Friday, March 28, 2014

19 Months


19 Months Old: 03/19/14

Stats {as of your 18 month check up this month}:
Height: 31.7 inches (43%)
Weight: 23 lb 13 oz (64%)
Head Circumference: 48 cm (88%)

The sweet and sour phase of toddlerhood continues. And now that you are closer to two than one, you think you’re too big for your cloth-diapered little britches. You’d walk across the street by yourself if we let you. Yet, you’re still so incredibly needy as you beg for cuddles with Mama or Dad before bed every night. 

Have I ever mentioned that I love this stage?


Little Linguist
You’re getting better at communicating this month. However, it's still very much a work-in-progress. No matter how often I beg, you cannot {or refuse?} to say “please” or “help”. But luckily, we've become pretty good at reading between the lines with eat, more, no, poo-poo, and plenty of *dramatic* pointing. So, thankfully, your frustration tantrums have subsided quite a bit. You’ve started to say some more two word sentences, mostly greetings, like Hi Mama, Bye-Bye GiGi, and Hi Baby. And you always say tank yoo when given something. You’ve also started saying hold you and reaching out your arms when you want to be held. And you are a big fan of telling us when you’re tired. Even if you’re in the middle of playing hard, you’ll suddenly stop and loudly blurt out night night. Then in the mornings, you wake up, kiss your Ellie the Elephant, and tell her niii-niiight and tuck her under the covers for the day. 

You are not much of a “repeater” of words as some of your toddler friends are. In true Lyla fashion, you much prefer to master a word before you speak it. I even hear you “practicing” on your own from time to time in your room. The other night after counting your toes together in the bathtub, I caught you practicing your “counting” after I put you to bed. You have down the tone and inflection of “one, two, three!", but we’re still working on the correct phonetics. ;) 



Physical Skills
At this point, it’s hard to believe you were such a late walker and crawler! You are quite the mover these days. Though rarely graceful, you walk, run, and climb on ev.ery.thing. Your new favorite spot in the house is the window seat in our living room. One day, I left the room for one minute, came back, and you had climbed up and were standing on the window seat. And speaking of climbing, your favorite is going up and down flights of stairs…by yourself. The mini heart attacks have only begun for Mama. As have the giant purple goose eggs on your forehead. 

We’ve got a toddler on the loose, and it’s exhausting. 



Behavior
Overall, you are a laid back, super easy, well-behaved toddler. Your dad and I were so proud recently when you sat through an hour and a half church service without a peep. Well, except for when you yelled BAAYBYYY a few times at the newborn behind us. But no matter how well behaved you are, you are still a toddler. So you do have your moments. And Dad and I recently discussed how we’ve reached that point where we need to form some kind of discipline “plan” so we’re on the same page. You have gotten much better with patience while waiting for food, and we are working on using your words instead of screaming. We’re also working on not throwing milk. 

Cute Stories
Our favorite time of day is bath time. You run around naked and say baaath in an octave I never knew existed. Well a couple of weeks ago, you were standing naked as a jaybird filling the tub with your toys when you started peeing on the rug. You looked up at me with shame-filled eyes and started crying. I assured you that it was an accident, but you kept pointing to the pee on the rug and began crying harder and harder. So hard, that you also started tooting. So then, there you were. Standing on the rug. Naked. Crying. Tooting. And tearfully exclaiming,  tooot? tooot? It was sadly adorable.

For weeks now you've been saying Mi-Mi! Mi-Mi! And for the life of us, we could not figure out who Mi-Mi was. At first we thought it was your new name for Grams, but then you started saying it even when she wasn't around. All we knew was that whoever this Mi-Mi was, he or she sure did make you excited. Well, we finally made the connection last week. Mi-Mi is your best buddy, Samson or "Sammy". And you and Mi-Mi have a love/hate relationship, just like a real sibling duo. And poor Sienna is still just dog

You had a little slumber party at GiGi and Bots (Pops) house a couple weekends ago while your dad and I attended a marriage conference and enjoyed a weekend "date-cation". GiGi and Pops sure do love sleeping in on the weekends, and I assured them you'd sleep until at least 8:00. Well, you had different plans as you woke up Saturday morning, ready for your day, at 6:30 a.m. You immediately began calling out for Gii-Giii? Gii-Giii? That of course made waking up at the crack of dawn a little less painful for GiGi. 





