Since Kate is now waking up around 6am we’re back to two naps a day, a shorter one in the morning an hour after she wakes up, since she’s clearly not ready to face the day yet, and then 2 hours awake and her normal 11am-ish nap. I’m getting 3-4 hours between the two naps… usually. And she’s started going to bed a little earlier too, at around 7pm – which is fine for me since I’ve been alone many evenings lately and by 7 without help I am just exhausted and happily put her down to sleep! You’d think I’d be getting good sleep in there, but I’m not really. She wakes once a night usually, around 2am (last night it was midnight). But it doesn’t matter, I’m just not sleeping much at all. I toss and turn and am awake for hours in the middle of the night. And it’s always as soon as I finally fall asleep that she wakes me up. Gah. I’m fine half the time, but then mid-day it hits me like a brick.

Kate is showing so much more understanding of things around her now, it catches us off-guard all the time.

We’ve been playing in the yard almost every day now, and she has mastered her slide. She knows to climb up the steps, sit at the top, scoot forward with her feet down, then go down the slide on her bum. She even figured out how to get down the steps by turning onto her belly and feeling for the footholds with her feet. Yesterday – just to experiment, I guess – she was going down the slide on her belly, feet-first. She’s also figured out how to get off our bed that way, feet-first on her belly. Thank goodness. Now it’s not quite as scary when she tries getting down! (Not that she’s there very often at all, because all she does when I bring her onto our bed for cuddles and play is crawl right over to my nightstand and pull everything off. And grabs my phone charger, too.)

Since we’ve been going outside often I’ve been putting her sandals on frequently. It never was too much of a chore, I would just sit her on my lap to get them on while she looked on with interest. If she was sitting and playing I would just sit in front of her and put them on. Well she quickly put two and two together and now me picking up her sandals has her running over to me excitedly. Two days ago she marched over to me, sat down, and lifted her foot! No ambiguity there. I think she also is understanding what the words “shoes” and “outside” mean, too.

Same with getting her dressed, at least with shirts. When I put the shirt over her head she tries sticking her arm through the armhole. It doesn’t always work right, though, and she gets mad if her hand gets stuck, she’ll just start yelling until I get her un-stuck.

Her current favorite sound to make is a yodel. “Leedle-leedle-leedle-leedle!” she’ll holler. She’s fascinated by the sounds her tongue can make. The other day I thought she was chewing on her fingers like she does when her teeth bother her, but upon closer inspection I realized she was grabbing her tongue with her fingers and playing with it as she made noises. And when I laughed at her she grinned and tried to grab my tongue!

She says “Buh-bye” all the time now. Every time we’re in a store and we leave the cashier, “buh-buh!” and an open-and-close-fist wave. If she hears anyone say “bye” she is right there with it.

She’s trying to say “dog” but hasn’t managed to put the d and the g sound together, so it’s either “dah” or “og” or “gah”. But she sure loves those dogs. She doesn’t like to be licked by them, but whenever I go downstairs and let them out of their crates she leans down pointing and laughing. Outside they just like to hang out with her while she’s playing. They drink from her water table while she’s playing. (She tries to drink from it too, with the pouring strainers and cups. Gross!)

The cats are her pals, and she pretty much leaves them alone since they’re around her all day upstairs. Once in a while she’ll walk over and pat one of them – and she’s very good at that, she lightly pats them on the head or back with an open hand, not much fur-pulling anymore – and then continue on with her toys. Oftentimes Merlin gets in her face trying to get attention and she pushes him out of her way, clearly irritated. LOL She doesn’t say kitty much, even though it was her first word. Once in a while she’ll point and say “Keh,” but she’s moved on.

We’re starting to see toddler behavior in a couple of areas. One are the random fits she throws during the day. It still catches me off-guard because it’s so similar to the screaming cries she gives when she’s really frustrated or upset. But it happens when, say, I gently take my phone back from her. Or my keys. (She lost them the other day. I was not so thrilled the next day when I realized they were missing.) Or, frequently, when I gently steer her out of a room that we’re in. Our bedroom is the least safe room in the house right now so while I’ll go in to get changed she can’t stay in there for any length of time so soon as I’m done I have to herd her and the cats all out of the room (since they always manage to dart in). She has started trying to tug her hand out of mine and melts down when she can’t. If she does and she turns to go back in she’s suddenly happy again. I take her hand and say, “No Kate, we have to go this way, let’s go!” she’s melting down sobbing again. I get her out, close the door, she stands there sobbing. Then she sees a toy and she’s walking off, fine once more. I’m really trying to limit the number of times I go in and out of the bedroom (and bathroom, for that matter), but it’s hard some days. And me stepping in there for a second and shutting the door so she can’t get in, in order to prevent the meltdown when we leave? Causes a meltdown because I shut the door on her and locked her out. I can’t win. I just distract if possible. Putting laundry away is out of the question unless she’s asleep. (And then who wants to do laundry??)

The other major change is that she suddenly doesn’t like certain foods. She’s always had some likes and dislikes, but her likes were very numerous. Now suddenly she’s not eating some of her previous favorites: grapes, strawberries, cheese, chicken or ham. Grapes used to be THE thing, she’d flap her arms and pant in excitement when I gave her some. Now she drops them off the side of her tray. Cheese and chicken? Loved them! Now if she does accidentally put a piece in her mouth she spits it out and pushes it to the side. Ugh. I’m scrambling to find other things to keep on hand, since those were always my go-to foods. At least she still likes yogurt. Watermelon remains her favorite of the month. She’s also starting to try eating things with a fork – and I realized she’s more likely to put things in her mouth if it has the bonus novelty of being on a fork, even if I’m the one who spears it. She can already spear things, though it takes her a little while and it often falls back off again. So eating is a two-step process for her: stab the food with the fork in her right hand, then pick up a piece and put it in her mouth with her left. LOL