raising a mommy: our little girl: 21 months

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)

Can walk up steps: As long as they’re not too steep, she’s good to go. She gets especially excited if there’s a railing at her height, but she doesn’t quite get the concept of sliding her hand as she goes along. It ends up being more dangerous than if she didn’t try to use it!

Enjoys helping around the house: All sweeping must now be done during nap time. Need I say more?

Can set simple goals (like deciding to put a toy in a certain place): And once she sets her mind to a goal, you can bet it’s going to happen.

Emerging Skills (half of children can do)

Can throw a ball overarm: Not very far, but she sure had fun practicing with snowballs outside this week!

Can kick a ball: I don’t think we have an all star pee wee soccer player on our hands quite yet (which is fine with me!), but she’s working on it. Usually she just runs at the ball and kind of trips over it. But sometimes it makes some forward progress as she’s tumbling down!

Can make building brick towers: She doesn’t seem to have much interest in building things, unless it’s the Elmo’s World episode about building things (“You know, building things!”) Then she’s all over it.

Advanced Skills (a few children can do)

Can name cat or dog when you show her a picture: A specific cat or dog, or in general, just be able to name that it’s a cat or a dog? She knows Maddie and tries to order her around. She doesn’t quite get the consonants in the middle of her name (or a lot of other words), so it sounds more like she’s saying “Mah-ee.” “Sit, Mah-ee.” “Mah-ee girl, come!”

Can make short sentences (“Me go”): I think it was established long ago that she is pretty advanced in the verbal category. She reached this milestone closer to age 15 months. We’re on to much more lengthy sentences, now.

Can walk down stairs: Again, if they’re not too steep. I’m too nervous to let her try without holding onto something, preferably my hand, but she’s working on it.

Other things you might want to know:

-She’s shown a little bit of interest in potty training, again. She likes to make her doll sit on the potty. We keep a small syringe with water on the vanity so we can grab it and make the dolly go “pee in the potty.” She is mystified, but it seems to be getting the point across.

-P loves to dance. She’s on a Tangled kick right now, which is actually quite fine with me! (You know, the Rapunzel movie. It’s a really cute one, and she actually can say Rapunzel. Pretty cute.) Her favorite parts are the horsey and the scene where Rapunzel gets all of the village people to dance. She loves it when mommy and daddy dance around with her and spin her and dip her. It’s a good workout!

-P has inherited her mommy’s ear canals. In fact, our ear canals are probably about the same size right now, and hers probably won’t grow a whole lot for the rest of her life if she really did inherit mine. She got her first ear infection last week, so I’m trying to mentally prep myself for years of ear problems. I know one thing for sure: no doctor will ever clean her ears by irrigating them!

Favorite new words and phrases:

-Daddy and Auntie built a trebuchet. When asked what she wanted to do one afternoon, she said, “Go outside. Play with trebuchet!”

-She has successfully counted to ten a number of times now!

-She came up behind me yesterday, started patting my neck, and said, “Mommy, I rub your neck.” Glorious.

-Usually, she’s very polite. We took her to the doctor this month, and she really hated getting her pulse. She won’t keep the finger thing on, so finally we wrapped a “sticker” around her toe, which, when she discovered it wasn’t actually a sticker, made her very unhappy. She cried and fussed and tried to get it off and asked very insistently in her hoarse little toddler voice. Then when it finally did come off and the nurse told her she did a good job, she snuggled into my shoulder and said “Thank you.” Melts your heart…

-She led her first prayer at the dinner table earlier this month. Read all about it!