Twenty-One Months With Claire

At twenty-one months, Claire...

Says a lot more words than she did just a few months ago - hi, bye, mom, dad, baby, tv, show, book, color, pray, ball, bath, good, go, keys, car, coat, hat, shoes, socks, hot, cold, eat, juice, milk, cookie.

Blows on things that are hot and shivers when you talk about it being cold. She knows how to fake cough and sneeze. She can blow her nose. When she's in the mood, she says "cheese" and does a forced smile for pictures, but she also likes to ham it up in front of the camera every once in a while too.

Can fold her hands to pray and makes the sign of the cross by waving her hand around frantically. She absolutely loves to shake hands with our neighbors during the sign of peace at Mass. Right now she's absolutely obsessed with our advent wreath. When we sit down for a meal, she requests to pray and mimes blowing out the candles.

Likes to draw with crayons, markers, and colored pencils. She's also done play dough and watercolors a few times. Her favorite color seems to be purple, because she always reaches for that one first. She calls it "pup." She's drawn on the wall once or twice, so coloring has become an only-in-the-highchair activity once again.

Does more imaginative play. She pretends to eat play food and makes a "vroom" noise when playing with her toy cars. She loves to put her dolls in the baby swing, car seat, and high chair. We recently saw her using a syringe to try to give her doll some imaginary medicine. One even got thrown in the bath the other day! She also suddenly developed the patience and dexterity to do puzzles.

Tries to buckle and unlock things constantly. As I mentioned above, she is obsessed with buckling her dolls into various baby seats. She can do the buckles, but gets quite frustrated when she can't figure out how to undo them. Yesterday, she figured out how to stand on a box and unlock the front door of our apartment, so we quickly had another lock installed at the top.

Still throws tantrums that involve holding her breath and sometimes blacking out, but much less frequently than a few months ago. Her new thing is bending over and banging her head on the floor when she gets frustrated.

Has a much longer attention span for stories, so we've upgraded from board books to some easy picture books like Little Critter, Max and Ruby, Mo Willems' Pigeon Series, and anything by Robert Munsch. Since Maggie's arrived, Claire has been allowed to watch two shows a day. We rotate between Curious George, Daniel Tiger, Super Why, and Blue's Clues.

Is much more outgoing at music class and play group. When I was busy with Maggie at music class one day, she even sat in the teacher's lap for an activity. She's really quickly warmed up to all of our visitors since Maggie's arrival, especially her grandmothers. She isn't afraid to say no when another kid is pushing her or not giving her a turn at the playground, but so far we haven't really seen her do the same to other toddlers. Speaking of the playground, she still absolutely loves the swings and is pretty confident with the slide. She's even figured out how to climb up the one in our complex's play structure.

Always uses forks and spoons with her left hand. She's gotten a lot better at using cutlery. Things she would have eaten with her fingers a few months ago, like fruit, she now insists on spearing with a fork. She's still a pretty typical toddler when it comes to food. She has days when she basically refuses to eat anything and days when she has a seemingly bottomless appetite. She loves the toddler trifecta of hotdogs, pizza, and macaroni. Her favorite healthy dish is quiche, which is really the only way she'll eat vegetables.

Tell us when she has a dirty diaper, which I suppose is the first step on the road to potty training. Not that it's on our radar at all yet though.
  

 Thinks hiding from us, like when we're trying to put her pajamas on, is pretty much the most hilarious thing ever.

Has a lot more patience for brushing her teeth, having her hair styled, and putting her head in the water during baths.

Still sleeps about twelve hours a night, from about 7:30 to 7:30. But since we've been up in the middle of the night with Maggie, we've noticed that Claire is sometimes just up talking to herself for an hour at 3:00 am. So that's weird. She usually naps from 1:00 to 3:00 still, although it's not uncommon for her to nap for only an hour or so. She occasionally skips a nap altogether and isn't too cranky, just ready for bed a little earlier that night.

Has only gotten car sick twice in the last few months. Both times she actually waited until she was out of the car to throw up. Maybe it's a coincidence, but one can't help hoping that she's just really considerate, right?

Is a total girly girl. She loves to try on new clothes and admire herself in the mirror. She loves watching me put on make-up and begs to put some on herself.

Likes to hug and kiss Maggie, bring her outfits, watch diaper changes, give her blankets and pacifiers but has also hit her and deliberately ran on the couch where she was sleeping. She's also accidentally almost stepped on or rolled over her quite a few times. Yesterday, I turned my back for a minute and she tried to brush Maggie's teeth but actually managed to gag her until she threw up. Then when I was changing and comforting Maggie, she emptied a bag of potato chips onto the just vomited on kitchen floor and tried to eat them.

 

Overall, I'd say she is a great big sister. She's always driving me crazy, but she never fails to make me laugh too. Even if I'm just laughing at her having the tenth irrational emotional breakdown of the day!