Twenty Months

Our little girl is twenty months old!

It is getting easier to understand Juliet when she talks to us. New words include outside, cheerios, potty, bowl, boat, shoes, and bird. She also uses phrases like "Where's Daddy?" (or Ben, DJ, Mommy, snack, etc), "What's that?" and "Let's go!" She knows the sounds for snake and monkey now, too, though her tiger growl is still my favorite.

This little girl knows how to throw a fit! She has the most spectacular meltdowns when she doesn't get her way, but it so obviously just for show that it usually just makes us chuckle. We tell her "no fits!" and then move her somewhere (to the couch, to her room) and tell her she's in timeout and to come back when she's calm. So far it works, though she'll begin to challenge us on that soon, I'm sure!

When you ask Juliet to count, she'll hold up her fingers and make appropriate noises. This usually happens at the pool and park when we are counting "1, 2, 3, jump!"

Juliet takes such good care of her baby dolls. She takes them for walks in the stroller, gives them pacifiers, puts them in their high chair for snacks and drinks.... Her favorite activity is to cover them up with a blanket and say "night night!" and pat them on the back. This is the main thing she likes to do that's her own, and not just emulating her big brother.

I am already counting the days until I can sign Juliet up for gymnastics. She loves to climb and tumble, and will hang from anything to swing (the back of her high chair, the pedestal sink in the powder room, the arch of the backyard playground). She also loves to dance and run. She runs everywhere, and has her share of bruises and scrapes from the falls that come with it.

I sound like a broken record, but Juliet is still a great sleeper. We'll see if that changes when the time comes to move her out of her crib - I think we'll stall that as long as we can! She wakes up happy but doesn't want to get out of bed; she wants you to hand her books and play with her but says no when you try to pick her up.

Our big news of the month is something only a parent can appreciate - Juliet peed on the potty! For a little while now she's been grabbing her diaper and saying "potty" but that seems to be right after she goes. She's asked to sit on the potty a couple times but it seems to be more of a game. Then during bath last night she pointed at the potty, so Peter set her on it. She went! She's done it again even more deliberately. We'll wait a few more months before doing anything serious about potty training, but this girl is not going to put up with her diapers much longer.

Juliet is definitely growing! I didn't measure her but I finally put away her 12-month clothes since they were getting way too short. Her 18- and 24-month stuff fits great!