This is getting GOOOOD

You can't do the Lasso with Psy and that makes you super frustrated and mad.

BUT

You learned how to fist bump and you love it.

Thanks for being boss.

That, was awesome

You put your very own shoes on your very own feet.

Ms Alysia and I were talking about her taking you outside. You yelled "ALL RIGHT!" and started knocking on the back door. To prove that you meant business, you got your shoes and put them on.

It's safe to say that I was shocked. Not by the fact that you're awesome, but by the fact that you could get shoes on by yourself at 22mos.

^5

I cannot even begin to know how many times in your short life that I have asked you for a high five.

Any time I would ask for one, you would either just stare at me or go in for a hug. I won't lie, the hugs were pretty awesomely sweet.

I asked you for a high five not even 10 minutes ago- AND YOU DID IT! With your sly little stinker smile. You even did it another 6 times. I think it's safe to say that you now know what it means to high five.

You just got awesomer.

Early Intervention

I've been avoiding this. I don't want you to think that there's something wrong with you. I don't like the social stigmas that come with that kind of statement. You and I were both getting frustrated, I couldn't understand what you were trying to tell me and I could tell that you had something you felt you needed to tell me.

This morning Ms Jackie and Ms Julie brought two fantastic bags of tricks and toys. You got right down to business playing with them and exploring everything they had in their bags. We found out that you have done very nicely developing your motor skills- you're 10mos ahead of where you should be! We also learned that some of what I had suspected was right, your speech and communication is about 10mos behind.

At 19mos old your vocabulary sounds more like a 9-12mos old. Hearing that crushed me. I didn't know that most of what I was counting as part of your word base were what are referred to as declaratives or exclamations. Things like "uh oh," "no," "what's that," don't count as words on the evaluation. I was pretty sure that I was going to cry when I heard where they placed your speech.

I keep reminding myself that now:
1. You're going to get the help you need.
2. You're young enough that the delay shouldn't be apparent by the time you're in kindergarten.
3. I did what I was supposed to.

I'm having a really hard time not feeling guilty or upset about this. Logically, I know that your hearing was affected because you had ear infections which kept fluid in your ears. You had a hearing screening and birth but you didn't have another hearing test for the next 15mos. There is no way for anyone to accurately gauge when your hearing was affected, all we can do now is help you.

So that's what we're doing.

It's going to be a long day.

Before 6:00A today you:

• colored in a book, not a coloring book
• swiped my waffle
• snuggled BOTH cats
• drank the last of the orange juice
• pulled 10+ wipes from the box
• ate way too many grapes
• prefected your gymnastics floor routine
• drank from a cup, all by yourself
• licked my plate clean

Certainly an interesting and ROUSING start to my day.

I don't think I'm ready to talk about it-

but I promise you I will.

It makes me so happy and proud to hear you say "ka," cat; "ko," cookie; "quan," quack.

While watching Rio you just yelled "HEY!" and started to dance right in time with the birds.

I'm so happy you can hear me lady bird- I'm listening and waiting for you.

I'm pretty sure you just made Miss Tanya's day...

As we were leaving Day Care today you started leaing towards your old room so we stopped in to see Miss Tanya for a little bit. You ran around playing with the toys and watching the little babes.

When I picked you up to leave I asked if you could say bye bye to Miss Tanya- instead you blew her a kiss. Every time after that I said the words "blow a kiss" you;d blow her another one.

We both thought it was super cute.
I'm glad you FINALLY learned that trick!

Happy Thanksgiving, again!

I tried to sit you at the table like the rest of us, but that only seemed to confuse you. You wouldn't touch your plate until I put it on the tray of your high chair. So I guess you're not quite ready to sit with us at a table, but we'll get there.

While you could eat anything and everything your little hear desired this year, you only wanted to eat one thing: cranberries. You kept asking for more and eventually you gave up the spoon to shovel them in to your mouth with both hands. That change in delivery also lead to a discovery: cranberries are good for squishin'. So from that point on you squeezed and squished them to bits.

