My Little Learner

It never ceases to amaze me how much this little girl can understand and learn so quickly.

This week she's been so busy! She spent half of the week watching potty videos, begging me to replay them over and over like she was studying them. Around Wednesday, she actually told me when she needed to go and asked to go on the potty. I sat her down, and sure enough! She proudly smiled at me and said "stinky!" I decided to not potty train her yet as she's still quite young, but she seems to be training herself!

She also began counting. She loves to count her doggies and fish. The other night, as we waited for her daddy to come home, we counted the doggies a few times. Just as he came home, he heard her say "1 - 2- 3!" and waving her little fingers around, using them to count as well.

She also says silly things now, like "no way!" I'm not even sure where she picked it up from, but sometimes her adorable little nooo's are followed by a "way!" Whenever anything falls or drops, whether it's in real life, on purpose or accident, or in a show, she says "oooh!" As in "oh no" or "uh oh" but she goes in the middle of both and just says "oh".

She's becoming a big walker now. I'm so glad she waited, as so far she's been so steady on her feet. No walking accidents, no frequently falling down. If she wants to walk, she usually walks until she's ready to sit down. She has good balance and steady feet.

She now wants a choice in everything she eats. She knows what she wants! She hates eating just one thing for any meal. She wants to vary each bite - one bite of yogurt, followed by one bite of banana, one bite of whatever I'm having, then a swig of juice.

We also began learning Latin with a young children's learning program through song. Katie LOVES music, so this is right up her alley. As someone who always wanted to learn a large range of languages, I'm excited to give Katie the opportunity to know the base language of the romance languages so she will be able to learn Italian and French and Greek and so on like I always wanted to.

Some pictures of this month with my little girl:

waiting for daddy to come home:

playing with some of her favorites:

Fresh out of the bathtub adorableness:

A very rare picture where she looks a bit like me!

Nineteen Months!

Katie turned nineteen months yesterday! Can't believe it, she's going to be a two year old so soon!

Katie has been doing a lot in the last month, the biggest milestone is that this little girl is finally WALKING! She took her first real steps (more than just one and falling down and without touching anything else) on January 10th. Before this, she'd walk just fine when holding hands or furniture and she could balance alone and stand in the middle of a room, but she refused to walk. Not because she couldn't but because she wouldn't!

She's quickly gaining confidence now and has learned how to walk forwards, backwards and her favorite, sideways! (maybe she's watching too many music videos? lol) A few days ago she just came walking into the room with no trouble at all and she was so proud of herself! She still hates to do it if I ask or if people are watching, but if I act like I'm not or if she's around my little brother Tommy, off she goes! It's about time! She's further along in her vocabulary and her fine motor skills than she should be at this age, so I guess something had to be left out. The gross motor skills were there, she was just too busy to really develop them past climbing on everything and walking along with balance until now.

Katie LOVES the snow. She loves to be in it, she loves to watch it fall, and she loves to point to it at the window. Earlier in the week it snowed all day. She parked herself in front of the window and kept pointing at it telling me "snow, snow!"

She's also crazy for music. Not a country fan, but she loves Gymbo the Clown music and her daddy's music - drastically different but loved equally. She knows every move to every Gymbo song, and has since began making up her own unique sequences of dance moves to normal songs. It's hysterical to watch. She also loves singing. She hates car rides, but if we put on music she'll stop screaming and just sing the whole time while grooving in her seat.

I think she has all of her teeth through now. Most of them were just a bit through the gums, but in the last two weeks they've all come through more and she now has a big mouth full of teeth. Hopefully this means it's over for a while, because this last batch had four painful ones coming through at once and she's been a total crank over them.

She also seems to be striken with the 18 month sleep regression. The last week she's been a little terror to make nap and sleep. She needs that nap, she'll pass out eventually for it because she's so tired, but she never willingly wants to stop and take it. She used to love nap time just a few weeks ago. Now she's early to rise and late to sleep and it's driving me crazy. I never had sleep problems with her before, she's spoiled me with no sleep troubles until now. I tried to skip her nap today so that she'd go to sleep early, but that didn't work. Instead, she just ended up passing out on top of me anyway and later than she should have. Looks like it'll be another late night, but luckily Bill doesn't have to work in the morning tomorrow so I may just give her to him to deal with for the night!

I can't believe how big she's getting. She understands more than I can believe, she makes connections to everything. I love watching how her brain works and how much she knows. She has learned more than I've tried to teach her, she just picks up on everything. No wonder they say toddlers' brains are like sponges. I can definitely see how. I'm getting her started on the toddler Latin program for us to learn. It's through songs, so I'm sure she'll love it. I can't wait to get her started on her home preschool courses, she loves learning time.