You're nineteen months old and the past month has seen a surge in your vocabulary. I find myself signing less to you nowadays and you are definitely keen to try and articulate new words. You have a spoken word bank of 20+ words. Among your favourites are 'star', 'moon', 'please', 'boo' (as in peek-a-boo OR your abbreviated form of boob) and non other than 'bra'. At least you've got a sense of humour! You've also mastered nouns like car, cheese, juice and bee and have recently adopted the adjectives 'more' and 'cold'.
You have really started to delve into books and I find that we spend at least 15 mins during the day (outside of your bedtime routine) reading and browsing. Among your favourite titles to date are: 'Say boo to the animals', 'Tip tip, dig dig', 'Let's Go Visiting', 'Dougal the garbage dump bear' and 'How loud is a lion?' I love the rhythm and repetition in many of these books and I know you do too. You love to join in when we come to a point in the story that you know, like to declare, 'boo' when we read 'Say boo to the animals' or when prompted to say what each vehicle does in 'Tip tip dig dig', you sing away your response.
The tantrums continue and I am trying my best to ignore them but lately the smashed plates and food hurled everywhere, including in my face is starting to wear on my patience. I know it's a mixture of frustration and wanting to test the boundaries but it doesn't help when we are three tantrums in and lunch hasn't even come around. I am trying to focus on not reacting too much to this behaviour. You were very obliging when I told you today that you would have to clean up the mess you made on the floor after breakfast but in all honesty, I would have been better of doing it myself such was the resulting work you made for me ;-)
It's not often I take the time to just sit and watch you. I find that with your growing independence that I use more of your 'awake' time to busy myself with housework. I don't like that I am doing this but lately it's been a necessity, esp for my sanity. The other day while we waited for dad to get home I closed the back gate and I sat out in the driveway and watched you play on your John Deer quad. I don't know when it happened but you taught yourself to push your feet along the ground and effectively drive your quad. You can move backwards too and worked out that if you push yourself up the slope and into the carport that you can roll back down again. You seem to know intuitively when it is time to apply the breaks so that you won't collide with the fence. I just love the massive smile you get when you are busy learning and exploring.
You're still shy and I am working harder to accept this - it may or may not be a personality trait but it's not something that I can change anyway.
Your frustration threshold as it an all-time low. Sometimes all it takes is seconds before an inability to do something will go from being annoying to becoming full-blown tantrum material.
You have started spitting out your food, seemingly for no apparent reason. If it doesn't get hurled on the floor it gets returned to your mouth where it is promptly eaten or discarded for something more appealing.
You find the feel of your belly button and the sight of my bra absolutely hilarious and you get excited by squishing my knees.
Piggy-backs are still pretty cool and the mere mention of 'aeroplane' is enough to send you into a giggling frenzy.
Juice is your favourite liquid and your foods of the moment are meat and cheese and bananas.
You have a funny way of articulating 'star' and 'moon' (which incidentally were two of the first words you spoke). You pronounce the 'st' in star as a hard 'g' and and emphasise the 'ar' so that it sounds like you're saying gaaaaaaaaar. Moon is much the same only the final 'n' is silent so it's like old McDonald's farm on constant replay. You are so quick to spot stars and the moon wherever we go. In shop windows, on the street, in the sky, on other people's clothing. It's pretty cute, I'll tell you.
Everything at the moment comes back to sleeping and eating. You do the signs for sleep and food all the time but their presence is seemingly unrelated to what is happening at the time. For instance, every time we read 'Tip tip, dig dig' you do the food sign at the end of the book or you do the sign for sleep five minutes after you've woken in the morning.
You totally dig the water but you are much more cautious of venturing too far from my side these days and have taken to holding my hand during a dip down by the river or a swim in our local pool. You even seem to freak out if either dad or myself gets out of the shower without you in tow.
Next week your dad heads off-shore for another month and while I respect that this is part and parcel of his work, it's really not helpful, neither in an emotional (relationship) nor a practical sense. On top of that it's starting to contribute to feelings of resentment on my part. Especially now that I am willing and ready to return to work and many part-time jobs, which I am interested in applying for, have evening and weekend commitments. Considering the fact that the pay scheme for these job is pro-rata, hiring a baby-sitter for up to 10 hours per week just doesn't seem viable. Ah well, I can only keep looking! Am I being selfish? Are these feelings warranted? I know that I am no longer happy in Perth but is it your your dad's work commitments and the fact that we don't have family close by to help out, or it is my role as a stay at home mum and extended absence from paid work that are contributing to this dissatisfaction.
You're still shy and I am working harder to accept this - it may or may not be a personality trait but it's not something that I can change anyway.
Your frustration threshold as it an all-time low. Sometimes all it takes is seconds before an inability to do something will go from being annoying to becoming full-blown tantrum material.
You have started spitting out your food, seemingly for no apparent reason. If it doesn't get hurled on the floor it gets returned to your mouth where it is promptly eaten or discarded for something more appealing.
You find the feel of your belly button and the sight of my bra absolutely hilarious and you get excited by squishing my knees.
Piggy-backs are still pretty cool and the mere mention of 'aeroplane' is enough to send you into a giggling frenzy.
Juice is your favourite liquid and your foods of the moment are meat and cheese and bananas.
You have a funny way of articulating 'star' and 'moon' (which incidentally were two of the first words you spoke). You pronounce the 'st' in star as a hard 'g' and and emphasise the 'ar' so that it sounds like you're saying gaaaaaaaaar. Moon is much the same only the final 'n' is silent so it's like old McDonald's farm on constant replay. You are so quick to spot stars and the moon wherever we go. In shop windows, on the street, in the sky, on other people's clothing. It's pretty cute, I'll tell you.
Everything at the moment comes back to sleeping and eating. You do the signs for sleep and food all the time but their presence is seemingly unrelated to what is happening at the time. For instance, every time we read 'Tip tip, dig dig' you do the food sign at the end of the book or you do the sign for sleep five minutes after you've woken in the morning.
You totally dig the water but you are much more cautious of venturing too far from my side these days and have taken to holding my hand during a dip down by the river or a swim in our local pool. You even seem to freak out if either dad or myself gets out of the shower without you in tow.
Next week your dad heads off-shore for another month and while I respect that this is part and parcel of his work, it's really not helpful, neither in an emotional (relationship) nor a practical sense. On top of that it's starting to contribute to feelings of resentment on my part. Especially now that I am willing and ready to return to work and many part-time jobs, which I am interested in applying for, have evening and weekend commitments. Considering the fact that the pay scheme for these job is pro-rata, hiring a baby-sitter for up to 10 hours per week just doesn't seem viable. Ah well, I can only keep looking! Am I being selfish? Are these feelings warranted? I know that I am no longer happy in Perth but is it your your dad's work commitments and the fact that we don't have family close by to help out, or it is my role as a stay at home mum and extended absence from paid work that are contributing to this dissatisfaction.
