...And One More

Lately Maisie is into letters, and she'll ask what words start with what letters. She doesn't say, "What letter does 'book' start with?," though, she'll ask, "What letter starts with 'book'?" Tonight we went through pretty much everything in her room -- "What starts with ROCKING CHAIR? What starts with PIG? What starts with TABLE? What starts with PAJAMAS? What starts with LULU?," and on and on. Finally I told her it was time for bed. She fussed a little in her crib but finally settled down. A few minutes later I was in the kitchen with Jake fixing our dinner (ha ha -- putting takeout Indian food on our plates) when she hollers down as loud as she can, "WHAT. STARTS. WITH. BARBIE?!" Jake yelled up "B" and she's been quiet as a mouse since.

Maisie Funnies

Maisie made me laugh so much today that I just had to write down a couple of the things she said while they are fresh in my mind.

First of all, Jake's in California, and every time Maisie asks where he is and I reply "California," she says, "Just like Katy Perry!" She did this the last time he was in California too.

This morning we were over at a friend's house and she leaned over and whispered to me, "Mama, I like you SO MUCH." Sweet baby! She is also quick to tell you that she loves you and give kisses. However...

I kissed her shoulder this afternoon and she said, "No no no! I not want that kiss! I wipe it off!," and she acted like she was wiping it off. I made a sad face and said, "Oh no! No kisses?" She immediately grinned and started patting her shoulder and said, "I put it back on. I put the kiss back on."

This morning we were driving over the Potomac and she said, "Mama, look at that water! Look at all that water!" I said, "Yeah, that's the Potomac River! Can you say Potomac?" She said, "The Potomac! That is ONE. GOOD. RIVER!" Then, this afternoon, we were driving BACK over the Potomac and she said, "What's that water?" I said, again, "It's the Potomac." She said again, "The Potomac!" Then she turned to her stuffed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and said, "Rudolph, can you say 'Potomac River'?" Then she made a high squeaky voice and said, as if she were Rudolph, "Potomac River! Potomac River!"

Driving home tonight I saw a big cute dog so I said, "Maisie, look at that dog! Do you see it?" I don't know if she was telling the truth or just teasing me, but she said, "No, I don't see it. I see the leash, but I not see that doggie. Just the leash."

This evening she was pretending to take pictures of things with a pretend camera. She showed me a pretend picture and said, "Look! It's a picture of you! You sitting down, reading a book." Then she looked at the "camera" again and said, "Look. Here's a picture of Daddy. He cooking something." (I don't cook much, okay, but I do read a lot.)

Finally tonight she walked over to me out of the blue, hands outstretched, palms up, eyes wide, eyebrows raised, like she had the best idea in the world. She said, "Hey Emilie! How about some... [loud stage whisper] ...YO GABBA GABBA?"

TWO!

Maisie Munkin is two!

Her birthday was Tuesday and her two-year-check-up was Wednesday. She weighs 29 1/2 pounds and is 37 3/4 inches tall -- a.k.a., basketball player tall. If she stays this exact height until she turns three, she will still be between the 50th-75th% for height.

She speaks fluent English now -- sentences, paragraphs, pretend conversations, etc. Still a talker (although she is quiet at first when she is in new places or with new people, or in a big group -- not shy, just quiet. She will walk right up and stare at you, but she might not talk right away.)

She can say her ABCs and can consistently recognize and identify the letters A, B, I, M, O, W, and Z. She knows her colors and her shapes. Right now she's obsessed with octagons. She will sometimes count to ten but usually counts "1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10" instead. We went to lunch today at Sanphan and she pointed at the sign and said, "A for Apple! A for Apple! Two A's." She likes to sing "Twinkle Twinkle," "Row Your Boat," the alphabet, and the Sesame Street theme song. And the chorus of "Poker Face."

One of her favorite phrases right now is, "Oh my goodness sake!" I say "oh my goodness" a lot and I think Jake says "for goodness sake" and she has picked that up. Yesterday we were watching Sesame Street and when Barkley the giant orange dog came onscreen she said, gesticulating dramatically, "Oh my goodness sake, that is one big dog!" Last week it rained all day one day and every time we went outside she said, "Oh my goodness sake, it is STILL raining!"

Much to Jake's chagrin, her pop music tastes have now widened to include the Katy Perry song "California Girls." Jake was on a business trip to L.A. last week and when I told her Daddy was in California, she said, "Oh, like Katy Perry!"

