When the movie was mostly over she figured out her new favorite thing was to be held upside down by her legs. It was even better if it was by her thighs and you also squished her thighs.
She was up early on Wednesday so she took a nap on the way to lunch. After lunch she didn't want to get in the car, so we walked around Tractor Supply. They still had chicks and she was a big fan. She also liked the stuffed animals they had for sale.
On Friday morning Miss Spud wanted to go down the stairs like she sees us doing. She held tightly onto my hand and we walked down the stairs facing forward. She was unsteady because of how little she has done it and the size of the stair compared to her legs, but she did such a good job at it.
She did a great job holding my mom's hand when we went shopping. At one point she ran off and poked the foot of a Labubu someone had on their bag. When we got home she took my mom all over the yard picking dandelions.
Week 86: First part
When we all went to vote early she was mesmerized by the people playing table tennis. Even after they were done she was so good at standing in line with us. Bill put her in charge of his ID.
When I left to go to knitting, Miss Spud was following Tank around with her small wooden chair. I think she was trying to share and get him to sit in it.
Bill wanted to get some yard work done before he headed out of town. He got the large branch cut up while I was at knitting. When I got home, Miss Spud and I moved the pieces from the driveway to the pile next to the house. She kept wanting to help Bill mow, but eventually got into helping me. I told her to pick her stick, I would pick my stick, and then we would take them over. She was so proud of herself each time and a few were pretty big. One was over five feet long and she had to hold it over her head to carry it.
Target had some new carts where the child's seat is more of a bucket in the middle instead of a bench across the whole thing. At one point Miss Spud noticed that she wasn't buckled in and held out one of the straps for me. I asked if she could find the second one. She kept looking at me expectantly and worried until I snapped them together, even though I kept saying that she knew how to do it herself. On the way home I let her try a Flamin' Hot Funion. The rest of the way home she was either crunching on one or making seagull sounds with her little seasoning stained hand in the air for more.
It's been too long since I've been to Burke Fortune House. I ordered some veggie rolls for her and she ate both small rolls and a piece of her sweet potato roll. She had some off of both mine and my mom's plates as well. She impressed the owners by how thin she is and how well she eats. She helped us blow on our Miso soup so she could get some of the tofu.
I was making dinner when she was being too quiet. I went to check on her and saw that she was in her highchair. I hadn't put her in it, so I had no idea how she would have climbed into it. She was having fun "pouring" a pom-pom from one cup to the other, so I gave her a coconut and ube roll and let her be. Bill was right with his guess because when I looked again she was carefully walking on her tray into the table to get back down again.
She is getting so much better at helping us blow on her food to cool it down. She will even try and help blow on our food if she sees us doing it.
At knit-night on Wednesday was the first time I've seen her get a bad vibe from someone. A guy I've seen there a few times said Hi to her and she ran over to my mom and grabbed onto her. She just gave the guy an uneasy look and didn't want to wave to him or smile.
The three of us went out to lunch on my mom's birthday. She had a great time with Granma and we sat by a window so she could watch people and cars go by. In the car on the way there was when she decided it was time to learn how to blow the seeds off the dandelion puffs.
After dinner I let her down to play. She grabbed my hand and started leading me around the room. She was having so much fun deciding where we went.
We are getting closer to words. At dinner on Thursday we worked on saying Cheese. She was good at the Eee part, but I got her to add a Ch sound a few times. During her bath we worked on saying Bubble. She can get Bub-bub out. I also think when she says Gug-gug she's trying to talk to the Google Home.
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