17 Months Old

Noel's vocabulary has EXPLODED this month. It's insane. I had a list going on of new words she was saying at the beginning of the month but it's just useless to try to keep track anymore. She says things like, "I hine-ing" (I'm hiding), "Ok ya mama?" (Are you ok, mama?), "Wice, pwease" (rice please), "yucky feesh" (she said this looking at fish swimming in the tanks at the grocery store), "I wanna dance," "yanes muk" (Lane's milk), and so on. It's insane. And hilarious. I love it.

Here's a bit of what else she's up to this month:

*new words: dance (dense), tiger, peek-a-book (pock-a-you), Micah, cheese, eat, lamby (ma-me), toast (toes), candy (can-ee), elephant (e-fent), Harper (happy), Matt, please, rice, phone (hone), bean, pot, hot, teeth (teef), bow, dress, nummy, apricot (cot), these (dese). And a million more I don't have time to write down...most of these were toward the beginning of the month when there weren't so many.
*will come up to me and slap my thigh and say, "seet, seet, seet" until I pull her into my lap. She'll look at me and say, "Hug, mama," and snuggle in as I get close to her.
*can climb a ladder.



*can climb up onto our couches and can get off of beds and chairs and what-not. She can also push our stepstool over to the counter in order to get to whatever's on top. Oh boy.
*loves, loves, loves animals. She goes crazy when we see a cat or a dog on the street.
*is shy of strangers. She's not an introvert at all but is very cautious with new people.
*will cry, "BOO-boo" when she gets a booboo and come running to me or Shannon, holding out the injured appendage and saying, "kiss!"



*is cutting both eye teeth. And is still in disposable diapers as a result. I miss my cloth diapers! But I don't miss cleaning nasty-teething-diapers without a diaper sprayer...
*has been having some sleep issues. She's been waking up at night, having a hard time falling asleep, waking up early, etc. She usually only sleeps about ten hours at night with a 2-hour nap during the day. I have a hard time believing it's enough sleep for a 17-month old. Maybe it's due to the teeth? Or more daylight?


Her first Subway sandwich (olives, cheese, and turkey. She shared with Lane.). I think she likes it.

*drinks like a camel. Seriously, this girl can down 4-5 ounces of water like it's nothing and then come back for more five minutes later.
*knows lots of animal sounds. "Rarr" for lion, "Tomp tomp"(chomp chomp) for alligator...I forget if there are any other new ones this month.
*definitely defends herself against Lane. Lane does not want to share most of the time, and of course always wants whatever toy Noel is playing with. Noel has no problem smacking Lane in the head or pulling her hair when Lane takes something away from her.



*loves to play hide and seek. She'll "hide" and say, "I hine-ing" when you ask her what she's doing. Then when someone finds her she'll grin and say, "Ahh, fine-ing!" Or she'll pop her head out and say, "Boo!" And, if I just start counting she'll run off to hide, whether I said we were playing hide-and-seek or not.
*likes to color, scribble, draw...do whatever Lane is doing!
*can count to three, and can count 7-10. I have no idea if she knows what she's doing, but I've heard her count 1, 2, 3, and 7, 8, 9, 10 on separate occasions.



*is good at playing by herself. I don't know what she does, but she plays alone very well! She especially loves their Minnie Mouse stuff, jewelry and shoes, and books.
*loves, loves, loves books. Still. We got a new Dora book yesterday and she has been toting it around, looking at it. When I read it to her she shrieks through most of the pages, pointing at things: "Fwah-wuh! Fwah-wuh! Doh-wa! Sun! Doh-wa! Fwah-wuh! Boots! Doh-wa!" I have got to get her on video being read to.



She's getting to such a fun age...I think I'd forgotten how much fun 18ish months was with Lane. I'm not looking forward to the eminent discipline for hitting her sister, throwing food on the floor, and so on, but still...she's a hoot. And I'm loving every minute.

Lane: 3 and 3

Dear Lane,

I'm so, so sorry that I haven't written you a real letter in nine months! Talk about a slacker mommy! I've kept thinking about how I want to write down all the cute things you're doing these days, and I just kept not doing it. So here I am, better late than never, writing it all down for you.

