Pride of Accomplishment

Hi Sidra,
I have a couple of stories for you today. They both say something about your developing mind and personality. First, I'll tell about something that happened today. It involves the Pooh Friends as they are known by in our house. They are in the picture. They are your companions in the bathroom, which is to say they are bath playmates but also you like to have them sit on the counter and 'watch' while you are on the potty. Well, we had a road trip to Grandma's house yesterday and the Pooh friends went along. Today on your first visit to the potty you had to accept stuffed animals Hefelump and Eeyore (who is in the Pooh family but not included in the set of bath toys) because the Pooh Friends were still in the diaper bag way downstairs. That worked out without incident. Later while cleaning downstairs I thought of something that you could do to help out. (we've let you handle the swiffer since you've been able to walk, but you're less interested in it now.) I asked you to take the Pooh Friends upstairs and put them in the bathtub. You accepted the chore with glee, happy to help out. I peeked through from the hallway to see you on about the third stair and then turned back to my task. An instant later I heard what could only be you tumbling down the stairs. I rushed over to find you at the bottom. You are becoming a really good speaker but your communication still doesn't rate 100% clarity. I was able to determine that you didn't have any specific pain that was worse than being scared. After some consolation you were determined to finish the chore. I watched you all the way up the stairs this time and you did fumble the toys a couple of times but made it up to the top safely (you've only had two mishaps on the stairs that I know of so this one surprised me). Then I went back to my chore. When you returned downstairs you came and found me and said, while beaming and jumping up and down, "I did it! I did it!" You were so proud of yourself, and so was I.
The other story is from a couple of weeks ago. It's about the video that is on this post. Originally, I meant to record you saying "I love you" without any other voices on the recording. I figured I might edit out my voice and maybe on one of the 'takes' you might do better than the others. I was using my digital camera which will take 15 seconds of video at once. So as I was recording, I was watching the 15 seconds count down and that's why I keep asking you to repeat it. It turns out that what is priceless is your change in tone and body language as you respond to my repeated requests.


Also, you've become a pretty good singer. You have been heard singing with pretty good clarity Ring Around the Rosie and Rock a Bye Baby. And, when asked what you were doing today you clearly said, "Playing with Puzzle." Conversations with you are more interesting everyday.
That's all for now. Keep growing up.
Love, Aba.

Terrible Twos?

Hi Sidra,
We keep waiting for the 'terrible twos' to begin, but nothing like that is happening. We think that this may be the most exciting time of raising you. Your personality is emerging more everyday and you learn constantly. Your speech is catching up with your cognitive ability so now we know more about what you're thinking.
Of course you're not quite perfect, but we don't have many complaints. You have developed a desire to sleep in the big bed with us. The only problem with this is that we wouldn't mind watching a little grown up type television in the last hour before we fall asleep at night. You don't seem to think that our requests for you to lie still in the bed and not try to look over the pillows at the TV are serious until we actually put you in your crib. Then you realize we mean business.
Anyway, you also are making potty progress. You have pooped on the toilet twice this week and once told the girls at the sports club day care that you needed to pee. Your poops were not at your suggestion, but at our suggestion both times, but you might be about to the point of being able to say when you need to go. We did buy you some 'big girl' underwear a couple weeks ago to boost your incentive.
That was the day of your first trip up an escalator. I had to go to a bike shop that was in a Mall. Since you had to be in the car for quite a while that day, I thought we would go in the mall so you could stretch your legs a little. Well we found out that Target had an escalator and we went up and down about 6 times. They also had a little device that carried the shopping carts up and you were fascinated by that, too.
Something else you've gotten to like is typing on the computer. We set you up with Word running with really big font and you tap away at the keys. The video here shows you doing that. Now, you have to listen close because you have the sweetest little voice and only raise it when you're really distressed, but you say the following in the video: "That's O", "That's M", "Y" (which I was psyched about because earlier this morning you were saying Y was W), "There it is(about S)", "zero", "J", "that's 9", "H", and of course "Hi Babes."



That's all for now.......
love, Aba