Genevieve 101: Part 5

Climber, no climbing!

87. You had your 18 month check up with Dr. Jackson on 8/29/13.  It was good to be back with him.  He is a wonderful doctor.  You weigh 23 pounds and are 32.5 inches tall.  You weigh more than 56% of other girls your age, and you are taller than 74%.  When you got your vaccine, you didn't even cry when the needle went in, but you did whimper when they started to inject the vaccine.  You stopped as soon as they removed the needle, but you wanted to nurse.

88. One morning, you wanted to breastfeed while lying down on the couch, so we did.  I noticed you were sweaty, so I said, "you are sweaty!"  You stopped drinking, pointed to the ceiling fan, and said, "on."  You, my dear, surprise me with what you understand!

Oh boy, I have been bad about finishing up this series.  The above two entries were done in August, and it is now mid October!  Let's see how many things I can write down now.

89. You have had a language explosion and are a little parrot.  You are trying new words everyday.  Some words like "bubbles" are very clear, and other words like "cereal" are only recognizable by your mother.  My next blog entry will be about all of the words you are saying right now.

90.  We took a trip to Portland at the beginning of September to visit Auntie Carolyn.  You were such a good traveler despite not feeling well.  You loved the ocean, the park, playing bubbles in Carolyn's yard, running in circles through the rooms of Carolyn's house, and causing mischief wherever we went (i.e. dumping out the cat's water all over Carolyn's living room).

91.  You really love to play pretend right now.  A wonderful friend gave you a Dora castle with some furniture and a Dora figurine.  You also include in the pretend play your Beanie Baby Chipmunks, other small stuffed animals, and Jesus, Mary, and Joseph statues.  You make them fall from the top of the castle and say "help me".  Then another "person" comes and helps them up.  They take naps, knock on the door, pretend to swing, and fly in your Little People airplane.

92. The other day when I was making one of your stuffed animals cry, you picked them up, hugged them, and gave them some milk.  You are a sweetie.

93.  You are obsessed with the Chipmunks movie Chipwrecked.  You ask for it as soon as you wake up in the morning, and you beg to watch it all day.  One day when neither of us got any sleep and you were super clingy, I put the movie on for you, and you watched almost the entire 90 minute movie.  I'm not proud of letting you watch so much T.V., but some days, it's a sanity saver.

94.  You tolerate headbands now.  You like to take them off and put them back on.  You comment when other people are wearing headbands.

95.  When we were in Portland, I was rubbing your back to help you fall asleep when you started singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star for the first time.  I was so surprised, and you have been singing it ever since.  You also sing part of Bad Romance by Lady Gaga (La, la, la, la, la-a, ga, ga, ga ga ga-a) and the animated Chipmunks theme song (doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot.  Alvin, Simon, Theodore!).

96.  You are crazy about pumpkins right now.  Of course they are everywhere being that it's almost Halloween.  You point to them and say "pumpkin!"  You call your little pumpkin "baby", and the bigger pumpkin "daddy" just like Daddy taught you.  You count pumpkins in people's yards but never go past the number one.

97. You are now an expert at drinking from a cup, but Daddy and I often have to take your cup away at dinner because you are playing in it.  You stir your water, put your food in it, put your hands in it, and sometimes spill it all over.

98.  You want to help me vacuum, and you like handing me clean dishes from the dishwasher to put away.  You do not like cleaning up your toys and books, and it almost takes a miracle to get you do to so.  Yesterday, I was so surprised when you started helping me clean up your toys without being asked, and you said "clean up".  I know this will be a life long battle.

99.  Your Grandma Susan warned me that finding shoes to fit your narrow feet would be difficult, but it is much more difficult than I even anticipated.  I spend more money on your shoes that you'll grow out of in three months than I do on my own shoes.  Oh well.  You will probably be able to find cute, stylish shoes when you are much older.  For now, shoe shopping is a pain.

100. Swinging is your most favorite thing to do.  If I let you, you'd stay on a swing for hours.  You are now able to handle a regular swing instead of a baby bucket swing.  Of course I'm always nearby, but you hold on very well after having a couple of falls that scared you more than hurt you.

101. What should my last entry be?  How about a perfect capture of life with a toddler?
Genevieve, you are into EVERYTHING!  You can reach so many things on the counters, so I have to make sure everything is pushed far back.  You climb on the big chairs at the kitchen island.  You climb up and over the end tables in the front room.  I'm just waiting for you to try climbing the baby gates (did I just jinx myself?).  I can't turn my back on you for one minute, as evidenced by you getting into the cat litter today.  Sigh.  I get nothing done around the house unless you are "helping" me, but that's okay.  We find other ways to spend our precious time together.

I love you my dear Genevieve, even though YOU ARE STILL NOT SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!