(Un)Screwed

The household is in big trouble now--Gaz has learned to unscrew a variety of lids, seemingly overnight. Yesterday I took my eyes off her for a minute and the next thing I know there's a pile of Mrs. Dash on the dining room floor. She's also been playing with a bottle of saline nose spray (turns out it's quite fun if you spray it when it's not in someone's nose).

She's also figured out zippers, and it's only a matter of time before she starts getting into my purse. What we really need is a house with enough room for endless child-proofed cabinets so we can hide all this stuff she's just figured out.

I can do it myself!

That's today's motto. She fed herself more than half a cup of yogurt (which she calls yogie, by the way) and as we speak she is peeling a clementine after fighting me away from my attempts to do same. It's completely peeled now and halved. All she needed help with was getting off the dining room chair without cracking her skull on the floor. Which she has just now done on the table when she was trying to pick up clementine sections off the floor under said table.

Proton

Is offcially "Oton" in Gazese.

She's been a babbler lately. I think she's about to have another vocabulary explosion, but in the meantime she's singing the greatest little nonsense songs.

I love this kid more than I can say.

It's mid-month, so it must be time for another virus

Yes, Gaz and I are sick. Again. But it's much better than last time. January's cold had much more coughing and fevers, not to mention poorer appetites (and let's not forget the sinus infection for me), but this one is just a wee head cold. Minimal coughing, and Gaz at least is chock full of energy.

In between running away from me as I tried to wipe her nose endlessly, she was trying to jump. She's getting pretty close.

Probably won't make it to Wiggleworms this week, but Gaz is making me sing the songs and such all the time now. If only we had bubbles and a whole lot of shakers, she'd be in Wiggleworms heaven without us having to go out into the cold, cold world.

OW!

The latest annoying trick Miss Gaz has unleashed on us is the word "ow!" She says it now all the time, except when it's appropriate. Changing diapers, putting on clothes, buckling her into the car seat. Notably not when she wriggles off a chair at dinner and lands on her face. (She's fine, by the way. Not even a wee little bruise.)

And she doesn't say it once or twice, it's always a long string of OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWO! at maximum volume. It's embarassing in a parking lot, and I can only imagine how bad it will be in a store or doctor's waiting room or other crowded public place.

Yay?

Those other cute words

In addition to pocky (pocket), we have bocky (broccoli) and banky (blanket). And she did all that cute-ifying without any baby talk from us, I must say. We talk to her in normal voices, using normal human words because we are word people. This brain sponge period would be completely wasted if we only said things like "wittle," "mawage," or "dweam wiffin a dweam."

I expect she'll figure out R's and L's soon enough. I hope she does before she starts trying to say "clock" or "frog" in public. Oh yeah, she's got a problem with G's too. :-)

Yes, it's that cold.

Indoor Ice
Originally uploaded by georgiegrrrrl.

Our ourdoor thermometer says it's -7 now, and that's without factoring in that good old Chicago wind.

I've got a doctor's appointment today, but we're driving and bundling up. Somebody send us some non-Arctic air, will ya?

18 months--getting better at the small stuff

Gaz continues to be much more healthy than I am, but a very long day at the doctor's office (involving appointments for myself and Auntie Angeli) should hopefully result in me feeling better sooner. All the better to chase our year-and-a-half-old supergirl around the dining room table!

Yes, today, far too early for me to wake up and annoy Gaz, was the magic 18 month birth anniversary. Hoorah! This new phase of toddlerdom brings us a Gaz who is much more coordinated (she can climb easily onto the dining room chairs now for meals, and just today figured out how to climb onto the bed without any boxes to assist), much more verbal, and much more likely to have a tantrum at any given moment.

The verbal explosion can't even be exactly quantified any more--there are too many words for this addled mind to tack anymore. I do have some highlights, though:

• Today Gaz counted to three while stacking three blocks. Three often sounds like "fweee!" or "feeee!" but you can tell what she means most of the time, especially since she's so good at saying "two."
• Gaz has discovered pockets in her clothing (most particularly the big pocket on her pink and red dress/nightgown. She's quite delighted with putting things in her pocket and then sticking her belly out to highlight whatever lump she's hidden away in her dress. Of course, nothing compares to hearing her call this strange clothing feature a "pocky."
• We've had some two-word sentences lately, the first of which being "butt hurt!" after she threw herself, butt first, onto the hardwood floor. And I thought I would regret teaching her "butt." (I know, I will live to regret that and many other words.)
• Her understanding of what people say to her is beyond all my expectations. Every time I think I've talked right over her head, she answers appropriately or follows my instructions. There are just as many times, though, when I know she understands what I've said and is choosing to ignore me. But mostly she's helpful, even when it comes to bringing me a diaper--she is back to fighting diaper changes.
• Every day, sometimes many times in one day, she amazes me with her terrifyingly quick wit. Of course, I can't think of a good example right now. I knew I should have started this earlier today when my brain was more awake.

The tantrums aren't fun, really, but I've gotten as good as possible at reading her body language. Sometimes she needs to be left completely alone for a bit, sometimes she wants me nearby to comfort her when she's ready, and sometimes she just really needs to nurse but is too frustrated to try to communicate that. And sometimes the problem is that I won't let her lift up my shirt in public. We slog through the cranky times as best we can and I try not to take it personally. We'll see how I'm doing with that in six months!

In other news, Wiggleworms is going great. Gaz loves the boys (they're more active, older, and independent than the girls in this group, it seems) and has developed an attachment to Bella's mom. I'm not sure how she feels about Bella, but she's always trying to hold Bella's mom's hand and sit on her lap. Twice in a row now she's also dominated Miss Lisa's lap for the good-bye song, and this last time she tried to keep the other kids from touching Miss Lisa's guitar. And where is her favorite place during class? Right in the middle of the circle, dancing, clapping, and swaying her precious little heart out where all can adore her.

You should see the coloring she's doing now. It's much more focused than what she was doing just two months ago. One of these days I'll scan some pictures. Until then, the pile will just keep growing on the dining room table until it collapses or until Gaz finds it and starts trearing up her art.