Tuesday, January 09, 2007

20 Months Old



For Charlotte's 8 month birthday a year ago, I posted A Day in the Life. As I recounted, it was a long day. Mostly filled with feeding battles, a trip to the doctor, and not a few tears. 12 months later, I can tell you that feeding Charlotte was a pleasure today, even if she didn't finish everything. Every meal took less than an hour. There were no tears. No doctors. A day in the life of this 20 month old looks like that of most 20 month olds, I think.

So, rather than bore you with crayons, play kitchens and babysitting, I'd like to share 20 things you need to know about Charlotte in honor of her spectacular, challenging, irreplaceable 20 months on this planet:

1. Today is the 12th day in a row she has not vomited. A new record.
2. She loves to try new foods. Go figure.
3. New words she's learned in the last few days: moon, hush (both in response to Good Night, Moon)
4. Other words she's learned in relation to books: pea (Little Pea), bunny (A Boy and His Bunny), oh no (Ella Sarah Gets Dressed), bat and spider (A Very Hairy Scary Story)
5. She loves books.
6. She loves to color.
7. This weeks new food: grapes.
8. Favorite breakfast: Mommy's special "applesauce" (applesauce with yogurt and cream of wheat)
9. She can't really say "star," but she'll point at a picture and sing "up above" (Twinkle, Twinkle, y'all)
10. She loves to dance.
11. She knows how to hoot (owl), moo (cow), ssss (snake), roar (dinosaur, lion, tiger....), baaa (sheep), neigh (horse), oh-oh-oh (monkey).
12. But, she can't say most of the above animal names.
13. While she can say meow and cat, she prefers to say Ya-Ya for both cat and meow.
14. She loves Elmo and Dora though she hardly ever watches them on television.
15. Her first representational play is all about pretending to eat, pretending to feed me, pretending to feed her stuffed animals. Again, go figure.
16. She weighs at least 25 lbs.
17. But her pants still fall down (she's tall and skinny).
18. She's kind and sweet and always perplexed when a child takes a toy from her.
19. She is resilient, smart, and very smoochy.
20. She can make me smile when I've got the mean, mean reds.

Charlotte, may you continue to grow from strength to strength.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dave Barry's "Guide to Guys" says tanks and comic book heroes show up in boys' preferences via osmosis...maybe that's where cutie gets her Elmo/Dora favorites!