Wow how much has changed just since Harper's 18 month birthday. And by that I mean how much Harper has changed. I really didn't (and don't) intend on doing month by month blog posts about Harper after she turned 1, just every big milestone. But today she is 23 months old and I am blown away by her progress. I am also astutely aware of just how blessed we are that she continues to make progress and continues to grow and develop normally. I know that might sound weird "I'm glad my kid is normal" but the older she gets the harder and harder my job gets (much much more on that later but I still have a lot of praying and thinking to do before I post anything for the world wide web to read), the more empathy I have for parents with kids Harper's age or much much older that are not developing in a way that is typical. Anyway, below are a brief list of things that are new to Harper since her 18 month birthday. I have a feeling with all her birthday festivities I may not get a chance to do a '24' post until later!
- Harper is now talking in short phrases almost exclusively. Her MLU is probably around 2.5, for those of you keeping track of that sort of thing. Some of her longer phrases include "Chloe her home" (meaning her friend from school Chloe is at her house), "Nonnie/Grandmother make it" (referring to something, usually clothes from Nonnie and cards from Grandmother, that they made for her), "Toby up on bed!" (a demand to Toby), "Daddy, Iluh too" (Daddy I love you too). There are many, many others but this is just a sampling.
-Harper's play is now more elaborate. She will often set up a whole play scenario (usually centered around some 'babies', either dolls or stuffed animals) and will talk aloud about what she is playing. "Hahpuh cooking. Hot food. Too hot. Blow. Eat (insert name of food). Pour tea. Get cup. Stir it up." etc etc. She also as of late has become
obsessed enthusiastic about birthdays. She sings the birthday song A LOT in the car, says "Happy Birthday Nonnie"
'it's not Nonnie's birthday' "Happy Birthday Daddy"
'it's not Daddy's birthday' "Happy Birthday Hahpuh!". She pretends birthday party a lot with her play food and sing the birthday song, blow out the candles (when prompted by me), cut the cake, and distribute to all 'guests'. I think a lot of kids in her class at daycare have been having their 2nd birthdays and she has gotten to participate.
-Speaking of daycare, Harper's social skills are really starting to develop. She is mostly outgoing but can be shy when she first enters an environment with a lot of people, especially if a lot of them try to talk with her. She says thank you and please now, still mostly with prompts, but sometimes spontaneously (especially please). She is also beginning to use yes/no ma'am/sir but this is still most prompted as well. She usually says 'no ma'am' spontaneously if I ask "did you poop?". She understands the emotions happy and sad and identifies them in pictures or says when she is happy. This is not something we have ever worked on with her. She is also starting to form attachments to friends. She still seems to like to play with everyone, but she has a special friend at daycare who she talks about a lot and has to hug before she leaves. She also has a good friend in Auburn who goes to our church and they get to hang out a lot. Harper talks about her a lot and even knows her last name! It is fun to see these friendships develop.
-Educational: Harper knows a few letters (A, B, T..for Toby!), can sing her ABC's A-H, L-P, T-V, can count to 2 (usually it goes 1, 2, 5, 8), can recognize red and purple pretty consistently, yellow is emerging, knows the shape circle (which came as a shock to me last weekend when she held up a circle block and declared "circle" then picked up another one and said "other circle"). Most of these things are things that she picked up on her own or they taught her at daycare. It still blows my mind that children can learn things without being explicitly taught. Which is also scary. That means that everything we do they are learning from. NO PRESSURE!
-Motor: Harper is getting better at coloring and holding crayons, though she stills holds them too hard and they break sometimes. She colors on the pictures now, but does not stay in the lines (and I don't expect her to!). She still loves to dance but now it mostly consists of jumping, which is a relatively new skill. She actually gets both feet off the ground! She doesn't walk like a baby anymore, her gait is adult like now (thanks Jason for this observation!). She does still run like a baby/toddler now.
-Feeding: Still a garbage disposal. Her new teachers at daycare are shocked by how much she eats. They report that she knows her limits and she doesn't have to be 'cut off' after 3 servings anymore! Harper eats everything we eat now, with the exception of things that are especially spicy. She loves salsa and spiced food, but not things that seem hot (spicy) to me. Her favorites are fruit (blueberries, watermelon, bananas, etc), pasta, anything with cheese, and brats. That child ate two brats plus two servings of veggies for dinner once! She also has a sweet tooth and asks for popsicles, cupcakes, and ice cream a lot but since we don't usually have that type of food in our house, she doesn't get any!
-One more thing...being the 'evil' parents that we are (if you don't get that then you've missed out on the campaign to keep kids rear facing as long as possible, which is safer and a good idea, we just didn't quite make it to 2) we turned Harper forward facing. Having to travel almost an hour each way every day she was getting very uncomfortable. Not that she is turned around, though, she and I are able to have some good 'conversations' in the car. About how her day was, what she did, etc. These usually consist of me asking lots of questions and her responding with yes or no or 1-2 word responses. Okay, two more things. Potty training. Harper can volitionally pee every time she sits on the potty now (wow she will hate this blog in another 6-8 years). She has stopped pooping in the potty but now almost always tells me before she poops in her diaper. I am not forcing the pooping in the potty. She is usually fairly dry when she wakes up from nap or in the morning. If I stayed home with her I'd probably have her potty trained by now but I doubt she'll tell her daycare teachers that she needs to go.
Sorry to be so lengthy. :-)
