Month 13

I think I'll switch to monthly posts going forward. I want to keep notes on her behavior somewhere, but weekly becomes more of a duty than pleasure some weeks.

This month was such an introduction to toddlerhood. Mostly that means that she gets royally pissed now when she either doesn't get want she wants or we can't understand her. For her, pointing and guessing works well, but other times, we share the frustration of not knowing what is going on. I'm just much better at self-control. PJ wants to be down and walking most of the time. She wants to climb the stairs or whatever obstacles she's facing. She wants to explore the trash, the recycling, the cat litter, every bookshelf, pretty much all the off-limit areas. She understands more and more of our language to her. She's still pretty snuggly. When she wants to nurse, she will reach her hand down my shirt or grab at it insistently.

She will bring books over to one of us to be read, although often reading consists of letting her turn the pages. She will carry around a toy, sometimes a soft stuffed animal, other times a luggage strap, in a very endearing, gentle way for awhile during the day. She now enjoys not just pulling everything out of a container, but then refilling and repeating the exercise. She likes to try to hold multiple toys in one hand. She has even begun helping me build the towers before she knocks them over.

I have time to reflect on February because PJ is having a bout of diarrhea, lasting from Saturday to today, Tuesday. I don't mind taking off work because my work is just a job, but yesterday seemed very long. Shannon is back to intense rotations of 10-14 hour days and I kind of forgot how to manage my time yesterday. Luckily the dogs were super patient and not destructive. PJ didn't nap well, but finally went to sleep at 7pm. I don't know if her cranky mood is related to the diarrhea or all the pre-molars poking through or something else entirely.

I put a pair of PJ's pants on my head a few days ago and it made her laugh. I look over while I'm typing this and she's gotten a pair out from her laundry and is attempting to put them on her head. She's just so much fun right now. Sure she can get cranky and I wish there was more sleeping in big chunks so I could have time to myself, but still she's so much fun. Everything and every emotion is so interesting to her, new and enticing.