Twenty Month Recap

First off, at admittedly just past the twenty-one month mark (as of three days ago), Calliope said "Go walk Ellie." Her first three word sentence! (Translation: I want to go for a walk with Ellie.)

It's a little hard to tell if it's technically a sentence, because it sounds like "Go. Walk. Elile." but I assume if she's intentionally stringing words together, even with pauses, it "counts."

One of her favorite two word sentences is "More? Medicine?"

This is her own personal joke -- she always asks -- with a grin -- for a second chewable vitamin, and I always smile and shake my head no.

She's still mostly speaking in one word at a time, but she's become a little echo. Everything I say, she repeats. She has far too many words to count in her memory bank, but the average person probably wouldn't understand some of them -- "hawa" is avocado, "diedow" is diaper, "buttr" is peanut butter, "nuk" is nuts, "ish" is orange.

And my personal favorite, "Ho" (short for "hello") is what she calls Grammy.

Grammy is trying to be a good sport about it.

She's still trying to jump, and swings her arms valiantly, but can't quite clear the ground. Her running is definitely improving, though still not full speed.

She loves to climb, and is doing pretty well with the ladders at the playground -- she still needs some "spotting" as well as help with transitioning from the top of the ladder onto the playground structure, but she's getting better all the time. She can go up the big kid slide with her sneakers now. She can pull out the step stool herself but needs help unfolding it so that she can get to the kitchen sink for hand washing.

She eats pretty well, and can use a fork and spoon, though not perfectly. I think it's been at least two weeks since the last time she nursed -- phew! Before that, it had been down to once a week or less. Now when we talk about "neh neh" she offers her chest to Baby Annie, hiking her shirt up in the cutest way as she wrangles the plastic doll into the approximately correct position. (Bald) Baby Annie also had her hair brushed, her nose wiped with a Boogie Wipe and her diaper changed this morning. And her clothes put on and taken off multiple times. Naturally.

She's got a good handle on some basic prepositions -- off, on, up, down.

She is working on colors. Purple is definitely her favorite but I've heard her mention orange and red in the last few days. Though she can only label purple things with accuracy -- her use of orange is haphazard.

She likes to count, and yesterday got out her butterfly book and counted the butterfly, "Two, two, two."

We have a little ways to go with numbers! Luckily I'm doing a pretty good job at just enjoying and marveling at the miracle unfolding in front of me.

In other exciting developments, we hired a nanny for next year! Hooray! Her name is Cheyrenne and we all really liked her. She has been working with two families for the last two years in a nanny share, which seemed like a plus. One of the things we liked about her was that she spoke of the two little girls with great affection and wanted to show us photos of them. The two families also gave rave reviews.

It will be quite a change to not have the girls with our beloved Nastya any more, and I know Calliope and Eleanor will really miss her. But Nastya is four months pregnant, and plans to stay home with her own baby next fall.

I'm also planning to make a job offer for our preschool co-op teacher later today. The candidate we liked best has been the early morning (pre-daycare) babysitter for my close friend for the last two years, and I had met her at my friend's daughter's birthday parties the last two years. At our group interview yesterday, we asked her to do an activity with the children and parents. She asked everyone to bring a teddy bear so we could have a teddy bear picnic. She brought a picnic blanket and book and sang "Teddy Bear Picnic" and handed out wooden cups with a spoon and dish of cotton balls for the Teddy Bear ice cream. Then she taught the bears a dance. On the second round, everybody danced. And then the kids got to decorate the wooden cups with the homemade crayons she brought.

Needless to say, we loved her!

I'm waiting to hear back from her but will be very pleased to have this settled.

We hope to have six kids for our group (right now we have four, probably five) and they will meet two consecutive mornings a week for two and a half hours. I will be the host so I don't have to pay but the other families will pay roughly $25 a class. Still very reasonable.

And Calliope and Eleanor will still get to be at home (or nearly home, for Eleanor), and to sleep in cribs in separate rooms for naptime, and go to the playground every afternoon, and have music class and story time and tot shabbat on the other mornings. Lots of time to play and explore and learn and rest in a relaxed atmosphere. All without breaking the bank. Phew! (To be fair, my finances will be stretched plenty thin, but it's still cheaper than most high quality daycares in Brooklyn.)

Playing in a sandbox house at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Taking Baby Annie for a stroll on a bright spring morning

For my mother's day gift, apart from the photo above, I sprang
for a Brooklyn Industries sweatshirt... for her. It makes me happy!

First time experiencing a downpour -- so fun!

Trying to earn her keep 

Without her pigtails, she still looks like my baby.

Her proud maiden voyage with her new scooter! (Well, the first time using it outside.) We may be small, but we're slow!