20 Months Old

Everyone,

I got an email the other day telling me all about my 20 month old. I seriously thought it was wrong. She can't possibly be 20 months old! That means she is only 4 short months away from being 2. But the email is right. She is 20 months old!

Butterfly loves Soot right now. She asks for her first thing when she wakes up. She follows that poor dog around the house, and if she drops food, she'll call for Soot. Periodically through out the day, she has to find Soot. "Where Soot? Where Soot? I found Soot!" It's very cute.

She has taken a liking to the phone. Today she brought it to me and said, "Call Nana." Okay! So I helped her dial the number (with her saying, "Two two tree five ten!" the whole time) and she must have talked to my mom for 2 or 3 minutes. She will nod her head in response to questions, and laughs the whole time. It's very cute. She got a toy phone from her Grandma for Christmas and she always sits down and says, "I call. I call. I call [enter name here, most of the time it's Daddy but sometimes Soot or Nana too.]"

We have a chatter box on our hands. She talks all day long. Here is a list of some things she says:

I don't want it.

I don't want [shoes, socks, coat, etc.]

shirt

pants

tights

dress

bow

hair

teeth

comb

brush

burrito

read

I see you.

I ready to go.

outside

come

heel

speak

shake (can you tell she loves to give commands to Soot?)

don't

feed Soot

Soot eat water.

milk (which she calls nup)

One more time.

snap

One more snap.

Up we go! (This is how she asks to be picked up.)

Up me! (If we don't respond to the very cute up we go.)

Jumpy jumpy jumpy.

Smell flowers.

I hungry.

Purple coat/shoes.

cream (either ice or diaper)

diaper

I change. (for a diaper change, and yes, she does tell me when she needs one.)

package

open package

I love [mommy, daddy, soot, cheese, etc.]

Hi Daddy.

Daddy work.

Daddy at work.

Call Daddy at work.

Okay.

Nope.

Uh-huh.

Super cute.

Cute!

Baby

bunny

cook

ouch, hot!

More cereal please.

berries

There are tons more but this is long enough. There is a chart of milestones that kids this age should be doing. • Will pretend to feed a doll. Check. This is the only way I got her to eat dinner tonight. We have a very small mechanical raptor that we call Bunny. She had a great time feeding Bunny, and then eating Bunny's bites. • Can take off own clothes with help. Or without help, like she does pretty much every day. I'm waiting for the diaper to come off as well. • Will dump an object in imitation, such as throwing garbage away. This is a favorite pastime of Butterfly's. I have to check the garbage periodically to see if she has thrown toys away. • Learns words at a rate of 10 or more a day. Yes, Juice can tell you that she now says "Dang it!" because he kept saying it over our crashed computer. Dang it! • Can walk up (but probably not down) stairs. Up and down, but she's been doing that since forever is seems. She is tall enough to reach the hand rail on our stairs, and can even go down one or two without holding on to anything. • Searches for hidden objects. See above story about Soot. You can substitute Soot for her dolly, blocks, anything. She loves searching games. • Names several body parts. Nose, head, hair, chin, eye, ear, shoulder, knee, elbow, arm, hand, foot, toes (she calls them piggies), leg, finger nails, cheeks, lips, mouth, teeth. I'm running out of body parts to tell her!

At the end of the day, I often feel drained trying to keep up with the leaps and bounds that she is making. She is also starting to get slightly bossy and tells me how to make her cereal in the morning. Bowl, spoon, cereal in bowl, nup and I have to do it in that order or life as we know it is over. We have read all of her books so many times she has a few memorized and gets upset if you miss a word or a page. She has also started to like to sing, and will just wander around singing to herself.

I am so interested in what she is going to do when she is 2!

Safire