She likes to pretend a lot. She will pretend to be a baby, a cat, my cousin Ben, and one of her babysitters. The Ben pretending is the funniest because she will say, "I Ben. You say, 'Hey, Ben,' and you wave at Ben." She also talks to her Aunt Coco and Eh-ca on the pretend phone on a regular basis. Yesterday she was having a long conversation with someone on her plastic pink phone and when I said, "Who are you talking to?" she leaned over, whispered "I talking to Aunt Coco," and then returned to her call. Also, this morning she walked into the kitchen carrying two of her pocketbooks and a tote bag and rolling a small Hello Kitty suitcase. She waved at me and said, "I going to the airport now."

She doesn't do it every time it's warranted, of course, but she is mostly quite good at saying, "please," "thank you," "excuse me," and "bless you." She almost never misses a "bless you" when someone sneezes, even if it is a stranger in a store.

She likes to sing, dance, dress up, slide, ride her tricycle, take off her Barbie's clothing, read, and draw. She really likes to draw and also likes to watch other people draw, with the caveat that she is the one who will instruct you on what to draw. Favorite requests include dogs, cats, smiley faces, and potties. If you draw something to her liking, she will likely follow up that request with, "Okay, now draw a little tiny one!"

She can throw a toddler fit with the best of them if she gets too hungry or tired, but mostly she is still easy, sweet, and totally hilarious. While I do miss little baby infant Maisie, toddler Maisie is even more fun.

22 Months

Last night, reading a lift-the-flap book, upon discovering a missing flap she had torn out once upon a time:

Maisie: Dis ripped.

Me: Yeah, you ripped that out a long time ago.

Maisie: Dis ripped.

Me: Yep.

Maisie: Dis ripped. We need a refill. We gotta get another one. We go to Target.

***


In the car everyday as soon as we hear some pop song Maisie likes:

Maisie: PEAS TURN IT UP, TURN IT UP PEAS, PEAS TURN IT UP.


***

Eating lunch one day last week:

Me: Maisie, what fruit do you want with lunch? An apple?

Maisie: Strawberries.

Me: We're out of strawberries. What do you want instead?

Maisie: Strawberries.

Me: You ate all the strawberries. We don't have anymore. How about some grapes?

Maisie: Mo' strawberries.

Me: There aren't any more strawberries. They're all gone.

Maisie: Strawberries all gone.

Me: Right.

Maisie: Get new ones.

***

Just before dinner one evening:

Me: Maisie, it's time for supper.

Maisie: Grapes?

Me: Sure, you can have some grapes. And you're having ravioli. Ravioli and some grapes.

Maisie: No ravioli and grapes. Want GRAPES and grapes.

***

One morning when the Today show was on in the background:

Maisie: Dat Obama! Hey, Obama! How you doin', Obama?

(Sure enough, I looked up and she was right.)

***

One morning after Jake returned from a business trip:

Maisie: Daddy went Seattle! Daddy came back! Daddy home! Yay, Daddy!

***

I have no idea what she weighs or how tall she is, but I know she's grown. She's outgrown her sandals (now wearing a 7 1/2) and I only buy her size 3T clothes now. My baby's almost two!

20 Months!

Let me start this post the way I start all of them -- oh, I can't believe it's been so long! Really, though, I can, because it's not like I have been a very good mommy blogger. I didn't realize I had let three months lapse, though.

Maisie Munkin is now 20 months old. At her 18-month check-up, Maisie was 35 3/4 inches and 26.something pounds. Roughly translated, that means she is super tall and weighs just plenty, although she is so tall that she is quite lean. No idea of her measurements now, two months later, but I think she's grown a little. She should, she eats like a real human. Today she polished off my bag of potato chips which quite frankly I was not planning on sharing.

The funniest thing about her now, at 20 months, is the talking. Talk talk talk all the time with the talking. Jake gets her up in the morning while I sleep in (I know!) and I love to hear them. She starts talking before he's even in her room and it doesn't stop. "Daddy? Daddy? Daddy? Hi, Daddy! Good morning, Daddy! There's Baa Baa! Hi, Baa Baa! Fi? Fi? Downstairs? Come on, Fi!" This morning I heard her as she discovered my keys in my purse on her way down the stairs -- "KEYS! Mama keys! Target? Target?" (Ouch... I guess we go to Target a lot. Oh, well, it's not like the Smithsonian is a few blocks away... oh, wait...)

