Growth spurt

They say that children will have sleep disturbances as they're moving through phases of developmental maturity; they'll wake up several times a night either from the stress of being on the verge of some new skill or awareness (ever have trouble falling asleep during stressful times because your mind won't settle down?), or from the drive to keep practicing. Well. Miss Carmela just went through a wretched period of sleeplessness that was very trying for Mama and Daddy because it seemingly had no explanation. She wasn't really sick. She wasn't teething. She must have been just growing up, because all of sudden, she's another giant step toward being a big kid.

Several months ago, Carmela was great at using the potty, and Mama and Daddy thought we were well on our way to potty training. Suddenly, something happened, and Miss Carmela refused to go at all anymore. Mama and Daddy got to spend several weeks helping Carmela cope with constipation, during which time we used laxatives, softeners, natural food remedies, suppositories, encouragement, benign neglect, and everything else we could think of to help Carmela go. Eventually it worked itself out, but Miss Carmela had seemingly lost any interest she had in using the potty. If we asked her whether she wanted a diaper or underpants, she always answered diaper. However, Mama and Daddy are happy to report that it appears we have turned a corner. Yesterday, Carmela went pee-pee in the potty for the first time in I don't know how long, and, today, she went poop in the potty! It was such a giant achievement, and she was so proud of herself. She figured she was ready to give it a try, and she did.

Another big deal: Daddy took the front bars off of her crib last week, so Carmela is now sleeping in a big-kid bed. He did it so Mama could lie down in bed with Carmela and help her fall asleep because sleeping was such an issue over the past couple of weeks, but now Carmela seems much more well-adjusted about going to sleep. Mama just lies down with her for a few minutes, Carmela says, "I love you, good night," and gives Mama a kiss on the cheek, and then she rolls over and lets herself relax. Mama usually lies with her for a few minutes, then gets up to leave. Carmela says, "Can you leave door open?", and after Mama says yes, Carmela drifts off to sleep, all by herself. Which brings us to the next major milestone: Last night, Carmela went to sleep without nursing for the first time ever. She and Mama read some stories and then walked hand in hand to bed, Mama lied down with Carmela for a few minutes, and then got up and left, following the routine above. Carmela was only up once last night, and, today, she went down for her nap without nursing. It's so amazing to see this little baby become a big girl.

Carmela also has more or less grown out of her booster seat at the table. She stopped using the tray a couple of weeks ago, and now seems to prefer sitting in a regular chair, too. Mama and Daddy aren't sure she's quite ready for that — it's still a little bit of a reach — but we are steadily moving out of the world of little kid things, aren't we?

Finally, Carmela is getting better and better at dressing herself. She still struggles a little bit with things like tights and leggings, and shirts are a challenge, but she can do her own pants and shoes and just needs a little help with the other things. We've moved into the world of letting her pick out her own clothes and jammies, which sometimes helps alleviate the anger and frustration she feels at having to wear clothes at all.

A few more (and better) pictures

My old iPhone doesn't have a very good camera, so the pictures I take with it lack the depth and scope of just how great Zoo Lights is. So, I am adding a few Zoo Lights pictures taken last year by Nana. These ones give a better sense of the magnificence of Zoo Lights. Enjoy! (And thanks, Nana!)

Zoo Lights 2011

The line of cars to get in was outrageous, the parking lots were packed, cars lined the side streets, but the Doctors, through force of will and abject terror at the anguish of canceling a much-promised and much-hyped adventure, elbowed their way into Zoo Lights again this year. And it turned out to be everything they hoped: Carmela was dazzled by the lights and just loved it. She paused at the overlook, gazed at all the shining lights below, and then literally squealed and ran around and around, grabbing Mama and Daddy's hands to pull them down the pathway. The shark tank happened to be open, so we ducked in to see the big, shadowy sharks gliding through the water. Then back into the outside to see more lights — we saw the trippy blinking lights (that seem to have been absent the past two years), our favorite animals, and the Pink Tree. It gets bigger every year.

We walked a sleepy Carmela up to the car and changed her into her jammies on the side of the road (we were one of the cars lined up streetside), and then she fell fast asleep as we headed off down the road toward home.

Getting dressed

Carmela is getting better and better at getting herself dressed. She can do pants, underpants and socks by herself, and needs just a little bit of help with her shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts. Tights remain a huge challenge, and usually result in big outbursts of frustration. Especially because tights make your toes slippery, and that makes it harder to climb on things.

No longer 2, not quite 3

Carmela turned 2 1/2 on November 30; what a momentous six months it's been. On May 30, Carmela was an active, funny girl with a few words, some big movements, and lots of big feelings. Over the past six months, she's had some pretty amazing experiences (some not so great, thanks to Mom ... ), she's learned to express herself more clearly, she's learned about opposites, she's improved her manual dexterity, and much, much more!

