Twenty-Two Month Recap

There's a dearth of photos this month because life has been hectic at camp... plus my cell phone doesn't work up here, so I rarely have it at the ready to snap a photo.

What's cooler than being able to jam your hands oh-so-casually 

into your pockets???

My little girl is growing up! Only one more month until her age is counted in years, not months.

Her language skills continue to blossom. Now, instead of repeating single words, she frequently repeats two word phrases, like "big step," "bless you," and "thank you."

When I sing "Old MacDonald" to her now, she is newly able to make animal suggestions. Very exciting. But instead of just saying, "pig" or "cow," she says "A cow" or "A sheep" -- emphasis on the article "A." I guess she's proud of her two word abilities, but the extraneous "a" sounds a little funny...

"Old MacDonald had a farm, EIEIO. And on his farm he had a..."
"A cow."

She likes to suggest each animal two times consecutively. She came up with sheep, pig, and ....dog/donkey/duck. It was a little hard to tell. She didn't come up with their respective sounds at the same time, but putting her to bed tonight, she suddenly said, "Cow... moo!"

She's also been saying, "Here you go" while motioning to her mouth. No idea what the hand signal is supposed to signify.

Just as I was cautiously hypothesizing that I thought two might not be so hard (but I feared for age three)... Calliope started being more contrarian. Not in her speech, so much, but physically. She runs away from me a lot, which is exhausting. Typically in a gleeful sort of way. I often have to wrestle her down onto the bed for a diaper change or to brush her teeth... but she usually doesn't cry when I win the battle.

When she fights teeth brushing , I kneel over her on the bed, with my legs on either side of her. She immediately begs for me to pin her arms and hands under me, pleading "hands! hands!" ...and then starts to cry as soon as I stick her hands inside my skirt, where they aren't actually restricted, just hidden. Such a bizarre little ritual. She doesn't seem to mind me kneeling over her, even though I fear that I must look like I'm hurting her, just because of how big I am compared to her.

Her eating at camp is pretty limited. For a while, it seemed like she was on a raisin and milk diet. I'm trying not to worry about it, and figured that we would both be a lot better in our eating once we get back home. One more day!

Her sleeping was wacky for a while but now that she's settled into the camp routine, is often 8 pm to 8:30 am. Plus a two hour nap on good days. Camp seems to wear her out, although I worry she's not getting as much exercise as at home. Living in the city, it's just so easy to walk everywhere. Here, I think the babysitters carry her a lot, and I suspect she enjoys the extra attention.