16 Months

Delly, you are 16 months old. You are running around like you’ve been up on your feet for years, and you are talking up a storm. You have quite a few (barely recognizable) words, but the biggest change is that your constant babbling and chattering is now very conversational, with varying intonation and gesticulations and pointed looks and apparently great meaning. You like to walk around with phones (or things that look like phones, like remote controls etc) and hold them to your ear and say Hi! Hi! Hi! In the morning when we finally give in to your distress calls and come into your room, before we can even reach the light switch your hand shoots up into the air to wave as you yell Hi!

One of the first times you said please, you happened to have also thrown your hands in the air at the same time. We praised you so heartily, that you got the idea that the hands in the air thing is the sign for please, so now every time we prompt you to ask nicely for something, your hands shoot up and you say Pees!

This month you mastered the stairs, and you can scoot down them on your tummy like a bullet. You're getting more into climbing, too. You were able to climb onto the sofas and chairs for a little while already, but now you like to do it more often and you’ve started climbing and standing on other things too, like your kapsule chair and our heat registers, and onto Daddy when he lays down on the floor to do his stretches. You climb onto him like a cowgirl and bounce around. I guess it’s not doing an ounce of good for his back, but it sure is funny. We just keep him hopped up on muscle relaxers and let you have your fun.

You can count all the way to 2 now. You are mastering your negotiation skills, and when we tell you that you can have One of something, you say Two! How many feet do you have? Two! How many ears do you have? Two! Etc. You're pretty much brilliant.





You've just recently started getting separation anxiety. Daddy almost always drives you to school in the morning, and when he goes outside now to warm up the cars, you think he's leaving without you and you freak out. I have to hold you and watch him through the window so you can see him outside to calm you down. When Sarah came over to watch you on Christmas day so we could go see a movie, as soon as you saw her you got all whiney and clingy and were stuck to our legs like glue. You even do it a little bit when we drop you off at school now, hugging our legs when we bring you in and take off your jacket. Though I don't want you ever feeling distress, it does seem like comforting evidence of how much we're bonded as a family. You've been in fulltime daycare for most of your life, you love it there, and sometimes it has seemed like you actually prefer it there with all the fun and playing -- but you really get it now, that even though you spend most days there, you belong with us.

Love,
Mommy

a moist toddler is a happy toddler

We have been havig a bitch of a time with Delma's morning wake-up routine. She'd been going to bed at 7 every night and for a while she was sleeping til 6, which is fine. It's really f-ing early, but whatever. A month or 2 ago she went back to waking up before 6. Sometimes even earlier than 5. We wouldn't get her out of bed til 6, but she would be crying (that awful pissed-off fake-crying), so it's not like waiting to get her up gave us any extra sleep. A few weeks ago we started keeping her up a little later to see if she'd sleep later. No dice.

I've been really dry now that we have the heat on in the house, I wake up with my mouth all dried out and it's pretty uncomfortable. I thought maybe Del is having the same problem, so yesterday I bougt her a humidifier. It was a toss-up between the frog one and the penguin one. I even called Josh from the store to see if he had a preference. We decided on the frog. It would be easier to look at the frog and talk about it and say "what does the frog say?" "Ribbit!" I couldn't do that with the penguin. What the hell does a penguin say?? But Del wanted the penguin, she kept looking at the box and saying "kitty!" So, we went home with the penguin, which is actually cuter than the frog anyway. But I digress.

It could be, and probably is, a coincidence. But this morning, after sleeping in her room with the penguin at full blast all night, she slept til after 6 and for the past half-hour has been happily chatting away and singing in her crib instead of wailing. I was still up at 6, but at least I've had some calm, quiet time to check email etc. Please please please let this not just be a fluke! Knock on wood, fingers crossed...

smart money

I've been lusting after this Built By Wendy pattern forever. I've seen so many people blog about it and show their adorable little tops made from it. Today I decided to splurge, and went to the Built By Wendy site to get it. $14.95 plus $9.00 for UPS Ground. That seemed a twee bit steep. I Googled it to see if I could find it somewhere cheaper, and doncha know Simplicity has it for $8.95 and free USPS shipping. Sold.

In refreshment news, I am long overdue in reporting on our best investment EVER. Soda Club. We make seltzer at home whenever we want, and can add little flavors to make sodas or flavored seltzers. Reusable liter bottles that are supposed to last something like 3 years. Refillable CO2 canisters that make appx 110 liters of crazy-fizzy yumminess. We are so hooked on seltzer now in our house that it borders on the absurd. We call it "bubbles." "Babe, want some bubbles?" "Do you need bubbles?" "I'm out of bubbles." "Delly, want bubbles? Do you hear Daddy making bubbles?" Whole lotta bubbles goin on round here. I actually feel like it's made us happier people. Never underestimate the power of bubbles.

gotta get my butt to Providence

...to see Craftland. Looks so so so cool.

15 Months

Delly, what a fun month you've had. You're much more interested in talking now, you've started parroting a bit, and you have a short list of words. Unfortunately, many of your words are indistinguishable: "Mommy" is "mama" or just "ma." "Milk" is "ma." "More" is "ma." Cats say "ma." The Baby Enstein Animals DVD that you're obsessed with and that we just call "Animals" is "ma." I know you think you're saying distinct words, and you get annoyed with us for not always correctly interpreting. You were saying "meemee" all morning today, and I think that you were trying to say "mommy." You can't really handle combining vowel sounds in one work, you can only say Mama or Meemee but not Mommy. Donkey is "donk-donk." Ducks say "cock cock," and since that's obviously so freakin' funny, I try to get you to say it every chance I get.

You're so proud of yourself for looking in books and recognizing things that you know the words for. This morning you went running into the bathroom to show Daddy a book that had an apple and an orange in it, and you were saying "baaaall." Close enough, they're round. You were so excited.

You just recently discovered TV. we've played some shows for you for a while now, like Yo Gabba Gabba, and you'll watch it but you get antsy and want to play, and you never used to actually request TV. Then one day I was tired and I sat you with me on our bed and put the Animals DVD in, and you were hooked. You took to it like a full-on crackhead and now you are completely hooked on the junk. We usually keep our bedroom door shut so you can't wander in and pull our bookshelves onto your head, and now you'll stand at our bedroom door, trying to turn the knob and will howl for "ma." If the door is open when we're getting dressed or something, your spidey senses start ringing and you come running into the room and try to climb onto the bed screaming for "ma." Our bed is too high for you to haul yourself onto, but you'll walk around it trying to get on from every angle.

What I am really loving right now is the fact that you can just putter around, running up and down the hall, looking at books in your room, all happily by yourself. Last weekend Daddy was baking bread in the kitchen and I was working on a project at my laptop in the living room, and we had the radio on and you were just running around doing your thing, stopping to hug our legs or show us your toys every few minutes. It was just so genuinely realxed and pleasant and made me get all teary. We really do have a nice life.

Love,
Mommy