Carmela really enjoys being out and about, and now that she's a bigger kid, it's much easier for Mama to take her on great adventures. Carmela loves to ride the bus, so she and Mama have ridden the bus to the Seattle aquarium, to the Ballard Farmers Market, and, most recently, to Seattle Center to watch ice skaters. She also rode the Monorail (!!) to Westlake Center. She loved the Monorail so much she cried when it was time to get off, but Mom's going to take her again tomorrow, and she's going to try ice skating, too, so that'll be so exciting! Now that she's getting older, she seems to retain memories of what she's done, and she'll recall (kind of out of nowhere) that she saw a mummy (at the Olde Curiosity Shoppe when she went to the aquarium), or that she saw a choo-choo train and ice skaters and had hot cocoa when she went to Seattle Center. It's neat, and Mom and Daddy are hopeful that she'll form some really wonderful memories tied to the seasons.

Carmela is still very much a 2-year-old when it comes to her favorite activities. Painting and coloring are still favorite activities, and Mama has a huge stack of beautiful pictures she is using as stationery (so look forward to that). The only problem Carmela has encountered is leaving the caps off her markers, causing them to dry out; otherwise, Carmela is a big fan of art. Incidentally, she loved a book called Setting the Turkeys Free, in which a little boy draws turkeys, and they come to life on paper in his imagination. Carmela proceeded to try to make a few turkeys of her own, but she's still too little to really get it.

Carmela finally loves books!! It's very exciting for Mama and Daddy, who admittedly had a warm, fuzzy idea that the family would all snuggle down together each evening for some story time, and were a little disappointed when it turned out Carmela had no interest. Now, she'll pick out her stories and ask questions about the pictures, or will "read" to Mama and Daddy. Mama and Carmela like to go to the library to pick out some books; Mama picks hers up, and Ela gets to pick out a few, too. Sometimes, Carmela and Mama go to the library and pick out books, and then walk a few blocks to the coffee shop to get a hot cocoa and sit on the couch to read our stories.

Carmela is pretty excited that she is learning how to play catch; she holds her arms out, and Daddy tosses a mostly deflated rubber ball to her. It happens to land in her outstretched arms, and Mama and Daddy clap and cheer. Carmela also loves chase (that's been a favorite game for a long time now), and she loves climbing and jumping and dancing. (After the Thanksgiving parade on TV, Carmela is very interested in kicking her legs like a Rockette.) She loves to roughhouse with her Daddy, and she loves to kick leaves. Nature hikes also are fun: She enjoys crouching down to investigate leaves, sticks, slugs, and worms, and she is always game for digging in the dirt. She's getting much better at controlling her body; she's taking stairs one at a time in succession, instead of one-foot, other-foot, one-foot, other-foot. She and Mama have started doing some "yoga" sometimes on yoga mats in the living room; that usually involves throwing their hands in the air, and then bending over at the waist and stretching, and then climbing on Mom and trying to choke her out whilst squealing and giggling uncontrollably. Fun for all.

Carmela has a cautious love of her kitty cats (she knows they swipe sometimes when they're frisky), and she loves to give them treats and cat nip, and to give them pets. She likes to play with them with their cat toys, and while she doesn't understand that they don't like to chase, she's never intentionally mean to them.

Carmela's language is becoming much more clear and easy to understand. She uses pronouns, but doesn't understand yet that "him" and "her" are gendered. She uses funny expressions appropriately; for example, the other day, Mama balanced some playing cards together in a very simple card house, and Carmela said, "That's amazing, Mom!" She's pretty good at expressing what she wants, but sometimes will resort to playing baby and gurgling and making baby talk and pointing. She generally has the words to express whatever she needs to say; as her world isn't very big yet, she's a pretty good communicator. Mama and Daddy are still working on communicating feelings, which admittedly are hard even for grown-ups to identify and communicate sometimes. Carmela also is figuring out opposites and qualitative relationships — some things are big and others are small, some things are fast and others are slow, Mama is tall and she is short, &c. It's all part of organizing her world into manageable categories, and it makes it much easier to understand what she wants ("I want big one!", as opposed to pointing and grunting and crying when Mama or Daddy doesn't grab the right one.)

Carmela's still pretty attached to her diapers, and has not expressed any real interest in potty training. Mama and Daddy are perfectly content to let her do it in her own time. Carmela also still wakes up a couple of times a night for a number of reasons, the most recent of which has been an expressed fear of the dark. She's still a willful little girl, and has taken to scolding Mama and Daddy right back with a stern, "Be nice to me!" when she gets disciplined for something. She has temper tantrums now and then, but, to be honest, not as often as Mom and Daddy thought she would, and they usually accompany sickness or teething.

Like many toddlers, Carmela likes to pretend that she's doing the same things that Mama and Daddy and the other grown-ups in her world do. She loves to help cook, and actually got to help bake cookies on Thanksgiving morning; for some time now, she's helped her Daddy stir and scramble eggs for breakfast. She has a little toy vacuum that she uses after Mama vacuums, and she really loves to play doctor with Daddy's EMT gear. She pretends she's Daddy or her doctor, and she peers in Mama and Daddy's (and Bear and Kitty's) ears and mouth with a pen light, and she listens to their backs and chests with a stethoscope. Will she be the first Dr. Doctor? Who knows?