SLOANE AT 21 MONTHS

I'm behind on this post because she turned 21 months two weeks ago, so she is already halfway to 22 months and I'm saying things like, "yes, she's almost 2 years old.." (!!) but here it is finally, an update in the form of 10 things that I've made notes of this past month

1. The other day after she finished eating ("done!") and handed me her bowl ("here..!"), she reached up with both of her arms and said, "mommy? ....hug!" and then gave me the biggest bear hug. 

2.    On the way home from daycare, she stopped when she noticed some ants crawling about on the sidewalk. “Those are ants,” I told her. “Hi ants!!” she said, waving wildly down to them. On another occasion, I put on a white shirt over a pink bra wondering if the color of the bra would show through. Once the shirt was on, I heard Sloane say, "Hi bra!" waving enthusiastically at the bra through the shirt. I changed my shirt.

3.    The first day back at daycare after our california trip, she was eating her lunch with all the other kids and in the middle of her lunch, she stopped, picked up her cup and plate, brought it to one of the teachers and said, "I sleep."  They put her in the cot and she laid there until she fell asleep.. Girl knew she needed sleep and she got it done. 

4.    I make up songs sometimes, singing about what we are doing or what an imaginary bunny is doing somewhere in the world, and she immediately starts singing along, and we make it up as we go. When she wants me to stop singing she'll bring her finger up to her lips and go 'shhhhhhhh.' Sometimes I catch her singing to herself, usually songs that she makes up. Yesterday her song included the word, "papa".  

5.   I’m getting creative about addressing her moments of crankiness, frustration and meltdowns. Most recently I've been aggressively sing-narrating whatever I'm doing. It gets her attention; she's curious, intrigued, slightly bewildered. This may not last long but I'll do it until it works. 

6.   She is really interactive with her stuffed animals - they 'take turns', take naps, give hugs, kiss cuts and bruises, get their diaper changed, fall down, need soothing, all line up on the table to watch her drink her milk.  Most mornings when we come downstairs and she sees her dog, big bunny, baby bunny, hippo, and bear, she waves to them, “Hi!” and then says ”Bye” to each of them when we leave. “Bye hippo....bye doggie…bye big bunny, bye baby bunny, bye bear…” Recently, they've also started 'crying'. 

7.    I'm constantly surprised to hear her say words and phrases that I didn't think she knew - 'the other side', 'come here', 'put it there", "one more time." She also asks "what's that?" all the time, pointing at different things.  I feel like the luckiest being in all the world. She points to the grill and asks, "Whats' that?" and I say, "It's a grill." And she nods gravely to show that she understands and repeats after me, "Gri".  

8.    Sometimes I watch her, fascinated, as she cleans the chair, put animals in order and pulls hippo around in a cart.  Her moments of quiet play are so precious to me. When I watch her for long enough, she'll go about her business until she catches my eye, notices me watching her and bursts into a big smile. 

9.    My favorite thing these days is the way we laugh. it's like we have developed our own kind of sense of humor and we catch each other's eyes and laugh and laugh about all sorts of things. She laughs when I act silly and sometimes she acts silly to make me laugh. She also spent quite a long time cracking up over turning the switch on and off, you can see it here.  How does she know that it's funny that her teddy bear is face down on a pair of shoes?  

10.  Sloane, there was this sweet period of your life, when you were discovering the world and you asked me what each thing was and I was able to teach it to you.  We laughed together about silly things and you taught me to slow down and appreciate all things anew.  We snuggled in bed and you would wrap your arms around my neck and weave your hands in my hair; there was not a better place on earth.