We spent a good long while this afternoon sitting on our front steps having a snack (well, I was trying to have a super late lunch and she took it -- I managed to finish my sandwich, but she claimed a lot of the aforementioned chips). She loves to sit outside and watch the people, dogs, cars, and buses go by -- especially the dogs. She loves a good squirrel spotting too. So far I haven't taught her that squirrels are pretty gross. Anyway, a lot of times we blow bubbles but sometimes we just sit and watch. Today she was having an especially good time as she sat down on the step next to me. "Mamie outside. Mamie sit. Mamie eat chips. CHIPS SO GOOD!" I had to laugh out loud. (She doesn't eat chips usually, I promise, but I have a feeling she will be asking for them again in the future. She doesn't forget.)

She loves Sesame Street ("Elmo TV? Elmo TV? Watch Elmo TV? Okay!"), especially Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Abby, and Zoe. And Snuffy and Telly and Zoe. Wait, is that all of them? Yeah, that's about right. She loves all of them and she calls them all by name. "THERE SNUFFY! HI SNUFFY!" Oh, everything is so exciting and enthusiastic when you're 20 months old.

She likes to hide, although she always hides in the same two totally visible spots and then yells, "WHERE MAMIE GO? WHERE MAMIE GO?" This is my cue to pretend like I can't find her. I'll say, "Where did Maisie go? Fi, do you see Maisie? Oh, I guess she must have gone to Safeway. Or maybe she went to yoga. Do you think she went to New York to see Aunt Coco?" At that, Maisie usually pipes up from her "hiding" place and cries, "Yeah, yeah!" So you see, she's not so good with the hiding yet, but she does enjoy it. She also likes for me to hide -- that is, she says, "Mama bye-bye? Mama bye-bye? Bye, Mama." Then I'm supposed to go around the corner out of sight, at which point she says, "Where Mama go? Where Mama go? Abbeville? New York? Where Mama go?" Then I pop out and say, "I came back!" She hollers with laughter and says, "Yay, you came back!" It's a pretty fun game, actually, although I'd be fine playing it, say, twice a day instead of 12-15 times.

Maisie loves people, animals, her books, her doll stroller ("stollie"), and any stereotypically female accessory that you can think of. Lately she's been asking for me to put her hair in a ponytail, which she then wants to admire in the mirror. "See Mamie? See Mamie? See Mamie ponytail? Oh, so purty. Purty ponytail." She compliments her own dresses ("Oh, so purty! Purty new dress!") and is way into these pink sandals she just got ("Wear new shoes? Mamie new shoes?"). This morning I put on her regular shoes because it was cool enough that she needed socks and she said, "No. New shoes? Mamie new shoes? Mamie toes? Toe shoes?" I realized she wanted her sandals and was describing them as "toe shoes" since she can see her toes in them. She is bossy and quite particular.

Mostly, though, she is a sweet, sweet baby, and she is great company. I love our days.

17 Months

Well, technically Maisie won't be seventeen months old until Sunday, but hey, let's be early for a change!

I can't believe that the last time I posted Maisie wasn't even walking yet. She started walking pretty much right after that post, at about 13.5 months. Now, at 16-going-on-17 months, she is running.

She gave up her evening bottle at 15 months. We had given up all daytime bottles already, but I had been having some trouble convincing her to take milk from a sippy cup or a straw (even though she had been drinking water out of cups or straws for months). Finally I decided to go cold turkey and throw out the bottles and she didn't mind at all! She has not taken a pacifier since she was seven months old. As soon as she stopped being swaddled, she would reach up and throw the pacifier out of her crib. I just stopped giving it back to her and she hasn't wanted one since.

She is still mostly taking two naps a day, although more and more often she will skip one or the other. The weird thing is that more often she skips her afternoon nap. Aren't they supposed to drop the morning nap first? Oh, well. For now I'm just going with it. She sleeps 11.5-12 hours a night without a peep still (knock on wood, oh please, please, knock on wood) and is just as happy when she has one nap as when she has two, so it's not a big deal yet. However, I do like having her on a pretty set schedule so if it starts to get too unpredictable I will be consulting Weissbluth again.

