Autumn Makes Me Sing: 21 Months

Dear Autumn

Welcome to 21 months! We seem to have hit a rough patch in the last week or so. I'm trying hard to figure out what has changed, but I haven't a clue. Is it teeth? Is it a growth spurt? Is it not enough sleep? Is it the impending Two's? I don't know. There is a lot of good mixed in with the hard times, but the hard times are hard! You come up with new things to say every day and it is so amazing to watch your brain work. Of course, I think sometimes your brain goes on overload and that is when the whining and moaning and groaning starts.

You've been working on your 16th tooth for over a month now. The last time I got a good look at it it was tearing through your gums and your finger tends to have bite marks all the way up to your palm.

Mother's Day Out is going well. Drop off can still be dicey, but I know you recover well. I enjoy my time away from you, though most of my time is spent watching tv at a normal volume without closed captioning. I do run errands sometimes, but I really enjoy being in the house by myself. When I pick you up you are very happy to see me. If I try to stay and talk to your teachers you keep getting in my face and saying, "Bye! Bye!" over and over. You even try pushing on my arm, even though I am holding you. Once we get in the car I give you the cup of milk that you should have had around 10:30, but you are too busy to drink and I try to get you to calm down so that you can take a nap. Since the drive home is pretty quick you are always awake when we get home, but I can usually tell you to put your head on my shoulder and I can carry you upstairs without a problem. The problem usually arises when you only sleep for an hour and a half! Not enough, Little Girl!

We've been to 2 sessions of Speech Therapy so far. These first two have been trust building with Miss Jennifer with a little bit of eating at the end. We've talked about getting you more secure in your booster seat so that you can concentrate on eating rather than your posture.

Here are my notes from the past month:

Sept 30
Pick uh up
Get

You spilled water on the floor, so you said "Clean" and Daddy gave you a napkin to wipe it up. You then put it on the floor and used your feet to move the napkin around to mop it up. I said, "Where did she learn that?"

Oct 5
On Monday when I dropped you off you got upset (as usual), I knew you were fine. When I picked you up I was standing outside the door because there were people blocking the door. I saw the director on the other side of the group and she sort of gestured, but I didn't think she was directing it to me. I went to the door and you saw me and went nutso (love that!). As we were leaving the director stopped us and said that you do so well every day and every time she stops by the room you are really happy and you interact with her. I said, "Yeah, but she still cries at drop off." She said that is normal, but that she just wanted to tell me how happy she was that Autumn was doing so well in the program. That was nice to hear from the director!

Oct 7
Ms. Lori said that you don't talk very much at MDO which surprised me because you are such a chatterbox at home. She said that you talk about the dogs and the rainbows at the changing pad, but not much else. You also painted for the first time. You painted a purple dinosaur and Ms. Lori said that you did it the best. She said most of the kids just held the paint brush, but you actually moved it around and if Ms. Lori told you a place that needed more paint you would paint it. She said you followed directions very well! You also glued tissue paper onto a paper and Ms. Lori said that a lot of the kids get frustrated because they get glue on their fingers but that you handled it all very well and enjoyed yourself very much.

Take
Keep

Oct 12
You were feeding Baby some plastic food and you said, "Try? Chew?"

Oct 13
We were at Target today. We walked by the bath towels and you started saying, "Elmo shirt? Big Bird shirt?" over and over. I finally saw that you were looking at bright red and yellow fuzzy bath mats that were the perfect color for Elmo and Big Bird!

Oct 14
I asked what color Sully's shirt was and you said, "Buh-lue!"

Oct 15
You were getting your nighttime diaper put on and you had Mary Annabelle in your hands. You said, "Hi, Manamaw (Mary Annabelle)! "Hi, Autumn!" It is the first time you've made your doll talk back to you.

Oct 19
I got my first piece of information from you about school today. I asked if you saw Emma and your face lit up and you said, "Emma!...Shoe...Uh oh...Fall down!" I guess you're leaving the rest up to me to fill in the blanks...

Oct 20
I told Emma's mom at your open house what you told me and she said that on the note that came home on Monday it said that Emma's shoe kept falling off! Your teachers confirmed it! I was so proud of you!