Saturday, July 17, 2010

17 months!

I know I'm a little bit behind on this post, but oh well. Mollie turned 17 months old this past week and here's what she's up to!

Still loving to put things on, try them on her head, put my watch on her wrist, shoes on her feet, but mostly just things on her head :o)
Trying her swimsuit on

Has been designated the nick-name "Skippy" by her daddy. She's just awfully skippy, cheerful, pleasant, and full of energy when she wakes up! Because of her sunny disposition, you certainly know when somethings wrong when she wakes up and does not behave this way.

Doing lots of talking still! We're working really hard on "using your words" instead of grunts, whines, or fits to communicate. She's mastered the sign for "help", which has helped out tremendously. A lot of her frustration comes from not being able to do something, so that has alleviated a lot of whining! However, she still does it a lot, and I think the next signs/words we'll work on are "hurt" (specifically for her teething pain) and "tired/sleepy". These are the other times that she whines a lot, so maybe that'll help, too. Other than that, she'll repeat almost everything we say and is really building her vocabulary.

Using utensils to eat with: Obviously a messy endeavor at times, but she's really enjoying this and is getting better and better at it. It's very hard for me to let her do this at times because of the mess it tends to make, but I'm doing my best to let her learn :o) She's loving the independence in this area and really is doing a good job. It takes her a lot of reminders to stay focused and remember to use her utensil, but we're getting there! Here's a video of her recent accomplishment:



Playing with others: She's starting to get an idea of what this is all about. She's not too fond of sharing yet, especially her "personal space", but is definitely getting more social in the way she plays. She LOVES it when we have other kids to play with, until they are doing something different then what she wants to do! We're working on saying "No Thank You" instead of having a melt down :o)

Helping: She loves to be a helper! We let her put some dishes away, close doors, and put trash in the trash can. I've also started letting her help me cook dinner sometimes (stirring, pouring, holding, etc. Mollie seems very interested in whatever she's "helping" with and stays quite focused as long as you're explaining what you are doing. She's even more likely to eat the final product if she helped with it!
Helping with breakfast!

Potty Training: We've been dabbling in this recently. We've started letting her sit on the potty before bath each night (with success!) to get used to it, and even got her to poop in there yesterday! We've at least determined that she's not afraid and is willing to give it a try. By no means are we ready to go all the way with this yet, but I'm very excited that she's willing! I want her to be able to communicate when she needs to go, and she's not quite there yet. But that'll be an adventure for sure!

Singing and Dancing: She's started singing sometimes and it is absolutely precious. I hope to get it on video soon. The ABC song is her favorite at the moment, and she'll sing "ABABABEEEEEABABABEEEEE" over and over in her sweet little voice! I love it! She'll also dance by twisting back and forth and/or adding lots of hip thrusting...I have no idea where she learned this from. So funny though! **Side note: by NO means does this indicate any future inclination to be in certain local vocal performance group of little girls that are very Toddlers and Tiaras-esque. Just wanted to make that clear :o)

Our sweet little stinker!

Anyway, she's growing so much and is such a sweet little stinker! We love her so much and are so proud of her! Can't wait to see what's next!



2 comments:

Jocelyn said...

oh my gosh...HOW is she that big! Potty...self feeding...unbelievable!
I LOVE the cooking pictures! She is just so cute!

MaryAnn said...

One day she is going to see those "unnamed" girls and want to be just like them. :)