20 months of Charlotte
{She loves to hop right in the basket and give Frank a big ol’ hug.}
**When we’re tickling you, throwing you up in the air or basically doing anything to make you laugh and then we stop, you immediately sign and say “moh” (aka. more). You’ll do this 20 times in a row. It’s the absolute cutest thing.
**You love going upstairs to our loft. You’ll stand by the gate and point and whine until we say “you want to go upstairs?” then you’ll get so excited and dance all around.
**You’ve gotten really good at sliding down the stairs on your bottom.
**We still give you a bath in your infant tub (it’s good from infant to 2 yo). Once you’re all washed up, we fill your bath cup up with clean water from the faucet to rinse your hair. As soon as we turn the faucet on, you spin around and recline back because you know that’s what comes next.
**You’ve gotten into a bad habit of standing on our bathroom trash can while I’m getting ready at the bathroom sink. The trash can is between the toilet and the sink. Since I didn’t want you doing this anymore, I moved the trashcan to the other side of the toilet so it was between the toilet and the wall. The next morning you came to resume your position. You put your hands on the counter and, while keep your eyes on me the whole time, lifted up your leg to put it on the trash can. Your foot and leg just went straight to the floor, so you looked down and realized the trash can was moved. You backed up to look around to see where it was. You spotted it on the other side of the toilet, went over and grabbed it and moved it over to where you wanted it. This happened about 5 times straight and ended in lots of tears because I made you keep putting the trash can in its new home.
**You LOVE to have sunscreen put on you. I know it has nothing to do with my situation, but I’ll take it! You know we keep it under our bathroom sink. When you remember it’s under there and you see me unlock the cabinet to get something out, you start rubbing your face with your hands and you’ll pull up your sleeves to rub your arms, as though you’re rubbing sunscreen in. I’ve tried to fake you out with lotion (when we’re not going outside), but you know.
**You could play with running water for DAYS. When I’m getting ready in the morning, you’ll say “uppa” (aka. I want up) and I’ll sit you on the counter. You turn the water on, I turn it off, you turn it on, I turn it off, you turn it on, I turn it off. This goes on for awhile. You’ll do this during bath time, too. You’ll have us turn the faucet on, you’ll fill your bath cup up with water, take a drink, dump it out, fill it up, take a drink, dump it out, and on and on.
**You’ve developed your own signs for “blankie” and “paci.”
**You’re talking so much more. We still don’t understand a lot of what you say, so we’re saying “can you show me?” a lot in hopes that you’ll take us to what you want.
**When Gama took you to the doctor, a couple boys (9-10ish) came into the waiting room and started reading a magazine. You moved to be near them and just watched them. In one of the magazines was a kids book, so one of the boys handed it to you. Instead of taking it from him, you pointed to the cover of the magazine (Sports Illustrated with a football on the front) and raised your arms and said “touchdown!” The boys thought this was the best thing ever!
**You’ve become so good at communicating. You tell full stories by pointing + making noises + making faces. You want to retell everything that just happened.
A couple examples:
– You have identical blankies that you carry around and sleep with. One day you had one in your hand and you wanted the other one which was still in your crib, so I handed it to you. Later on, you were pointing at your blankie then to your crib then back to your blankie and looking so happy as if saying “It was in there, but now it’s in my hand and I’m so excited!”
– I was doing your hair in your bathroom one day. You were sitting on the counter. You pointed to the lotion bottle, so I put a squirt of lotion in your hands and told you to rub your hands together. You rubbed them together, but then you put part of your hand in your mouth and tasted the lotion. I said “Eww. That’s yucky. You don’t eat lotion” at the same time you were spitting it out and making “that was gross” faces. About 10 seconds later daddy came in the bathroom and you reenacted the story for him – you pointed to the lotion bottle, pointed to your hand, pointed to your mouth, made the same spitting out/yucky face… you reenacted this a couple times :)
**Something that has really been helping with the “not liking the car issue” has been to give you your snack cup filled with cheddar bunnies and puffs. Half of these end up in your car seat, on the seat next to you and in your shoe you just took off, but whatever it takes to have a peaceful car rife.
**I’ve had a framed picture of you on my nightstand since your first month of life. I changed the photo a couple weeks ago to a very recent photo of you and every time you see it, you say “Cha-ee!!” (aka. Charlie) and grab the frame and bring it to me… to the bathroom, to the kitchen, wherever I am. It’s funny to me, but this whole time you didn’t know that newborn picture was you.
**You’ve been in daycare for two months and I’ve been sick f o u r times!!! I used to pride myself on never getting sick- maybe once every 18 months or so. So far I’ve had: 1) an ear infection, 2) something that felt like the flu… aches, chills, etc, but a z-pac took care of that, 3) a cold, 4) another virus that a z-pac took care of again. You’ve had a double ear infection and a constant runny nose (we call it the kennel cough of daycare). As Noni put it though, I would rather be sick than have you sick.
**When you really don’t want something and you’re saying “no” you shake your arms in front of you, start to cry and you’ll actually come over and push whatever offending item it is that we’re trying to give you, to let us know just how much you don’t want said item.
**One night during bath time you figured out how to turn the faucet on. You stood up in your tub, turned the faucet on (but left it on), filled your cup up with water, took a drink, filled it up again, etc. and then I finally turned the water off. You got sooooo upset. I told you “No more. We’re in a drought and we can’t waste water like that.” Oh, the tears. Finally I said “You can do it” (I know, I know, way to stick to my word). You stood up slowly and looked at my like “is this okay?” then you went to the faucet and put your hand on it and looked at me, again like “is this okay?” then you turned it on and I said “good job!” and you got the biggest smile on your face. You were so happy. I know it’s important to stick to my word, but I had a moment of realization that you’re not always going to take baths and want to play with the water. I need to let you have fun and do these things that make you happy in the moment- I know I’ll be missing these moments, one day.