Her Turn!

Recently I did an update on The Boy so now it's time to talk about his sister. I really can't say enough things about her right now. 16 months is equal parts hysterical and cute and challenging. Let's talk about the cute first. She really is SO effing cute, I can't quite handle it sometimes. I have said it since the day she was born but she really is a ray of sunshine. Happiest little kid I know. If she isn't throwing a fit about something specific she is smiling.

Last time I wrote about her I talked about her biting and how I knew it came from her daycare. I talked to the ladies who take care of her as well as the director the next day. They confirmed that two of the other little kids her age are biters but they hadn't seen it from her. I made it clear to them that I wasn't thrilled with the fact that they hadn't really dealt with the problem with the other two and now it was coming over to my daughter. It came down to different "parenting" techniques (I know they aren't "parents," but their way to deal with a biter is MUCH different than my way...). When The Girl would bite her brother I would tell her, "NO BITING" in a louder, lower voice than normal. Not yelling at her, but she definitely knew it was a different voice than the one I usually talk in. Then I would immediately remove her from the situation and put her in her room. Not for a "time out" because she's one; she wouldn't understand that anyway, but just to teach her that if she bites she gets taken away from the situation. About a minute later I would go into her room and tell her again, "No biting brother!" "That hurts brother." She would then repeat to me, "No bite bruh-dah. Ouchie bruh-dah" and most times would go into his room and say, "Sowwy bruh-dah" without any prodding from me. I could also read the situation. If she was getting frustrated (wanting his toy and trying to pull it from him...trying to sit in the chair that he was already sitting in...) she would generally yell out a frustration scream before she would go in for the bite. So when I saw the situation escalating, I would repeat to her, "No biting brother." She would then stop and repeat it back to me.

The daycare director wanted to just look at them in the eyes and put their finger over their mouth while shaking their head. Her theory was if you actually use the word "bite" then you are reinforcing the behavior. I don't agree at all. First of all, they aren't saying "no." That seems pretty basic to me. And secondly, if you just shake your head at them with your finger over your lips...well that doesn't really do a whole lot if you ask me. Kinda looks like blowing a kiss... Either way, we agreed to disagree and I told the lady who primarily watches her how I was handling it and gave her permission with my daughter to do as I was doing at home.

She never bit at daycare. And after that one weekend she doesn't bite at home anymore either. Like I mentioned above, if I see her getting frustrated sometimes I will remind her that we don't bite, but mostly she gets it. A couple of times she has put her mouth/teeth on me or her brother but never bitten down. So I'd say we dodged a bullet on that one...

Okay I have said it before but DAMN does my child talk a lot. I know girls are supposed to talk earlier than boys, and I also know that my frame of reference is completely skewed given that The Boy is still in speech therapy at 4 1/2. But she says 3 and 4 word sentences. She will repeat anything you tell her and can say words that I would consider "tough" like "edamame," and "flower," and "spaghetti," etc... Just this week she started wandering around the house saying, "Monny...are du?" Asking me where I am. She said, "Monny take a shower" yesterday. She says, "Bruh-dah go bye bye" all the time. It is amazing. And she sings. AND knows the words to songs. If you say, "Twinkle twinkle little star," she will follow up with, "I wunder what du are..." Her brother like songs from The Little Mermaid right now and on the way to school this morning it was quiet and she said, "Monny! Poor Fortune Souls Pees!" It amazes me on a daily basis. If I call her name she now answers with, "What?" I feel like she is SO much older than she is because The Boy couldn't communicate like this until he was so much older. It won't be long before she is using a real phone making real calls...

She is still a great eater as far as I'm concerned. She has certain things that are always a hit, no matter what (Pir.ates Boot.y, Smart dogs, fruit of any kind, yogurt...) and then a ton of things that are hit and miss. One day she'll love them and then the next day she'll throw them on the floor. I no longer make her a special dinner; she gets what we are having. Her brother still gets special meals at times but not her. And for the most part she's fine. I may supplement with a fruit or something but she gets what we get. And she gets it on a plate now. She sees her brother and me using a plate everyday and damnit she wants one too. She is really good with it and uses a plate and her fork with every meal. Sometimes I have to spear the food onto her fork for her but she's actually getting really good with doing that by herself too. And you have to be careful when she's nearing the end of a meal because she has been known to declare, "ALL DONE!" and then chuck the plate off her tray but I am teaching her that isn't the best behavior. Overall she does really great at meal times and loves eating with the big people (which is always, my kids eat with me every night). Here she is sitting at the table at my birthday dinner...
In terms of technical things...she is a little peanut like her Mommy. She's not going to be tall, which is fine with me given the size of her brother. She wears size 12-18 months in everything but the pants are still a little too long. The tops that I am buying for winter stuff is all 24 months but still 18 month pants. Her jammies are all 24 months. She wears a size 4.5 shoe and I just bought her her first pair of real shoes. As opposed to all the sandals she has had all summer long. They were purple with silver and I love them. She still has the 6 main teeth (4 up top, two on the bottom), but the top two molars are through and one of the bottom molars came through today I think. Also the teeth right next to her bottom two are white and about to poke through. She is teething like crazy and will chew on anything she can get her mouth onto.

Okay the nursing...yes we are still doing it. I haven't completely given it up. BUT! We are down to once a day right before bed. I got rid of the morning feed so now it is only the one time a day before bed. I am okay with this for now. I say that I will give that one up by 18 months. That is my goal right now. Because while she never asks for it, or god forbid, lifts my shirt or anything...the other day when she latched on she looked up at me and smiled and went, "MMMMMM!!!!" and I'm sorry, but a kid that is old enough to comment on the content of the boob she's eating is probably too old to be eating off said boob. So I'm working on it. 18 months, I swear. :)

I'm contemplating the hair cut. But I really don't know what to do. Any of you with little girls out there, I would love to hear your feedback. Right now I put her hair up everyday. It's either in one pony on top of her head, or else it's in pig tails. And the back is all one length and curly. I hesitate to cut bangs because while I am not opposed to bangs in general, I don't want ALL of her hair coming forward to be chopped off at the bang area. I want her hair to go back and then perhaps a little wisp of bangs or something. But I just don't know. So for now? I leave it alone and put it up. Plus, I fear that once we do that first haircut all those adorable little baby curls will come off and not come back. And I love those little curls.

I was telling my mom today how I can't even imagine life without her. I remember before she was born I was so confused and felt like my life was SO full with just The Boy. I couldn't imagine someone else being in our little family. But now...it seems like life would be so dull without her around. She is so freaking funny and such a bright shining light of happiness...I simply cannot imagine her not being here and being a part of our family. Thankfully I don't have to.