This picture is of Clare and her baby watching Elmo. I rue the day that I introduced Clare to Mr. Elmo, since now I hear about him daily. She demands, demands, “Eh-Mo!” at least once each day. We try to save it for weekends, since it’s a nice way to spend the morning relaxing on the couch with our respective cups of coffee and milk. When Elmo really comes in handy is on long car trips to Bend or long plane rides. The Elmo video is only 40 minutes, but it’s a welcome respite sometimes. Parenting in the digital age also means that I can pull up Elmo songs on YouTube, which can be a nice 2 minute fix for a cranky/tired/overworked toddler. I think it’s kind of like the swing when Clare was a baby – I try not to overuse it.
We had Clare’s 18-month check up last week. Kiddo weighed in at 23 lbs. and 33.2 inches tall. For comparison, at her 12 month appointment Clare was 30.1 inches tall. She grew 3 inches in six months. Holy moly! No wonder she’s been eating and sleeping so well. The girl is growing! That would also explain why her 18 month clothes only fit for about a week and a half. As has been her pattern, Clare is in the 40% for weight and the 85% for height. She’s a long lean little bean.
Lil’ Miss Feisty is getting more and more verbal every day. Her understanding of language is really incredible. If we ask her a question, something fairly basic and concrete, she generally understands it and responds or acts accordingly. It’s nice that we can give her some verbal direction or ask her to clarify something, but frustrating because when she doesn’t respond then we know that she is ignoring us on purpose. Adam told me a story that the other day they were singing she kept telling him “Bay… bay” and he said “I don’t know what you’re telling me. Can you show me?” Darned if she didn’t remember where her “Down by the Bay” songbook was and bring it to Adam.
I would say that Clare is adding a new word a day, but it’s probably more than that. She now points out the “bus… vroom vroom,” said that something was “loud” the other day, points out the “planes” that fly overhead (which is often since we are below the path of life flight helicopters), tells Sadie to “Sit! Stay!” and many others. She also combines words into short statements like “Where go?” “Where Sadie (or Daddy, or G, or Monkey) at?” “Read book” and “Daddy (or Mama, or G) sleeping.” Interestingly, J was gone for a business trip for a few days and the whole time Clare kept saying “Daddy sleeping.” Today in the car I got frustrated with another driver and said “Geez dude! Go go go go go!! You’re pissing me off!” From the back seat I hear a little voice saying “Go go go go go!” She kept it up for several blocks, but I was glad that she had chosen that part of the statement to hold onto. It’s a good reminder that I need to watch my language…
A cute story from today: Our girl loves shoes. Loves ’em! She can put her rain boots on all by herself and regularly does that and stomps around. Today she had them on, with the requisite stomping, and then found a new pair that she hadn’t seen in a while. She took off her boots and brought me the brown shoes to put on. Because, you know, she needed a shoe change mid-day. She then stomped around in the brown shoes until bedtime.
A cute story from today: Our girl loves shoes. Loves ’em! She can put her rain boots on all by herself and regularly does that and stomps around. Today she had them on, with the requisite stomping, and then found a new pair that she hadn’t seen in a while. She took off her boots and brought me the brown shoes to put on. Because, you know, she needed a shoe change mid-day. She then stomped around in the brown shoes until bedtime. Posts might be a little fewer and farther between these days (sorry Teresa) because we are in the process in buying a new house and moving the Family Mac to a new abode. I’m not exactly sure where we’re going to find the time to pack and move our whole household in our usual crazy schedule, I guess we’ll find the hours somewhere. The good news is that the new house is really lovely, in a wonderful neighborhood, and over twice the size of our existing shoe box. There is even a whole downstairs suite for guests so start reserving your space at the B&B now.
I love the posts but I understand you’re heading into pack & move mode. So glad you four will have room to spread out a bit. Didn’t know Clare was into Elmo. Yes, I agree your daughter is quite verbal. At my last visit, Danny went to Fred Meyer while I gave Clare her nap bottle. He came in front door quietly but Sadie still gave a welcome bark. With the bottle still in her mouth, Clare looked up at me and asked, “Who’s that?” I told her GrandDan, and she pushed the bottle away, hopped down, went to the LR and said “hieeee.” I brought her back to her room to finish bottle, then down for nap. But I thought wow, that was a full sentence and question. Her little mind never stops, does it?!