Miss Carmela June turned 19 months old today. She told Mom it was time for a big update because she's doing so many things. Mom said OK, but made Carmela go to bed first.
Carmela has had another big, exciting month. After Chanukah, her Grandma Sheryl came to visit for a few days, and that was great fun. She took Grandma downtown to see the Macy's star, the tree, and the carousel. They waited in the longest line in the world to get a cup of hot cocoa, but Carmela thought it was worth it and drank a whole kids' cocoa by herself (she doesn't know that Mom has them use half the chocolate and cut it with extra milk ...).
Now that Carmela's older, she continues to show an interest in doing the things that Mom and Daddy do around the house, and she loves to imitate grown-up activities. Her latest obsession is a baby doll she got from Grandma Sheryl. She carries her everywhere, gives her milk (she came with a little bottle), comforts her when she cries (which happens whenever you remove the bottle), she changes her diaper, sits her up in her booster seat and feeds her ... in short, Carmela is a great little mommy, and gives her baby lots of concerned, if not terribly gentle, affection. Carmela also likes to put things where they belong. Mom can tell Carmela to throw something in the trash and Carmela will dutifully toddle it over to the trash can and throw it away. Carmela is less good at staying out of the trash, but maybe if Mom and Dad would stop throwing away such interesting things, she wouldn't feel the need to check it out. Carmela also knows where the ice cream is, and if Mom tells her to go get it, she's run (not walk) to the kitchen and try her hardest to pull on the freezer door. (The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?) Lately, Carmela is very interested in experimenting with the concepts of "open" and "close," and "on" and "off." She loves things with caps (like markers and pens, bottles, Tupperware, etc.), and will sit for several minutes at a stretch pulling off the cap and then fitting it back on. She's also somewhat interested in putting small things in larger things, and with shape sorting, though this is a much more complex skill that she's only just beginning to show an interest in, let alone master.
Carmela is still all about full body rough-and-tumble play, and she loves to roughhouse with Mom and Daddy and sometimes Tiny, who loves it less. She loves pushing things like little shopping carts and baby strollers, and she absolutely insists on pushing the vacuum cleaner, which Mom thinks makes vacuuming take longer. Carmela also loves to climb, of course, and she can pull herself up onto just about anything all by herself. She also enjoys climbing into and out of things, like big boxes. Mom and Daddy sometimes take Carmela to the fantastic indoor kids gym at the community center near the house — it has big plastic toy cars, a couple of indoor Big Toy-type things with slides, a couple of playhouses, a few big gymnastics mats to jump on, and lots and lots of toys, books, puzzles, and games. When she first went to visit, Carmela staked a claim in a red plastic car and just observed. Recently, she decided it passes muster, and she played a whole bunch on the slides, she jumped on the gymnastics mats, she tried her hand at a puzzle, she drove her red car around (and also a pink one), and she hung out in a playhouse until she pooped her pants and Mom said it was time to go. Maybe if Mom would remember to bring diapers and wipes, Carmela could have played a little bit longer. (Good thing it's close to the house.) This is shaping up to be a really cold winter, so Mom thinks we'll be spending lots more time at the kids gym. Carmela's still too little really for friends, but there have been a couple of special kids that she's been partial to (the latest is Nancy at daycare), and she does seem to like to play with other kids.
Carmela has also become a very accomplished grabber, and boy is she fast! This morning, Daddy turned his back for a quick second to rinse something in the sink and before he knew it, Carmela had not only grabbed the carton of eggs off of the cabinet, but she'd also run off with one and cracked it on the dining room floor. Mom thinks she's Stretch Armstrong, because she can reach things off the table and cabinets that seem like they should be impossible for her to reach. Mom also recognizes that if Carmela grabs something fair and square, she gets to keep it, and in this way, Carmela has scored herself a number of crackers, mandarin oranges, and apples that she has proudly toddled away with, cheeks bulging.
Carmela is starting to warm up a lot to story time. She stopped screaming and running away awhile ago, but she never really seemed to understand the point of a story. Now, when Mom whispers in her ear that it's time to get a book, Carmela jumps up and runs to her bookshelf, selects a title (favorites are "Colors," "Animals," "The Bellybutton Book," "Pat the Bunny," "How Kind," and "How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Cats?" — all board books with animals and colors that she can point out while she and Mom read), and takes it back to Mom. She then backs up towards Mom, plops down in her lap, and settles in to hear the story and point out all the animals and objects she can identify. And identify she can: She knows "car," "strawberry" (sometimes), lion (which she calls "rrawr"), cow (which she calls "moo"), "bird" (which is sometimes called "peep-peep"), "moon," "me," "bite," and many more that Mom can't think of after a long day of chasing a busy toddler. It appears that Carmela is also getting better at putting together two-word phrases. For example, Daddy sneezed the other day, and Carmela, who was nursing, stopped, looked at Mama and said, "Abba ach-oo," meaning, "Daddy sneezed." Cool! Carmela still uses a lot of body language to convey what she needs, but it's neat to watch her gain some mastery over words, and to get a glimmer of how much she'll be able to do when she can just say it.
Carmela eats everything under the sun, and that makes Mom and Daddy very happy. In fact, Mom told Daddy this morning that she'd rather have a baby who has poor sleep habits (as Carmela does sometimes) than a finicky eater. Carmela has started showing an aversion to having latecomers placed on her tray while she's eating. For example, if she's heavily invested in some vegetable soup (Mom strains the vegetables out of the broth and lets Carmela go to town on them), Carmela gets upset if Mom then adds some chopped veggie burger or fruit to her tray. On the other hand, she'll usually eat them later, after she's done with her soup. Mom thinks it's a sign of a commitment to the task at hand, which is probably a good thing. As far as her sleep habits, Carmela got down to only one sleep interruption a night, but then got sick, and spent one night last week crying more than sleeping. The nights have been progressively better, but she's still up about three times a night. She's a very sensitive sleeper, she doesn't do well at all when she's sick or getting a tooth, and while she is generally able to get herself back to sleep when she's healthy, when she can't, she can't, and she needs Mom to help her out with some milk and snuggles until she can drift off again.
Carmela continues to be a willful child, and Mom and Dad do their best to direct her energy in positive ways. Unfortunately, sometimes the only answer is no, and this makes Carmela collapse on the floor in tears and screaming. While it's exhausting and frustrating while it's happening, Mom and Daddy both know it's temporary, and Carmela doesn't drag it out for ages and ages. She expresses her anger, blows off steam, and then moves on. Sometimes, she and Mom go into her bedroom for some quiet time, which Mom is trying to use as a positive discipline tool instead of a negative one. It seems to be working. Sometimes. On occasion, Mom has asked Carmela if she'd like some quiet time or a time out, and Carmela, lying on her back, face red, mouth in a grimace, has responded with a pitiful, "Yes." Then she and Mom have some snuggles and maybe a story and just chill out for a little bit in her room. Before very long, Carmela's showing off her beautiful smile and ready to face the world again.
