cindy's world

Look at the difference in just 5 months.

There must be some kind of mental leap that happens around now, or maybe it’s that the mental leap has already happened but the language skills just suddenly caught up. Either way, we finally have a good grasp on what’s going on in Allie’s little noggin, and it’s astounding.

Allie will bring up something that happened, or mention someone, dating back to BEFORE she could talk about it. But she remembers it. She’ll reference things we’ve not talked about in months. She looked at the sidewalk chalk drawing in the backyard that my brother-in-law’s girlfriend Karen drew for her when they visited in early August, pointed and said, “Look. Horse.”
“Did Allie draw this horse?”
“No…Karen draw horse.” We hadn’t mentioned that name in almost 2 months.
She watches sports on TVs in restaurants, and would identify the sport. “People play basketball.”
I said to Mr. W, “Whoa, how did she know it’s basketball, as opposed to baseball or football?”
Overhearing me, Allie shook her head and said, “No. Not baseball. Basketball.” I can’t remember the last time we’d referenced either basketball or baseball.

I like her sudden use of words that hint at the abstract shades of gray in her understanding. Words like “almost,” as in, “Allie’s almost done. Mama’s almost done eating.” “Too,” as in, “Over there! More lights there, too!” “Later,” as in, “Allie go to dance class. Go to gong-gong, po-po’s house later.” (Funny story; we were driving to my parents’ house last weekend and traffic was so horrific and slow-going that it took twice as long, and Allie said near the end of the seemingly interminable ride, “Gong-gong po-po’s house, where are you?”)

I had thought Allie spoke in the third-person like Elmo does because that’s just what people do, but now I think she does that because she thinks she’s supposed to. She actually used the first person today and then corrected herself. She pointed to her fuzzy bear that she sleeps on, which she’d dragged into her princess tent house in the living room, and told us, “Mister Bear in my — in Allie’s house.” Also today, she referred to Mr. W as “you” and then quickly corrected to “Dada.” I joked that Allie’s already smarter than Mr. W, but he agreed. He said smart kids are difficult to raise later on. Well, he’s been wrong about a lot of stuff, why stop now? *hopeful*

Allie still enjoys her motor skills, too. She loves running, she likes doing the Three-Legged Dog pose in yoga, she loves jumping, climbing, swinging hanging by her hands. She likes kicking her ball (she’s getting very good at directing her kicks), rolling over them, and is starting to catch them. The hands are still a little slow so we have to give her a head start by having her hold out her arms first. And of course, she loves her dance class. Plié, passé, coupé, etc. She still loves her backyard swing and will take my hand, pull me up and say, “Mama, stand up. Mama, come outside. Push Allie. Swing swing.” As strong as she is, it seems the only thing keeping her from getting into a lot of physical trouble is her sense of self-preservation. She plays pretty conservatively. Her movements when she’s out on a playground are deliberate and careful. I think her desire to not “go boom, doctor doctor” is what keeps her from vaulting out of her crib.

Happily, this kid does not like sweet. She doesn’t like things that are too salty. And she can identify a remarkable amount of produce by sight and by taste. That part is always something I’d wanted in my “dream kid” but didn’t really expect to happen. I know she’ll be eating crap with other kids later on; I’m just trying to expose her to as much healthy food as possible so that she’ll eat that as well for the rest of her life.

Her singing is getting much better. She hits most of the vowel sounds in “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” although the lyrics are more like, “Tinkle, tinkle little stah, ha I wondle *mumble mumble* ah. Upuh buh sky so high, *mumble* diamonds in the sky. Tinkle tinkle little stah, ha I wondle *mumble* ah.” She’s on pitch, though. And it’s fun to play the “Guess what song” with her because it takes her maybe 3-4 notes before she gets it. She doesn’t always know the title of the songs, but she’ll make a reference so you know she’s identified it. She may tell you the singer, or a key word in the song, or the next line, or where the song’s from (such as “dance class” or “Dinlan” [Disneyland]).

She’s still taking a nap a day, starting a bit past noon and lasting anywhere between 1 hour 45 mins to 3 hours, depending on her needs. She’s woken up at around 6:45a on weekday mornings, and goes to bed between 7p and 8p, depending when she’d gotten up from her nap. We feel bad about waking her up so early every morning, so we let her sleep in on weekends and if she does (she sometimes wakes up on her own early), it usually wouldn’t be later than 8:30a. I think she’s doing fine; she gets between 12.5 and 14 hours of sleep daily. I read that kids her age still need up to 14 hours, but that most don’t get more than 10. At least we’re doing better than 10. She’s still a happy kid in her crib and will roll around and play in there, singing, sometimes jumping, sometimes practicing new knowledge (the other day she was wrapping her head around the concept that people have different names outside of what she calls them, so we overheard her saying, “Mama’s Cindy, Dada’s [Mr. W], Allie’s Allie…” going through the stepkidlet and the stepkidlet’s boyfriend, too), until she finally rolls over and goes to sleep sucking her thumb.

She’s still not potty-trained. We asked her and she wants to wear diapers, although she will tell us when she is going pee-poo or poo-poo. I have no doubt she CAN use her little potty; she just doesn’t want to, yet, much to the chagrin of my parents, who’d wanted me to potty train before she was 1. I’m not too concerned; she’s not going to be a 6 year old who can’t use the toilet.

Non sequitur:
Allie got a lot of attention at Disneyland on Sunday in her “I’m spoiled by daddy” full-on authentic Snow White ensemble, but NO ONE saw the humor in my letting her walk around eating from this bag of apple chips. Come on! It’s FUNNY! It’s the modern-day Snow White toxin! Not an issue for Allie, though, because these apple chips are organic.