Give me a moment...
Whew. I just had to banish my fear of her growing up too fast. I've never had much of a fear of death, but I imagine this is what it must feel like - this unbearably strong wish to make time stand still. But then I remember that without time and mortality, there would be no values at all, and that the best way to freeze time is to live in it. The feeling passes, but wow.
So on to the update! Sam's biggest accomplishment this month is that she is starting to use the potty. She still has trouble anticipating the event, but when she misses it, she lets us know by telling us, TOO LATE. CHANGE DIAPER. She's actually pretty lucky because she has 3-4 chances to practice catching it every day. We're entering a new phase of poop all over the place, I'm afraid, which is another thing she likes to say: POOPIE ALL OVER THE PACE. POOPIE ON COUCH. NO POOPIE ALL OVER. POOPIE IN POTTY. POOPIE ALL OVER. YESCH.
Somehow, Sam learned to say "thank you" without much instruction from us. We occasionally tell her that she can say "thank you" when somebody gives her something, or compliments her, or helps her, but mostly she has just heard us using it. When I hand her a new capful of paint and get a DANKY MOMMY in that sweet voice of hers I just about melt onto the kitchen floor.
She talks on the phone a little bit now. She seems to understand that she is talking to someone, and she listens. Beyond saying, HI, though, I have to prompt her. Adam is particularly happy about this development, since he is occasionally away on business trips. Both Sam and Adam look forward to their telephone time, now.
Sam continues to tell us stories. Her memory is astounding. Yesterday it snowed and I said something about the time we went sledding (which was over a month ago). Sam said, BOY, FALL DOWN, CRY, DADDY, HELP, which was her way of remembering that we saw a boy fall off his sled and cry. She remembered the part about the dad because when the boy cried she got very upset and I told her that his daddy was helping him: "See, he's ok; his daddy is holding him and he'll be fine; he just needed a hug."
Despite the continuation of these kind of strung together noun-and-verb sentences, Sam has started using some prepositions, conjunctions, and articles. She is even finally getting her pronouns right, but thank goodness, she still says NAKED YOU when she takes her clothes off.
I just checked one of my old favorite web sites for milestones that Sam should have hit by now, or will be hitting soon. I'm so glad I've avoided these things lately. It says that by 30-31 months, most kids can recite their name and draw a circle. Ok, she just did those things, so that makes sense. But half of kids can put on a T-shirt (nope), balance on each foot for a second (we'll have to try that), recognize the ABC's (sure), and brush their teeth (yes, for a while now). Advanced skills for her age are using two adjectives (if she were only using two adjectives, I'd be scared), drawing a cross (we'll have to try that), and pointing to objects described by use (she did that before she could talk). But it isn't until 33-34 months that most kids can name one color? I think she knew at least 5 colors before she could talk because they were some of her first words. But the milestone of stacking 8 blocks? Why in the world would she even try?
I used to check the milestones all the time when Ryan was a baby. Now I often forget to, which is good. I could really over-obsess about such things. Breastfeeding was good for me, too--otherwise I'd tend to worry about ounces and such. Type A, that's me! :o)
ReplyDeleteKnow just what you mean about wanting time to stand still--that's why cameras are Good Things, I think. And now I've got to go savor some time with my own crew.
Sam is a cutie! :o)
I can't remember the last time we thought about milestones. I think there's a chart of them on the back of our doctor's door and we always joke that they're designed to reassure worried parents by setting the bar so low.
ReplyDeleteCute little lady! Aren't kids wonderful?
Bill, don't say that! Sam has almost always been behind on most milestones. She gets that from her dad, whose parents were so worried about him as a baby they took him in for tests. Now he's a law professor.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I am with you on the milestones. Livy hardly ever met them. At two, she hardly talked at all. It was interesting to me to observe that she never did anything until she could do it perfectly. When she really started to talk, she used complete grammatical sentences. When she first walked, she was able to move fluidly across the whole room. But the skills came so late, after I started to wonder whether she would ever do them. Luckily I'm kind of type B, unlike Jenn :), and I never worried about the charts much.
ReplyDeleteKelly, Sam is the same way. When she walked at 17 months, she barely fell at all, she could carry something while walking, she could stop and go at will, and she could maneuver around objects. Talking has been a bit less dramatic, but she did start late and seems about average now. I never took the charts TOO seriously, but the walking part really started to worry me, especially since she never crawled at all, but just scooted on her bottom.
ReplyDeleteOne good thing about reading the milestones is that they can give you ideas to challenge your child. In fact, I'm going to go try to help Sam stand on one foot right now.