22 Months

Mary Ella at 10 months.

Mary Ella at 22 months.

Getting good pics these days of ME is hard. She is so busy! So I thought it might be easier to just capture some shots of her playing in action. Obviously, it was tea time!

Yes, I'm a little ornery.

Mary Ella,

Time is flying by! I'm so glad I have been keeping track of the things you have been doing, because if I wasn't purposeful about it, I think it would all be a blur. You are getting so independent and often say, "I need no help." I think this is your version of "me do it." So along with independence comes the testing of boundaries (AKA little, nasty fits). I would definintely NOT declare it the terrible twos yet, because they don't come often and don't last long. But you certainly have your own opinion and are very capable of expressing that opinion. So, even though you have your moments, we are having more fun than ever! We love you, sweet girl!

• You are still a picky eater. Vegetables and fruits are hard to sneak in, but we have discovered that you love V-8 juice, so hopefully that counts for some servings. Some foods you love: toast, goldfish, raspberries, fruit snacks, pizza, and anything with a dip (ketchup, syrup, cheese dip, sour cream). Notice you are all about the snacks and junk food. I will put your plate in front of you, and you will often point to the pantry and say, "I want a snack." Ugh!
• Your top eye teeth finally came through. You started eating better once they did, but now the bottom ones are coming too.
• You sleep for about 12 hours a night and nap for 2-3. I don't think you can put yourself back to sleep as well now without your paci, but I'm really glad that is off my checklist of things to do before the baby comes. Next up, potty training! Yikes!
• You can pick out and sing words of so many songs. Of course you know some of the ones we sing at home all the time, but you will bust out random words of songs in the car and at church. And you are usually in tune!
• You are very observant in the car. You spot every playground we pass and say, "I want a wee!" Which means I want to swing and slide. You also know when we pull into our neighborhood and check the pond for "ducks," and say "my house" as soon as you spot ours. You know when we make it to "church," pass Maley's swim school, "I want pool," say "pool" when we get to the gym, and say "eat" when we are going into a restaurant.
• Speaking of restaurants, the other day when we were ordering at Soulshine, a pizza place, you told the waitress, "I want pizza." You also say "thank you" when food or drinks come and try to help clean up by handing the waiter your plate.
• You are sooo into your Mother Goose nursery rhyme book. You want to read it all the time! You started calling it "doose," then "ma doose," then "weed da ma doose." Which means, "Read the Mother Goose." I don't know why "the" is in there, but it is so cute. I cannot tell you how many parts of rhymes you can say, but it is many. Parts of Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Little Bo Peep, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Sing a Song of Sixpence, Hey Diddle Diddle, Three Blind Mice, Monday's Child, Hickory Dickory Dock, Row Row Row your Boat, This Little Piggy, Jack Be Nimble, and Ring around the Rosies, just to name a few. Seriously, it is amazing!
• You can count to 10! You need some help getting past 7 because for some reason you think 7 and 11 sound like "Nanny," and then you get side tracked and start naming off grandparents, but you can do it! Also, if you have something you can put your hands on to count, like blocks, you have a pretty good concept of one-to-one correspondence! This makes this teacher mama so proud!
• You are obsessed with the Princess and the Frog since you and Mia watched it so many times. You want to watch "Tianna" all the time and now call your cousin "Tianna" instead of "Anna." You must really think she is a princess!
• You love to sing princess songs. For Ariel you sing, "Ah ah ah," and for Sleeping Beauty you sing, "I know you." Daddy also taught you how to put your hands up to make the end of a song more dramatic. Then you clap your hands together and say, "boom."
• I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but you are awesome at giving fist bumps and follow it with a "booyah."
• I also meant to put a sweet memory on last month's post. I taped the royal wedding and watched it that day during your nap. You woke up before it was over, and we watched the rest together. I will never forget you waving to Prince William and Kate as they were riding and waving in the carriage.
• You have an amazing memory! You remember when you got a balloon from a clown at Swing into Summer. Loved the balloon, but the clown, not so much. One morning I asked why you had cried in the middle of the night before. You said "wa, wa, wa, loon." I couldn't imagine why you were telling me you were crying about a ballon, but then I remembered the clown. So you like balloons, but you also associate them with clowns, and that evidently makes you sad. You can also still recall things you did at swim lessons and things you did at Mia's house back in May. When we talk about Mia you say, "Tiana" (you watched the Princess and the Frog), "cat" (you played with Ginger), "Mol" (you loved on Molly), "wa wa wa, toast, no Mol" (Molly ate your toast and that made you sad), "beat beat" (you drove the gator), "rocks" (you threw rocks in the pond), "wee" (you got to swing on the back porch), and "Nanny and Pa." Amazing, huh?
• Every truck or car is a "choo choo" or a "beat beat."
• You like to help Mama around the house, especially with the broom. You say, "I want a sweep" and go get it.
• A few things I would just like to remember in our battle of the wills. First of all, you do have a temper. We will just blame this on your Daddy and hope this is the worst of it. Rhett, I'm sure will not inherit this trait. Ha! You don't mind me telling you no, but you are very sensitive to hearing it from others. You even come up to me and say, "Dada no" or "Gigi no." Almost tattling on them for telling you no. You obviously get no sympathy from me, but you have been known to burst into tears when someone else tells you not to do something. When you're mad and throwing a fit, spanking or talking to you only makes it worse. It helps for me to leave you alone, which is very hard to do because I feel like if I am ignoring your behavior it is like saying it's okay. But you get over it alot faster if I walk away. I never give in and give you what you want, but you're not usually throwing fits about wanting something. Sometimes it's because you don't want to do something. I have found that it is best to try to avoid what triggers these times. Obviously you are more grumpy when you are tired or hungry. It's not a good idea to be out past lunch or naptime and expect everything to be peachy. Also, it REALLY helps if I am patient, especially with transitions. This is when the meltdowns most likely occur, when we are switching from one thing to another. It helps to take the time to pump you up for what we're doing next and make it sound like more fun. I also realize that everything is an adventure to you. You like to pick up rocks, step in puddles, pretend to drive the car, have your own turn brushing your teeth, play in the bathtub. Basically, I don't think you're trying to be defiant when you don't want to do some things, you just like to stop and smell the roses. So if I can allow some extra time to get from one thing to another, it goes alot more smoothly. So let's just work together and skip the whole terrible 2's thing. Okay?
• New words/sounds/phrases: turkey, goose, turtle, so, um toast, cat, puppy, swing, sweep, ruff, see you tomorrow (you waved and said this to Dada one morning as he was leaving for work), I need _____, help, pool, peas, brush, soap, tv, snore (you pretend like you are sleeping and make a snoring sound), trash, cup, spoon, bowl, I know you (Sleeping Beauty song), walk, run, Mol, sir, Tianna, I no need help, I need no help, funny, a, and, cheese, house, tada, there you go, Mary and Ella (Mary is not very clear and you won't put them together, but you can say both names), beat beat, on off, down, brush, door, mouse, na (what a horse says with a blow), oop, nah, yeah, chin, cheek, paci, hello, hair, Jack, Humpty, snapped nose ("snapped off his nose" is in a nursery rhyme), ding ding ding (also from a nursery rhyme), yes sir, yes sir (I bet you can guess what that's from, in fact you can say lots of words you would never use in normal speech, but you know them in the rhyme), wa wa wa, stuck, bawk (chickent sound), head, kiss, and lots more!
• You can also say the sweetest prayers. You bow your head, put your hands together, and list what you are thanking God for. Then you put your hand up and say "Amen!"
• Love you sweet thing!