The Cupcake's Lexicon

R speaks words! She has for awhile now, but here, at the second birthday mark, I thought I should type out her current lexicon for posterity.

dog - could be the animal or "draw"
muk - milk
poo-poo - means both pee and poop
head
eyes
ears
muh - mouth
unch - lunch
mao - cat
choo-choo - trains or cars
shoes
shu - lotion or soap
juice
apple - apples, any type of fruit, or tomatoes
Pooh (of course)
Win-na-pooh - Winnie the Pooh
Ti - Tigger
Owl
bees
beebee - baby
ahni - honey
hi
bye
ball
up
peas - please


Her latest sentence is "I like this!" Her favorite phrases are "all done," "beebee rock" (baby rock, aka rock-a-bye baby), and "nigh nigh" (bedtime).

It's the sentences that I love the most. In the past, she has said, "I did it!" "What is this/that?" and a couple of others that were only ever said once. Even though she zeroes in on one sentence at a time (she won't say "I did it!" now that she's focusing on "I like this!"), I'm still amazed that she has this ability to pull complete sentences out of nowhere and still have them be relevant to the situation. My smarty Cupcake.

21 months and 5 months

R is 21 months old

She has a bread fetish. Today she snuck into the cabinet where we keep the bread, almost knocked over some glass dishes, but emerged victorious with a bag of hamburger buns. She then squeezed them up to her nose and took a deep breath, multiple times. Baby likes to huff bread.



She speaks amazing paragraphs of gibberish. I can't even replicate the sounds that come out of her lips. "Gibl gibl gibl gibl!" is as close as I can get in print. She'll say "bye" sometimes when we leave a store, but her words and use thereof are unpredictable. This morning when I wanted to change her out of her nighttime diaper, she avoided me, playing, until she finally realized that the diaper felt uncomfortable. She suddenly squatted as if trying to get away from the diaper, and said, "It is weh...T." That's a delayed but very strong T sound at the end there. The girl amazes me whenever she busts out sentences like that.

I made a dedicated effort towards potty training last week. We stayed home most of the time, R spent her waking hours in training pants, and, while I got better at catching her accidents, she has made no progress in telling me when she has to go. Storytime started back up this week, and R is back in diapers for the most part. Even while wearing the diapers, I know when she is peeing, but she still won't tell me. So I ask, "Do you have to go potty? Peepee or poopoo on the potty?" and I wait for one of these days when she will say yes.


5 months

I can't believe that there's only 5 months left in this pregnancy. I'm only 15 weeks pregnant-- which is nothing in the long run-- but counting down until the due date gives me 5 months to go. It seems so short. R's pregnancy felt like it would last forever, and then it didn't because she came early, but this pregnancy feels like it's going by so quick. Have I really been pregnant for 4 months already?

I'm still seeing the doctors every 2 weeks. I see them next week on Senpai's 30th birthday. I was really wishing they would do the ultrasound that day, but I asked and they insisted that we wait until I'm 18 weeks pregnant. Can't wait to find out if this baby is the little girl that I think she is, or a boy waiting to surprise me. I also can't wait to see more than just a little blob on the screen. We have one ultrasound pic already, taken at 6 weeks, and I haven't bothered to scan it yet because it doesn't look like anything. Show me my baby. I can't feel it move yet. Every two weeks I am reassured by hearing the heartbeats over the monitor, but I need more connection to this entity hidden inside me.

14 months

It'll be 15 months in 6 days, so let's get this post going...

I love her so, so much. I can not believe the love and happiness that pours out of me when I see this face.


She is getting huggy. She hugs Pooh, she hugs her doll, she hugs the cats. Anything squishy that she can get her arms around, she will pounce it. And the smiles that come with the hugs, oh man, such radiant, beautiful smiles.


She also is a whiz at pushing buttons now. She can make her Gloworm glow and her talking baby talk.



Oh, these moments that we cherish now because we know they won't last forever. I haven't been able to capture it on film yet, but when she crawls towards something she wants, she swings her head from side to side as she plants her hands with purpose across the floor, and she makes a "nnnnnn" sound that rises in pitch at the end. My little scuttlebug. I hope she'll be walking soon, but I know I'll forever miss the crawling head swings. Speaking of walking, we are not there yet. She will cruise across the house with whatever aide she can get her hands on, be it her Wheely Lion, her Alligator Walker, or a chair, but when Senpai or I try to get her to take a step away from her crutch, she won't do it. Not yet. She is standing independently more frequently now that she is wearing her orthotics, and for that I am extremely grateful. Just one more step.

Developmental and Speech Therapists from the local Early Intervention chapter were here today to see if R needed their services. After they had interacted with R and asked me questions about her for an hour, they told me that they knew within two minutes of walking in our front door that R did not qualify for treatment. She had tracked them across the room when they came in and pointed and babbled. I told them that she said "doggie" and "dog" to the Pokey Little Puppy doll she had picked up during Storytime earlier in the morning. She also can say-- not clearly enunciated, but the meaning is there-- "I did it," "done," "this," and "What is this?" My smarty cupcake. She put puzzles together with the therapists, found hidden toys, and babbled her little heart out (she was in a very talkative mood today). That isn't to say she doesn't need improvement, though. The speech therapist pointed out that R does not imitate, and she doesn't make lip sounds. I've been given lists of words to teach her, the notion to use flash cards more often, recommendations for early learning dvds, and instructions to feed her smoothies through a straw to get her pursing her lips more. I'm on it. As far as the dvds go, I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on the Your Baby Can Read or Bumblebee Kids movies. Amazon reviews are either "It's stellar; it works!" or "It's too boring for my kid to pay attention to." I need to do more research.

So that is the cupcake at 14, almost 15 months. I'm so in love.