A Little Update on our Original Bambina

So what's Greta up to these days? A lot.

I keep forgetting that the new baby won't be like Greta. Not only will the new baby have a personality of her own, of course, but the new baby will also be, well, a newborn. Greta is definitely my baby, but in all other respects, she is a kid. A talking, walking, exploring kid.

Talking
I still can't understand most kids her age when I try talking to them, but I'm continually surprised by how much Greta can communicate with me. I find this fascinating -- how parents and caregivers can understand their own children so much more clearly than any passerby. And that even when I feel like I have an "ear for toddler-speak," in fact, it's still just an ear for my toddler's speech.

 Not only does she still cry when she's annoyed and shake her hands when she wants to say "a hard no," she also is saying words pretty well and often putting two-to-three words together. Some words, of course, don't sound the same when she says them versus when I say them (for example, she says "pahs" for both pacifier and puzzle -- the context is critical), but she clearly means what she's saying and speaks with purpose frequently. She still babbles to herself while hanging out in the carseat, of course, but even then, she seems to be deliberately practicing new sounds to try out on us later.

A smattering of words that she currently uses at 22 months (these are just off the top of my head, not even necessarily the ones she uses most often, it's just hard to keep up):

No (*shocker*)
Mama ("Ma")
Papa ("Pa")
Sit
Down
Cook
Pour
Else (in the context of "something else")
Books
More
Hey Hey (she says this when she sees other children)
Honk (she says this in the context of blowing one's nose, which we've been doing a lot recently)
Beep Beep
Car
Truck
Kiss
Hug
Chair
Up
Down
Outside
Box
Cracker
Couch
Bath
Uh-Oh
Crayons
Food
Eat

She also enjoys counting, although she's still struggling to keep the numbers in order. She rarely says "one" because usually we're the ones who start counting and so she chimes in on "two." As a result, she will often count starting from two, which then gets a little jumbled. She also definitely prefers the numbers that she knows how to say well. For example, "seven" gets very little love from her. On the other hand, she proudly said, "Two, Four, Six, Eight!" the other day, which startled me a little. I don't think it was intentional, though. She often also says other combinations of four numbers (usually ending in eight, which I think is her favorite number) that are more random.

It's SO nice to be able to talk to our little girl. I think I'm going to be in for a rude shock when I have a newborn whose communication skills are back down to the bare minimum again.

Walking

Greta at open gym, a winter necessity. 

Speaking of things that newborns can't do, I'm also a little worried about having a child who can't walk on her own again. It's so nice to be able to hold Greta's hand and walk around at a store or out in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, while she's really good at walking and can keep up pretty well, she's also a bit willful and doesn't always want to hold my hand. The other day, I was in a fit of round ligament pain that made it painful to carry her. Of course, it was decently okay if she held my hand and walked, but she was losing her patience with holding my hand. She'd stay within eyesight, but if she ran off suddenly, it was very painful to keep up after her. Argh. Definitely a downside to pregnancy with a toddler.

Exploring
It's so much fun to do things with her now. Last weekend we went to the Children's Museum and it was just so much fun to play with her in all the exhibits. She was legitimately excited by the things that we did and there were so many opportunities for us to talk to her about the world around her. I love Children's Museums!

The Children's Museum was also an interesting opportunity for us to see Greta's personality. She is a lot like me. She kept wanting to watch the children playing at the water table (shown above), but she was afraid to actually put on the apron (also shown above) to go join in. When we asked her if she wanted to play, she would nod, but when we told her she'd need to wear an apron, she'd panic and pretend that she just wanted to watch. This went on for awhile -- we distracted her with other things a bit, but she kept eying the water table area. Finally, we just made the parental decision that we'd get the apron on her. Sure enough, once it was on, she had a fantastic time experimenting with all the different fountains and cups and tubes. I'm beginning to understand my own parents' frustration with my shy stubbornness.

Flirting? 

It's hard to tell what is an actual preference, what's just mimicry, and what's just in our imaginations, but Greta has seemed to be flirting with a few boys. I first noticed this around New Years when a boy about 2 years older than her was visiting. Greta did a good job of sharing her toys and tried to engage the older boy in various activities. I was surprised, though, to see her chase after him, blowing kisses at him. The boy was not at all interested in this game and responded by making one of the stuffed toys "growl" in Greta's face, which initially didn't deter her, but eventually scared her and she came running to my lap for protection. It was such a classic scene of gender-typical behavior -- but was that more in my imagination than in reality? After all, there were other factors at play -- for example, the difference in their ages also made them susceptible to differing styles of play.

A few weeks later, we were out at a restaurant and I saw Greta saying, "Boy! Kiss!" and blowing kisses at someone over my shoulder. I turned to follow her gaze and saw a little boy of about 4 years old, looking a little embarrassed. I tried to explain that perhaps she shouldn't blow kisses at strangers, but she still maintained eye contact with him as she coquettishly ate her noodles.

But again, is this an actual preference on her part? Or is it perhaps just that she's acting out the behavior that she sees between her opposite-sex parents?

Uh . . . Pill Popping? 

Just this last week, Greta started taking her meds without us crushing them up first! It was a huge milestone! We still put her in her high chair, but we're getting closer and closer to the day when she can just wake up, take the pill with a gulp of water, and then go back to sleep for an hour. It's still hard to insist that she wait for awhile before she can eat anything, but at least the time it takes to get the meds ready is shorter.

The first time I did it -- last Monday or Tuesday, I think -- I strapped her into the high chair and asked if she wanted a little sip of juice (it's mostly water -- we water it down pretty significantly). She nodded and I gave her a sip through the straw. Then I gave her the pill and said "today we're going to take your meds a little differently." And I held out the pill. "Can you eat this pill?" She smiled at me like I was joking and said no. I said, "Can you try it? You can have more juice if you try the pill." She took the pill out of my hand and popped it in her mouth. I gave her a sip of juice. She swallowed, but had a weird, focused, look on her face. I asked "did you swallow it?" She nodded, but it was really clear that it was still in her mouth. She started chewing and I said "are you chewing it?" She nodded and I encouraged her ("Yum yum. Chew and swallow!" etc.) I watched her really carefully until I could tell she'd swallowed it all down and then gave her a little more juice. Then got her out of her high chair to play. It was awesome.