One year, Five Months (aka Seventeen Months)
This past month has been all about Keira improving her verbal skills and making connections. And tiptoeing. Lots and lots of tiptoeing. I'm not sure what's up with that, but she likes to do it. Keira's vocabulary is expanding by leaps and bounds, and it seems like she's learning something new everyday (which she probably is). Last weekend, she surprised all of us when she ran/climbed up the stairs to a house we were viewing yelling "Let me see! Let me see!" That's a mouthful for her age. Today's fun happened while I was getting her changed and she heard Mike cough while he was in the shower.
HER: "Dada? Dada?"
ME: "Dada's in the shower."
HER: "Dada inna showuh. Showuh... shooowwwuuh. Showuh!"
ME: "Yes honey, shower!"
I absolutely love moments like that, when I can almost see the little gears in Keira's head winding around a new word or concept.
Physically... yeah, tiptoeing. She starts off almost any endeavor walking on her toes before settling into heel-toe. She's also dancing quite a lot, whether there is music playing or not (and I'm sure there is music playing in her head when she's dancing without it). She's showing a deep love of music of all forms, though of course she likes the stuff with a solid beat best. Hip hop seems to be a definite favorite.
And then there's what I think of as "Mommy Jukebox". She has some favorite songs that she'll request pretty much anytime. "Mee mee" means she wants me to sing either "Ode to Joy" or the Habanera from Bizet's Carmen, Beaker-style. For "Old Macdonald" she'll say "E-i-e-i-o". And then, of course, there is "walk walk" or "walkawalka" for "I've Got a New Way to Walk" (Destiny's Child version). Yeeeaaah. We run through those quite a bit.
Keira's independent streak is in expansion mode right now, which comes as no surprise given both her age and her family background. She really hates to be helped with eating her food and is trying very hard to put on and take off her own clothes when she can. We often have go-rounds about hand-holding, too, and her new trick is to play ragdolly when I try to hold her hand and she doesn't want me to. That, of course, is met with me picking her up and carrying her. Someday she'll get it... I hope.
Speaking of things she'll need to get someday... sharing. Sharing is a huge issue right now. She's become very possessive of any toy she is playing with, whether it's a small block or something big that can be used by several kids at once. Pretty much every lunchtime visit involves at least one go-round on that issue. I usually give her a few chances to share instead of hitting/pushing the kids away and if she just won't do it, she gets a timeout with me. She's stubborn, but I'm bigger and way more stubborn. And yeah, she gets mad at me and doesn't want to look at me for a while, but I can live with that. I'm her mom, not her best friend. Besides, I also know that when I pick her up a few hours later, all will be forgotten and I'll be greeted with a sunny smile and a "Mommy!"
And now, let's see what the next month brings. :)