Maisie will eat just about anything. Her typical breakfast might be a whole-wheat waffle or a piece of cheese toast (or two pieces of toast), half a banana, and two pieces of turkey sausage. Sometimes she likes a cup of applesauce or some yogurt on top of that. That seems like a lot for a toddler, but she's the only toddler I know so maybe it isn't. For lunch or dinner she will have some kind of protein (whatever leftovers we have from dinner the night before or maybe some grilled chicken or a Gardenburger -- or, yes, sometimes she just has Gerber baby pasta, but I know that is like baby Chef Boyardee and should not be relied upon), some kind of steamed veggie, some kind of fruit, and she usually wants at least one piece of string cheese. (She eats supper at 5 so Jake and I are nowhere near close to eating our own dinner then -- Jake doesn't get home until 7, and she is either asleep or already in bed then, so family dinner will have to come when she is just a little bit older.) She likes to feed herself, although if she has at least one finger food to occupy her she will usually let me feed her the other stuff. More and more, though, she wants to use the fork and spoon all by herself. She's getting better. She's pretty good with the fork, but the spoon is trickier. I think that's just because I am prissy and impatient and I would rather feed her applesauce myself than watch her sling a third of it onto herself and the floor. She is quick to tell me when she wants to do it herself and, if I'm feeding her, which bite she wants next. (Last night I offered her another bite of chicken and she shook her head and said, "No, no -- mo' corn.") She'll also tell me if she wants something I haven't offered. Today at dinner she surveyed her applesauceless plate, looked up at me and said, "Apple? Apple? Apple?" I said, "Oh -- you want some applesauce instead?" "Yeah."

About the talking... it is the most fun thing ever watching a baby learn to communicate. Every single day she says something new or puts different words together. It's probably only interesting to about seven or eight people, but I want to write it all down before I forget -- I know that in a few months I won't remember what she said when. She says too many words to count them all anymore, although not all are pronounced correctly. The ones that have creative pronunciations are consistent enough that we are sure that's what she's saying, though -- for example, she loves to talk about glasses, point out our glasses, and look through books identifying glasses, and glasses are always "gluh gluh." Our dear departed Sammy, for some reason, was always and still is "Bay." She can communicate (with Jake and me, at least) really, really well and I usually know what she wants. She can answer "yes" or "no" to any question I ask and I feel like she understands pretty much everything I say, and she can definitely ask for what she needs when it comes to water or milk or a snack ("nack" -- her favorite "nacks" are "doedish" (goldfish) or "rayray" (raisins)), particular toys and books, most songs, and, increasingly, when she needs or wants her diaper changed. ("Mama! Bye-per. Bye-per. Bye-per." "You need your diaper changed?" "Yeah.") I'm not sure what that means as far as a potty training timeline (I assume it's still a far ways off), but she will sometimes even clarify if it's dirty or just wet.

She also says:

"Hi, [insert name here]!"
"Bye-bye, [name]!"
"More [anything under the sun]" (Sometimes we are lucky and get a "please" ("pea") stuck on the end, too, though that is only when she is really desperate or when I prompt her. She will almost always say it when prompted, though. We are working on "thank you" -- that one is slower coming and sounds more like "da doo" when she bothers to say it at all.)
"I do" (she means "I'll do it," and usually says it when she would rather climb the stairs herself , or when she wants to feed herself)
"I see..." (Mama, Fi, Daddy, people)
"No, Mama, no!"(all the time about everything -- for an agreeable toddler, she says "no" an awful lot)
"Hold this" (usually it's just "hol' dis" and she hands me whatever, but today she handed me her Baa Baa and said, "Ho' Baa Baa.")
"What's that" or "What's this" ("wuh dat?" or "wuh dis")
"It's [whatever/whoever is she's looking at" (usually Mama, Daddy, Fi, Elmo, or Baa Baa)

Funny one-offs that she has said but never repeated:
"Mama, COME ON!" (said today when she was trying to get me off the phone with my mom)
"Bye Daddy, be good!" (when he was leaving for work one morning -- sounded like "Bye da be guh" really fast but it was definitely what she was saying -- that's what he tells her every morning when he walks out the door)
"Have a good day" (also to Jake when he was leaving for work one morning -- "ha guh day Daddy!")
"Gotta get Baa Baa" (she's said that twice actually, now that I think about it -- "gah geh Baa Baa")
"Excuse you" ("scu you" -- said when SHE burped! And actually she's said that more than once too, I think)
I think yesterday she said she wanted to "take a walk." ("Tay waw? Tay waw? Waw waw waw?")

Today she was playing with magnets on the refrigerator and when I walked in she said, "Oh! It's Mama!" (I had only been about four steps away in the dining room, but hey, whatever.)

Once, a couple of weeks ago, I was straightening up her room while she played in her crib. She asked me to get her out and I told her to hold on a minute. She started howling, so I said, "Okay, okay," and got her out. When I reached into the crib to get her, she patted me and said, "Good girl, Mommy."