The past months have been rough, girlie, I won't lie to you. You are a stubborn, strong-willed little girl. You want what you want and do not want anyone to tell you what to do. You will scream and fight and pitch a huge tantrum over the smallest thing. We usually put you on your bed to calm down. In fact, a couple weeks ago I put you on your bed and after you had calmed down and I came to get you, you said, "I just got tired of skweeming." It's almost like you pitch the fit solely for the sake of pitching the fit. You know it won't gain you anything. Anyways, the past months have been full of trying to train you and discipline you and you're slowly getting it. Slowly.

You also are still not sure what you think about having a sister. I watch you have fun with her, but if I ask you if you're glad that you have a sister, you adamantly answer "no." Most of your discipline these days is related to you taking something out of Noel's hands, not sharing with her, pushing her, being too rough with her, being spiteful and mean (hiding a toy from her that you know she wants), and so on. I really, really hope that as you get older, and as Noel gets older and gets disciplined more (and you see that she really does get in trouble, too), that you start to like her more and not see her as such a nuisance.



Let me tell you about all the awesome things you're doing these days. You love to paint. LOVE it, I tell you. You want to paint every day. You want to color, paint, cut, stick stickers, and so on. You love art stuff. You also love to help me cook or bake. You get very upset if I don't let you dump something in the bowl, help stir, and so on. And you get extremely upset if I don't let you lick the beater for some reason or another. You love sugar. It's your love language.

Speaking of sugar, we've recently given you the treat of an ice cream (or something else) if you stay in your bed at bedtime and in the morning until we come to get you. You just didn't seem to care about punishment (a spanking...or ten) for getting out of bed. You needed some motivation to stay in your bed. So, ice cream it is. It's working well for us both. You think you're winning because you get something sweet. I think I'm winning because you'd probably get dessert every day anyways!



Lane, you love to "do school" with me in the afternoons while Noel is napping. We work some activity pages and you love it...tracing, coloring, practicing letters, matching numerals to groups with that many objects, and so on. You also really enjoy being read to, but usually I have to convince you that you want to be read to. You'd rather play, but if I can get you to agree to two or three books, then you'll keep asking for more.

You love for me to snuggle with you at bedtime. We sing a few songs together...these days it's "Sanctuary," "I Love You Lord," "Bless the Lord," "Zaccheus," and the "la la's" (Braham's lullaby, but with no words). You always want me to stay until you fall asleep, but if I do then you wake up all night crying, wondering where I am. It works much better for you to fall asleep on your own. But I love snuggling with you and debriefing your day, asking you what your favorite part was. Of course you always have about five favorite parts. I don't think you understand "favorite" yet.

You love fruit, olives, bread, sweets, yogurt, cheese, nuts, milk, juice, and water. The other day you told me, "Coke is yucky. I like milk, juice, and water. That's what I like." You do not like bell peppers or tomatoes, although I can get you to eat them most of the time if they're cooked. Oh, and onions. You do not like onions and will always pick them out if they're tough at all. Most of the time you're fairly compliant when it comes to food, although you clearly have foods you prefer over others (hello, strawberries!).



Lane, you can write your name without help, count to 29 correctly, are completely potty trained and never have accidents (you've had one in the last six months, and it was at nighttime the day after we moved), You can put your clothes on if we give them to you facing the right direction. You do excellent at tracing letters. You love to color (still with markers, especially), dancing, climbing and swinging and jumping. Currently you love picking dandelions, because, well, there are a gazillion of them around. We've also been having lots of tea parties and picnics, and you like to build a "gate" out of legos to keep all the "fewocious" animals in.

I've thought about it recently, and I love parenting a three-year old. You are so hilarious and sweet, and while you're still selfish and mean and disobedient a lot of the time, at your core you are fun and loving. All the things I don't like about parenting you right now are just the things I don't like about parenthood in general, and most of those are just because I myself am selfish and don't like being inconvenienced. You're a lot of work, sweetie. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love you and am so happy to be your mom.

Love,
Mommy