What's Amia doin'?

Amelia is talking. A lot. Amelia repeats almost everything we say, including, once, "Damn it, Suki!" as Suki escaped outside through a closing door. Amelia somehow got a southern accent, or at least a southern way of sayin' lots of words. She drops her g's. She called her (L)u(l)i and Guwu's cat Maude "Mawwwd." Could she have picked up this drawl from her mother? You be the judge.

Amelia also drops l's. Hence the (L)u(l)i and the "Amia." Or often she just calls herself "Mia." Mia was listed as a nickname for Amelia in the baby name book I used, and now I see why.

For yes, Amelia says "okay." For no, she says "no okay." All in one phrase. (Are you ready to take a rest? No okay. I am learning to tell, not ask, certain things.)

Amelia is asking a lot of questions, or rather, the same few questions over and over. What's Amia doin'? What's Daddy doin'? What's Momma doin'? What's Suki doin'? (I remember my mom telling me how many times I used to say "Ronna... What doin', huh?")

Amelia assigns dialogue. She likes me to talk for her dolls and stuffed animals. Usually they want to eat something or do whatever Amelia is doing. Then she will tell them, gravely, "Mia's turn." She also likes for me to ask to do what she is doing and then say no. This might worry me but I read in The Happiest Toddler on the Block (which I highly recommend, along with The Girlfriend's Guide to Toddlers) that it's actually good to let toddlers be the boss and deny you of things sometimes for play, because they have so little power in other things.

Amelia takes her time. I am tested many times a day on my resolve, so long ago, to be patient when Amelia became a toddler. Walking 50 feet can take half an hour. Going up or down the stairs can take half the morning. I try to remind myself that what feels like a sidetrack to me is a learning experience and a experiment in independence for Amelia, and save the times I ask her to hurry for when it really matters.

Amelia wants to do it "self." In other words, "Mia do it." Putting on her shoes, buckling into her carseat, putting on her pants: these are all thing Amelia really wants to do by herself and can't quite, yet. But she tries, sometimes calmly and sometimes with great frustrations. If only patience came in a bottle. For both of us. These have been moments when I have had to literally chant aloud to myself "Patience, patience!" (It helps.)

Amelia likes to collect. One of the things she is repeating is "A-nuh-nuh ____?" For example, she has these little plastic animal toys she calls hippos that have holes on one side and a point on the other end so they can snap into each other. They are all pulled apart and scattered everywhere because she likes to put them on her fingers. If we happen to see one she says, "A-nuh-nuh hippo?" (That's "another.") Basically, anything she finds or likes, she asks for another. A-nuh-nuh haircip? A-nuh-nuh bracet? A-nuh-nuh bear? And etc. Etc. All day long.

Amelia has been sleeping beautifully. 10-12 hours a night, 2 or so hours for naps. Did this coincide with weaning? Yes. Well, the night sleep did anyway. Could be a coincidence, but just for the record. The naps got easier when I started being consistent about a nap routine: home from morning outing around 11, lunch, playtime, stories, in the crib between 12 and 12:30 for 3 songs, the end. She usually cries for a few minutes before she falls asleep, but sometimes she just talks to her animals. Again for the record, her current bedtime is between 7 and 8, depending on how tired she is.

And finally, Amelia is wonderful. She is fun, funny, and fascinating. She changes so quickly and is becoming her own little self with alarming speed. Although I am sometimes tired and impatient, I am truly and deeply thankful that I get to spend so much time with her.

Mid-July (And poop!)

Since July is quickly slipping by, I got out my big summer checklist today to see how much I have accomplished. If I were grading myself, I'd get a B. I'm doing okay.

One thing I would get an A+ on is my goal to learn more about potty training and make a plan (or not) for potty training Amelia. When I made the list she was showing some interest in the potty so I wanted to see what the experts had to say about the matter, as well as people who often know more than experts, parents with kids older than Amelia. Based on what I learned, Amelia was showing many signs of potty training readiness: interest in the potty, ability to communicate reasonably well, ability to tell me when she was going to the bathroom, that sort of thing. There were some she wasn't showing, though, especially the desire to have her diaper changed when it was dirty. Still, because she was interested and having so many "naken minutes," we spent a lot of time siting on the potty and talking about what it was for. Pretty soon after we started, she peed in the potty. We worked on it a few days, and I sent out a call for parent advice on Facebook. After reading the responses, I decided to take my time on the potty issue. I have heard from a LOT of people how their kids trained early, then backtracked later. After reading the books, it seems like some backtracking is common for most kids, so common it is probably just part of the process. But since A was only 20 months and because I did not want to spend our entire summer in the bathroom, for the last couple of weeks I have just been encouraging A to sit on the potty when we are home and she is running around naked (which is pretty much most of the time we are at home).

It clicked for her, mostly--when she needed to pee, she would run to the bathroom, sit down, pee, and say, "Yay!" She loves the process of the whole thing, especially picking up the potty, pouring the pee in the big toilet, flushing, closing the lid, and rinsing the little potty. She also loves to stand on the little potty (lid closed) and use it as a stool to wash her hands. There was still a good deal of pee on the floor from when she would run in the bathroom without me realizing it, then bring the potty to me to see, but overall, smooth going. I was proud and happy but mostly trying not to push things and go with the flow, no pun intended.

Poop was a different story. When she needed to poop, she would ask for a diaper, then go hide behind a chair or something to squat and do her thing. Until--today! The last couple of days, Amelia has been telling me "poop in there" every time she poops, and being pretty agreeable when I try to change it right away. I could tell it was beginning to make her uncomfortable. So this morning while I was changing her diaper, I told her that just like she was been peeing in the potty, she could poop in the potty too. And after lunch today (during a naken minute, of course) she did! She was proud. Yays abounded. Exciting times! We'll see what happens next.

The potty training plan is the only section of my list with everything checked off. The "running" section has the least, but I revised my plan and got back on track this morning. I really want to do something to battle the leftover baby belly, which actually has gotten bigger since immediately post-baby. I am the last person the world to count calories or not eat the chocolate cake I want, so running seems to be my only option. Plus I read this NYT article in March.

Yoga-wise, I have mostly settled into a two-day-a-week pattern. Although I would love more, I feel good with twice a week. I have devoted more time to reading, although I need to find a good time to consistently read the news, but I have not worked at all on my two seeds for writing projects. In the next two weeks, I am going to see how much I can check off. I don't think I'll get it all done, but I might get close!

Question Air Returns

Due to some problems with the new web address I was using and other issues,
Question Air is returning! You can find us here at the old address, questionair.blogspot.com. Stay tuned for more changes to the format, as well as a separate site for my writing information.