Personality
It has been so much fun watching your little personality develop. But it's also quite amazing to see some of the same characteristics you've always had, even as an infant. You are calm, thoughtful, cautious, and an observer. However, you have also turned into a little comedian as of late. {But only when you're comfortable in your surroundings, of course.} 

Our weekly music class is a perfect example of this. The first few classes, I nearly quit as you were clingy, fussy, and didn't crack even a partial smile. You just watched with a grumpy face, refusing to leave Mama's lap, as all the other kids had a fabulous time. By week 4, you started playing with your instruments, while on my lap. By week 5, I think I saw a smile or two. By week 7, you were singing and laughing. And by the very last class, you had turned into an absolute ham. No joke, you were in the middle of our circle of toddlers and adults dancing BY YOURSELF, running up to adults, and laughing hysterically. One of the moms jokingly said, "Who IS that child???" 



The best part? Your GiGi told me your dad was the exact same way all throughout school. First semester, teachers would express concern at conferences as your dad didn't talk or participate much and was very quiet. By second semester, teachers couldn't keep him quiet, and he had the whole class in stitches as he was the new class clown. Same story, year after year. 

And so far, you are taking after your dad in so many ways.  

I sure can't wait to see how you continue to change and grow, and how your little personality makes you uniquely YOU. 

Thanks for the ride, Beans. This sure is fun.  



Thursday, March 13, 2014

Cloudy with a chance of sunshine

Oh. Hello.

Here I am.
Ever-so-slowly peering out from my black hole of groggy sickness and blahs.

Although usually a foreign concept to me, there's been a piercing silence on the blog lately. And if you haven't noticed, well, I've been in a rut. I don't even think I've opened my computer once in the last 2 weeks. And *gasp*, I'm pretty sure I've taken a total of 3 pictures of Chunkin the last two weekends. Thanks to two rounds of icky respiratory crud, I just haven't had much energy for anything really. Especially not blogging. In fact, the thought of blogging has made me nearly burst into tears.

Ok. That's a lie. I haven't had the energy to burst into tears.

Oh the winter blahs. I say winter because until this past weekend, Kansas did not get the memo that it is March.

But this particular case of the blahs has been all-consuming for the past several weeks. And I'm not so sure I have an acceptable excuse for letting things get so murky. But there's been clear evidence of a dark, bulging rain cloud hovering over our household. Partly due to the terrible weather, partly due to some personal decisions and happenings, but mostly due to sickness. And tagging along with sickness has been exhaustion, thanks to a toddler who suddenly started waking through the night. So, I haven't been the only one in the family resembling that of a zombie lately.

My poor family. They've been real sports about my whole slacking on life thing. Somehow, they've survived on chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese, or anything else that has 3 or fewer ingredients. Of course Lyla has been consuming an obscene amount of "ta-ta's" {crackers}, while I've been snacking on an embarrassing amount of cottage cheese. I don't know, something about it is comforting when it's been less than 40 degrees outside for over thirty consecutive days. Odd, I'm aware. But comforting nonetheless.

And speaking of slacking, let's talk about my after-work uniform as of late. The moment I walk in the door from picking up Lyla from daycare, and not a second later, the pants come off, sweatpants go on, and I find the fuzziest socks I own. May not see so ridiculous, except I haven't had the energy to change my work shirt as well. So, the uniform consists of baggy sweatpants paired with a work blouse. And of course the fuzzy socks. My husband is one lucky man.

But as of this week, it finally looks like we've made it to the other side. So if I've completely rained on your parade with my story of gloom, there is light up ahead! And though they may be little slivers, my eyelids are slowly adjusting. Because you see, my cough has gone from a rattle to more of a subtle clearing of the throat. Lyla is feeling better everyday and starting to sleep again. But most importantly, my friends, the sun has started shining. And when the sun shines, my soul is alive.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets stuck in the ho-hum-drum of life. And winter. And sickness. And work. And the same old, same old.

But here I am, trying to get back into the swing of blogging. Writing what's on my mind. And although there may be nothing but sludge at the moment, I can feel myself awakening. Life is coming back to me.

It's amazing what a little sunshine can do. I might even start wearing real pants after work.

But probably not.

Recovery nap time with my best gal