20 Months and Counting

I can't believe we're soon approaching two around here...well, yes, sometimes the behavior I witness reminds me that we're in the throes of toddler hood, but it still boggles my mind that I've been home with Reese for almost two years.

In recent news:

1. Cousin Claire: Reese's first cousin arrived early on Wednesday night, April 28th. Reese got to visit her the following Sunday and spend some time at Aunt Kate's house while Mommy tried to help Aunt Kate out. At first, Reese's opinion of the baby was similar to that of the family cats: inspect briefly and then ignore. After a few days around the Claire, though, Reese was ready to help Claire by giving sharing her toys, holding her, and always keeping close tabs on her blankets pacifiers and diapers. (Mommy sterilized quite a few pacifiers that Reese got a hold of and decided to decorate her toes with.)
2. Talking, talking, talking: I know that now that it's started it will never stop, and I know it will lead to actual conversations at some point, but holy moly, where are all these words coming from? I know a few words have made their way into her vocabulary via Sesame Street, but I think others she's just heard in passing, and when she uses them appropriately for the first time I'm generally stunned. Examples lately: dawn (she saw the sun coming up one morning), and humongous (I know this one comes from SS).

3. Numbers, Letters, Shapes, and Colors: Reese loves counting items. She can count to four without help, but needs some prompting to get to ten. If I start counting and stop anywhere between one and ten, she can fill in the next number. Reese tries to read everything she sees. She understands that print has meaning, and she'll point to signs, posters, magazines, and anything she can get her hands on and start making up words and stories she sees. She even points to the words as she "reads" along. Thanks to a talking shape puzzle from Grandma Righter, Reese also loves shapes. The other day she told me that the button on the dryer is a diamond (it is), and that a piece of craft paper at story time was an oval (it was). In the color department, we're moving beyond blue and Reese now recognizes other colors. For some reason purple and orange are consistent hits, while yellow is still a mystery.

4. Spelling: I'm writing this story down because it blew me away, and I have a witness to corroborate. I readily admit that if I heard another mom tell this story about a 20 month old I would have my doubts. Be that as it may: Last Friday Reese and I were sitting at her picnic table having snack when Kevin called home to say he was trying to leave work early. I had plans to take both Annie and Reese on a walk to the mailbox after snack, but I knew better than to mention it to either of them. The mere words walk, wagon, or mailbox incite riotous activity from both the dog and Reese in anticipation of the exciting event. I didn't know what time Kevin would get home if he left work early so I told him, "I think we're going to the you-know-where to drop off the M-A-I-L." As soon as the words left my mouth, Reese looked up at me and said, "Mail?" Kevin heard her voice over the phone and replied, "Did she just say mail?" Yep...she did. I thought the spelling trick would work for a few more years at least. I'm just glad she hasn't figured out P-A-R-K yet.

5. Potty Time: While we were visiting Aunt Kate and Cousin Claire last week, Reese announced that she wanted to go poopy on the potty. I wasted no time with her request, although sitting on a big potty was a little scary and Reese wasn't able to go. regardless, Reese is showing more interest in going poopy in the potty. We had several successful attempts yesterday and a few more today. This morning she even stopped me at the park to tell me she had to go and she went in the adult potty at the park grounds. Her timing is still a little off, and she seems to start going before stopping to let us know--but it's an encouraging start. And, yes, we're rewarding her with lots of praise...and jelly beans. She gets VERY excited when she sees that she's made a deposit in her potty and will run around clapping and cheering afterward. So far, potty time requires a lot or props. Sometimes it's books, other times it's toys, but without fail Ellie and her blankie have to be there. I'm not sure it's modesty, but she insists on covering herself up with her blanket when she sits on her potty. Whatever it takes, I guess...

Summer's On It's Way

One afternoon it was simply too hot to walk to either of our neighborhood parks, so Reese had her first experience running through the sprinkler!

At first she was a little nervous about getting completely wet, but once I said it was like the shower, she seemed less scared and started making running passes through the water.
Sunlight is a tough commodity in our backyard in the afternoon, so there was only one sunny place to put the sprinkler--I didn't feel safe having her run around in the front yard so close to the street. From all the shrieking and laughing that ensued I think we may have some encore performances in our summer's future.

Zoo

Things have been pretty busy for us lately--including a few (planned and unplanned) trips to San Antonio for the birth of Reese's cousin Claire. As a result, I've gotten behind on my blogging.

Several weeks ago we took Reese on her first trip to the zoo. Since Austin lacks a "true" zoo, we went to San Antonio to visit with the grandparents and see the "real thing" at the San Antonio Zoo.

I thought that going to the zoo during Fiesta would somehow equate to smaller crowds (thinking everyone would be doing Fiesta events, NOT the zoo), but I was definitely wrong. The zoo opens at 9AM and when we arrived at 9:30, there was no parking to be found. We had to park at Alamo Stadium and walk to the zoo. It wasn't a long or terrible walk (considering we had our umbrella stroller in tow), but it was just the beginning of the crowds.

Reese was excited about seeing the animals and didn't want to spend much time in her stroller. She would run from habitat to habitat to see the animals, and then get frustrated when she couldn't see over the fence for herself.

Reese's favorite exhibits were the sharks in the aquarium as well as the bears and monkeys. Due to cleaning schedules we didn't get to see the elephants (and we weren't going to wait half an hour to do so) or giraffes, but we hit most of the other major attractions. The only time Reese was scared was when we went in the butterfly house. She was terrified of all the butterflies flying near her and when one landed on Daddy she nearly climbed over his shoulder to get away. The trauma was short lived, though, since the monkey cages were nearby and offered a great distraction.


Overall, the trip was a success. We have Sea World in mind for sometime in the next few months, although we haven't worked out the details.