She can point out even more body parts now: head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, neck, shoulders, elbow, heart, boobies (ha!), bellybutton, knees, feet, toes, hands, fingers and back, and she can differentiate when you ask where is her head (or whatever body part) or where is my head or where is Elmo's, and will point to the right body part on the right person.

She can answer some abstract questions, like "Who lives with Bobo [my dad]?" "Nannie [my mom]." "Who else?" "Bet Bet [my parents' dog]." Usually when she mentions Bet Bet, she also says, "Shhhh" because Betsy is always barking when we come home, and then she says, "Good girl." (She also says "Good girl" to herself when she fits a puzzle piece in the right way or when she helps me put her toys back in the basket, which makes me laugh every time.) If you ask her what's outside ("ow sy"), she will answer babies ("baby!"), dogs ("daw! woo woo woo"), cats ("meow"), cars ("caaah"), and "people" (said perfectly). One night I asked her who loved her ("Mama loves you -- who else loves you?"). She listed Daddy and all four of our parents and then when I asked "Who else?" she said emphatically, "Erica!" ("Eh ca!"). She will ask for Jake during the day and when I ask her where he is, a lot of the time she will say "work" ("wuh").

Jake and I ask each other frequently, "Where did our baby go? When did we start living with a little person?" Basically, she is a riot all the time, and her cheeks demand many kisses all day long.

Maisie Funnies

I think that I was such a bad blogger that no one reads this anymore (understandable!) but I am still going to update so that I can remember the funny things Maisie does.

Her latest funny phrase is "cheese toast." My baby loves cheese, and my baby loves toast, so it makes sense that she would love cheese toast. What's funny, though, is that she loves saying "cheese toast" as much as she loves eating it. Last week one day, as she was eating it, she started saying, "Cheeese toast, cheeese toast." She has a particular intonation and it kind of sounds like CHEE toes, CHEE toes. She grins as widely as she can and laughs when I start to laugh. Well, this afternoon we were driving home from a church retreat weekend and Maisie should have been napping. I was surprised she was awake, but she was only barely awake... gazing out of the window dreamily. I was flipping through a magazine when I heard her start to chant, "CHEE toes, CHEE toes." I burst out laughing and said, "Maisie, are you daydreaming about cheese toast?" She just grinned and laughed and said, "CHEE toes," "CHEE toes!" When we got home and made her a piece of cheese toast, she was beyond delighted. I can tell that as much of the joy comes from talking about it and being understood as actually eating it.

She's also really into trying to do things herself, or pretending to do adult things. For example, if she sees a hair brush, she tries to brush her hair, or tries to brush my hair, or pretends to brush her doll's hair. Ditto toothbrush -- she loves to try to brush her teeth. She also takes the washcloth and washes her rubber duck in the bathtub, tries to feed Elmo or pretend to give him a sip of water out of a straw, and pretends to answer the phone. That last one was hilarious this weekend. We had to unplug the phone in our room at the inn where we were staying because all Maisie wanted to do was pick up the phone, say, "'LO?" and hang it back up. "'LO? 'LO?" And if you do happen to be on a real phone call when Maisie is around, when you say "hello," she'll turn around and yell, "HI!" and start waving, and when you finish the conversation, she'll yell, "BYE! BYE!" and wave some more.

She knows more body parts, I think -- she will tell you where her hands and her knees are, in addition to head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, bellybutton, and toes. She also understands that we all have noses, and will point at her baby doll's nose or Elmo's nose and say "no." "Nose" sounds like "no," but you can tell which she means because if she's saying no, she gets a funny mean look on her face and shakes her finger back and forth. "No no no," she says.

She has a couple of new favorite songs, too, and she knows them well enough that she really gets into them. She knows I always clap during the drum parts in the Avett Brothers' "Kick Drum Heart," and she will clap too. Not at precisely the right time or in the right rhythm, but it's the effort that counts. We sing a funny song by They Might be Giants called "Seven Days of the Week" and I have made up silly and obvious motions to go along with it, and she will do all of them with me as we listen to the song (mostly shaking her head, shaking her finger "no no," pointing to her head, and throwing her arms up). I might be embarrassed to admit that she also now sings "yeah yeah yeah" along with Miley Cyrus's "Party in the U.S.A." As our friend Will has commented before, I listen to a lot of really crappy music when Jake isn't around. (I don't mean you, Avetts!) Anyway, she also nods her head at the appropriate line in the Miley Cyrus song, and throws her hands in the air. Must get video.