We officially have a toddler on our hands. Well, we have since she turned one, but she's doing all sorts of new fun things since September.
She was a Ghostbuster for Halloween this year, and her costume was made by hand by Andy's mom. We didn't go Trick or Treating this year that night, but I did take her to our town's annual downtown Trick or Treating that afternoon. They also had a costume contest, and can you believe that she didn't win? I mean, look at her?
Part of our latest shenanigans involve climbing everything and anything she can. Last week, Lucy learned to climb on the couch, so now we get to teach her how to sit on the couch like a lady (and not go flailing over the back or the side of the couch). Proud moment in parenting: we were in the kitchen trying to figure out the whole Obamacare thing and heard a thump. Miss Thang had decided to crawl over the side of the dog couch and fall over the side, smacking the end table with her head on the way down. She cried for maybe a minute and was back to running around and playing. Although she did wake up about four times that night.
Going to the library weekly and having a bunch of board books on hand seems to have paid off. She loves to look at books, and she also loves to demand to be read to. I really never thought I'd have to teach my child that mommy does not read books while in the bathroom. But I guess that's what I get for thinking it's cute that she likes to hand me books while I'm, um, on the crapper. Because we all know that I truly can't do anything alone anymore unless another adult is present. ; )
We're also working on having her politely ask to be read to, by saying "read book?" instead of screeching and shoving a book in our faces.
She's still one of very few words, but she does say mama, dada, ball, and "I see that," which means a few things: I see that, can you give me that, and what is that.
We're slowly working our way through all of the playgrounds in our city, figuring out the best ones. The one I found on Saturday is a keeper, because it's two feet off of the ground and means prego mommy doesn't have to chase Lucy up some of the taller play structures. Because she's now very proficient at climbing the big kid play structures, which is awesome yet terrifying, because of the gaps she can fall out of. It works great when Andy and I take her to the big kid playgrounds together, because I cover the ground and he follows her up top.
We usually spend part of the day coloring, which really means actually coloring a small percentage of the time, and taking all of the crayons out of the box and throwing them the rest of the time. : )
I've already had to rescue crayons out of Brody's mouth a few times.
I think the biggest challenge we've got going on right now is teaching her to be polite and figuring out what to do about discipline. Lucy's latest favorite things to do are turning the PlayStation on and off, ejecting discs out of it, throwing food to the dogs, throwing her sippy cup, yanking on the curtain tie-backs, jumping on the couch and nabbing diapers out of her trash, to name a few. She doesn't know these things aren't favorable, but she knows they get a reaction out of us, which causes her to keep doing them and squealing in delight when she's been caught. She's too young for time-outs, and spanking is definitely not an option, so right now it's just redirecting and hoping for the best.