Poppa came over for dinner and daddy even woke up early for the occasion so you had almost double the number of adults you normally have a meal time. You kept asking Poppa to give you food and he was more than happy to oblige. However, you weren't too impressed with my turkey cooking abilities but you did like licking all of the gravy off of your fork, so that'll have to do for now.  Maybe next year you'll learn how super awesome Thanksgiving turkey is.

It's incredible to me how much has changed since last year. Today, I am thankful for all of your crazy, independently formed ideas. That's one awesome melon you've got there.

Ohdear

You can climb out of your crib. It's not terribly graceful and it sounds awfully painful.

Please stop?

Yes, you are a sillykins

Tonight marked a very important first: You got yourself dizzy, on purpose.
After your bath you just kept walking around your room. Eventually you ended up behind the door trying to look in to the mirror at yourself. At one point you tried to turn around quickly to run at daddy, but instead you made a small circle and turned all the way around. You didn't look surprised but you smiled and did it again.
You started to wobble a little, but you did it again. And again and again and again... you get the idea. You were stumbling every which way and giggling. You started to fall and daddy went to catch you, but that made you pretty upset. You seemed to think he was trying to stop you, which made you cry. But soon you were on your feet again making your lopsided circles.

You sly little fox you.

You signed all done, so I started to clean what was left of your lunch off of your hands. And once the tray was mostly clean and your hands were COMPLETELY clean you signed more. I was confused by what you did next, until I realized that it looked a lot like cookie.

I then showed you the cookies we got when we ordered your birthday cake- and you squealed.

Well played, well played.

You won this round, but the next one will go to me.

Eleven Months

I can't believe I'm sitting here doing this. I feel like we've already spent a lifetime together, but truthfully, this is where all of the fun starts. You've developed this awesome and sassy personality, I frustrate you daily- but you get over it. You got teeth 8, 9 and 10 this month. No stats until 12m, which will be more like 12.5 since we won't see your doctor until the middle of September, let's not dwell on that, let's just talk about how awesome you are. Ok?


Margaret can SAY:

• all done [ah duuuh]
• that [dat]

Margaret CAN:

• walk, not well. But she gets it done
• open and close doors
• flush a toilet, thanks honey
• climb stairs

Margaret likes:

• Taco Tuesday
• Despicable Me
• sprinklers
• hot dogs
• watermelon
• carrot cake
• slides!

Margaret does not like

• whole raspberries
• peas, we sort of knew that
• putting on shoes

I'm so glad you're here. You make some fabulous faces that make me make equally awesome faces. And while you're sometimes a challenge, you don't ever let me get bored. Thanks for that boo bear.

Whoooa Nelly!

You walked. Over 8 feet. Through the kitchen. You didn't even fall- you quite gracefully lowered yourself to the ground when you got to the end of the kitchen.

I'm in trouble now.

This is what they call, strong willed.

We'll blame it on that little bit of Livernois, because after all, there are fewer of them around to contest. You've clearly had your own agenda from the very beginning. You don't seem to have it written down though and most importantly, it changes frequently and often.

While all babies develop at their own pace and in their own time, you embody this in the most fantastic of ways. While I was pregnant, at the end I would have contractions that were 5min apart and lasting for about a minute. My doctors use the 5-1-1 rule; which is 5mins apart, 1min duration for 1h. They would only ever run for a maximum of 50min. It felt like you were mocking me silently. You showed me that you knew how to go, but you weren't done at the party yet. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't annoyed.

When you were learning to roll over you'd get your torso turned but your hips and legs would be stuck. Almost as if your diaper was too heavy and you couldn't possibly move it. This went on for over a month, until one day you rolled. You rolled like you'd been doing it for years. Sometimes you'd catch me watching you and flash a proud smile. But those weren't terribly often.

Learning to crawl was terrible on everyone. You were so frustrated, you wanted to move. You were in the big baby room at daycare; so you saw all of them moving. You tried so tirelessly to figure out how to get everything to do what you wanted. You'd move a few feet and then plant your face in the floor to have a good cry. I think you wanted to cross the room in seconds and you couldn't figure out why you were still staring at the same old toys.

