Toddler-boo is 20 months old today! I said a couple of times yesterday to Mr. W that our baby will be 20 months old tomorrow (today), and I totally didn’t realize until after he went to bed that Mr. W’s actual annual birthday is today, too. So happy birthday to both of them. =P

Significant things this past month:
* Allie started self-weaning about a week ago from her last remaining nursing session, the one shortly before bed. The nursing got shorter, then last week she would finish one side and refuse the other, telling me she’s “done-done.” I’d ask in different ways to make sure she means it, like “You’re done with nom nom?” “Just a little bit?” “Are you sure?” “You want to go in your crib now?” (“Yah. No-no-no. Yah. Yah.”) So I’d put her on her fuzzy bear in the crib (she still needs him for nighttime), kiss her hands while offers her palms up toward me playfully, go turn off the lights, return to her crib side and kiss her fingers that she’d offer to me through the slats of her crib as she smiles and giggles, then I’d blow her kisses and close her bedroom door. Last night, for the first time, as soon as we said night-night to her dada and went to her nursing chair in her room, she pointed to her bed and requested with a, “Mmm? Hmm?” So I asked her, “You want nom-nom? You want to go right to bed? Are you sure?” “No. Yah. Yah.” So that’s what I did, and she was fine. I think she’s weaned.
* She’s saying short phrases/sentences, and she’s got verbs and prepositions. “Mama, look. Look, dada,” are the common ones. And “I’m done.” She sees an action and will say, “Mama peel” when she sees me peeling oranges, loquats, etc. “Lay down,” she’d say pointing to a stuffed animal or her doll laying down or referring to herself laying down. When she wants to sit on a counter or access something high, it’s “Up up up pah pah pah!” And “Down down down down” when she’s in a high chair and she’s done. “In in in in in” when she wants something (like a bottle or a wrapped toy) opened for her so she can get “in” to the packaging.
* She knocked out chunks of her front teeth.
* She moves people. She will take my hand and pull me out of my seat, walk me a few steps away, then drop my hand and return to my old seat and steal it from me, looking all happy and proud of herself after she settles into my chair. Or if she wants me to see something, she’ll take my hand and pull me up and walk me to whatever she wants me to look at.
* Unfortunately she now knows her way around the iPad, since she’s recently gotten more access to it.

Loves:
* Dancing, singing, humming, still.
* Requesting that we call “Gong-gong, po-po, i-pah” so we can facetime with my parents with her on iPad, but she treats FT like a video; she just stares and doesn’t talk. As soon as we hang up, tho, she protests and wants to reconnect. If we do — same thing…nothing.
* Watching her own videos, playing with kid apps on iPad.
* “Reading” a book or magazine with mama and/or dada. It’s really just pointing to and talking about the pictures. When she sees text, she’ll point and identify them as alphabet letters by saying, “A-Bs, A-Bs.”
* Running around outside, at the park, with other kids, etc. She rarely wants to be carried. It’s usually “Walk walk walk walk! Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk” until we put her down.
* Animals.

Dislikes:
* Hearing an overplayed song, watching an overplayed video. She likes fresh content or at least fresh context.
* Getting into the car and carseat if it means leaving a place she was having fun.

Mom & Dad’s Dislikes:
* Allie pushing half-chewed food out of her mouth with her tongue. What the heck.
* Allie sweeping (with her entire arm) and flicking (with her hand) half-chewed food that she’d just spit out on her tray onto the floor. ARGH!