Once you learned to pull your self up cruising along furniture came within a day.

But walking? It's taking forever. You take somewhere between 2 and 6 independent steps a day. Some days you look so proud and amazed, other days you look down right terrified. You've been doing it for well over a month and you still insist on holding 2 hands when walking. If you're only given one hand to hold you get, mad. I'm not sure what the hang up is. But I know you'll get there in time. And I'll be watching with a happy heart the whole way.

Perfect Ten

Ten Months- and you're talking. Mostly gibberish, but some words. Which is, in a word, best.


Margaret can SAY:

• hi
• mommy
• daddy
• yes
• no

Margaret can:

• clap!
• cruise with one hand
• take 3-4 steps

Margaret likes:

• pickles
• peek a boo
• blanket tents
• REAL tents
• the zoo

Margaret does not like:

• being on grass

Eight Months

I'm more than amazed at how much you've grown and everything you can do. When I think about how little and helpless you seemed, that all seems so silly now. You're hell bent on doing whatever you can, as often as you want. That may not go over so well shortly- but for now, we'll ride it out.

We have no stats this month other than weight, 23lb 14oz. You're not climbing the scale as steadily these days. A lot of that has to do with your insane desire to wiggle. Once you figured out how to crawl, self propelled motions became the name of your game

Margaret can:

• crawl
• pull to a stand
• stand!
• cruise!

Margaret likes:

• standing and watching Sesame Street
• standing in the front yard
• yelling at cars as they drive by

We don't yell at all of the cars though. We sit outside and wait for daddy to come home most mornings. You get soooo stinking excited when you see him pull in the driveway. It's more than a little adorable.

I was going to wait...

...but I can't hold it in.

You crawled.

A real crawl.

Heeeeere we go!

Seven Months!

You've got a serious set of pipes my friend. You've learned how to squeal and scream like a professional in the last month- I'm not sure which one of your friends at Day Care taught you that- but I think it might have been Ava. Ohwell. This wasn't really a big month for milestones, you've gotten very comfotable rolling around, you haven't quite figured out that crawling business yet. We don't have any official stats on you since there was no doctor's visit this month and there won't be until June. But I am absolutly certain you are over 22lbs.


Margaret CAN:

• roll front/back and back/front to the left AND right
• get up on all 4's

Margaret likes:

• waffles
• toast with jelly/jam
• MANGOES!
• riding in carts
• baths in the big girl tub
• bubbles!

Margaret does not like:

• peas
• little girl car seats

There aren't too many dislikes because most of them have stayed the same. You still don't like having your nose wiped although we make silly noises and faces at you now while we clean your face- that seems to make it more amusing for you.

Really?

Did you really just do that? Yes, you did.

You split your first pair of pants. It was the first time you wore them, which makes me not so happy. So I guess I need to borrow a sewing machine to fix them now- because that outfit is super cute.

Six Months

You've made it to another milestone: Your very first Half Birthday, congratulations.

Somewhere in the last month you became very, VERY demonstrative of your feelings. I shouldn't find your irritated grunts and moans as funny as I do. But someday, god willing, when you have children of your own you will understand. It's been a very busy month for you. You seem to be convinced that the big kid's stuff is way better than yours, and god dammit, you want it.

You're still in the 95^th%ile for head height and weight! You just won't quit. You're 20lbs 9oz and 30in tall.


Margaret CAN:

• pass things from hand to hand
• pick up small objects
•  sit completely unassisted
•  roll [back to front AND front to back, but only when she feels like it]
• feed herself!

Margaret likes:

• grown up food and still wants you to share
• her sippee cup, especially if it has apple juice
• Puffs!
• fresh peaches and cherries
• the sounds: oink, quack and woof
• Sid the Science Kid
• Sesame Street

Margaret does not like:

• people who won't share grown up food, yes sometimes that includes me
• reclining, she will sit herself up or use toy bars to pull herself to a seated position if put in a bouncer or infant rocker- this is most distressing
• the sounds: neigh, moo and cluck

You've come a long way baby and I super, duper, ouper, schmooper love you.