Quick Before I Get Sidetrack'd

Little’s verbal skills and vocabulary are developing and growing at an amazing rate.  Recently she has begun putting together 3-word sentences.  Her current sentence of choice?

“My get scissors.”

Uh, no, Little not get scissors!

Last night (Friday) I was making a grocery list and, thus, had the pantry open to see what we needed.  When it was time to go pick up our pizza, I failed to shut said pantry door and turned my back to the girl while I got money to pay for the pizza.  Matt was in the living room writing a tweet on Twitter.  When Matt came into the kitchen he found Little squatted down in front of the pantry with her hand in a bag of coffee beans.  The coffee was open, and there was evidence all over Little’s mouth of her having eaten at least one bean.  I mean, really, what 21 month old eats coffee beans without making a noise at the taste or spitting them out?  (I really wish I had a picture of her with her hand in the bag of coffee; It was just too cute.)

And then today:  Lately Little has gotten really annoyed when she has dirt (or sticky or anything) on her hands or feet.  So, this morning she was sitting in the living room floor and said she had dirt on her foot.  I told her that it was okay, just to brush it off.  She hopped up off the floor and headed down the hallway; next thing I know I hear the bathroom drawer open and close.  I called to her and asked what she was doing about the time she was coming down the hallway with my hairbrush in her hand.  She sat back down on the floor and proceeded to use the hairbrush to brush the dirt off her feet.  As Matt said, she was just doing what I told her to do.  Guess I need to think through my instructions a bit more carefully in the future. 

Sometimes (okay, often) that sweet little girl really makes me laugh.   

Thursday evening, Little was sitting at the table eating her dinner. I was going out to dinner with a group of friends, so I was in the kitchen doing something else while she ate. She was working on some mac & cheese with her fork, and I heard her say “uh-oh scheese.” I asked if she dropped some mac & cheese and she said “uh-huh.” Nothing unusual there. As she was answering I turned to look at her and noticed she was looking down her dress. I asked if she dropped the mac & cheese down her shirt. Her reply – “in my bwa.” Yes, friends, she is 20 months old and already talking about her “bwa”; such a girl! Needless to say, Matt and I got a good laugh out of that one.

Warning: The remainder of this post is not very exciting. Its intended purpose is to document a few things Little currently says. If you choose to continue reading, you can’t say you weren’t warned.

As Little’s language skills develop it is becoming more and more interesting to hear what she has to say. Lately she’s been picking up new words right and left, but not all of them come out exactly as they should. Here are a few of our favorite Little-isms to preserve for posterity.

fwaffal – waffles
aeegg – scrambled eggs
fwoffee – coffee
uh-er-side – other side
ahfork – any utensil used for eating or cooking
sersial-ah-milk – cereal with milk
susic – music
weed-weed book – read a book
wock-wock seat – rocking chair
ah-peeg – pig
babbit – her favorite stuffed rabbit
baar – bear
oo-oo-oo – monkey or drinkable yogurt (accompanied by pointing at the kitchen)
soo-five, soo-five – two-five, her way of counting (sometimes with a four thrown in)
deredoe – “there you go” when she hands you something or “thank you”

She is getting so big and changing so much that we have to catch some of these things while we can. I know it won’t be long before she is talking in full sentences and enunciating with no problem. It is fun to enjoy these sweet tiny girl words as she comes out with them.

I’m not sure exactly how it happens, but it seems that a new week begins and the next thing I know it is Wednesday already. Guess I will have to start setting posts to autopost on Monday and Tuesday in order to get any blogging done the first of the week! The big problem with this setup is that I feel like I have so much that I need and want to get done in the next few weeks and just don’t have the time and energy (especially the energy) to get much accomplished. Oh well, I suppose that as long as Boo has a safe place to sleep and a few clothes to wear the other things can wait.

And on to the real post for today…

A couple of weeks ago my parents were in town visiting and we were able to get the twin-size box spring and mattress for Little’s big-girl bed. We are awaiting the arrival of her bed frame from Matt’s parents house but since that probably won’t happen until after Boo is here, we needed to go ahead and begin transitioning Little out of the crib.

Saturday afternoon we brought the “bed” home and Matt and my dad moved the crib out of Little’s room and the mattresses in. I was a bit concerned when she held onto the crib slat and said, “my nite-nite,” the whole time they were moving the crib. I guess she was just helping, though, because as soon as they started bringing in the box spring and mattress she got very excited. They set up her bed, we put on the bed-rail and sheets, and Little immediately climbed on and started laughing and playing. She seemed most amazed that she had a bed with a pillow and a “big dee” (her comforter).

She has slept in her bed all night, every night since we set it up. She goes in at night (and naptime), gets in bed, and stays there until someone comes to get her the next morning; just like she did in the crib. She is amazingly compliant when it comes to bedtime/naptime, and we have not had any problems with her getting out of bed before she goes to sleep or getting up in the night even though she knows how to climb in and out by herself. And best of all, in the week and a half since she left the crib we haven’t heard a single “Da-da…uh oh” to let us know she fell out of bed.

She is such a good girl and has made this transition so easily. I only hope that bringing home baby, potty training, and the other transitions we face in the next several months go half so smoothly!

Or, why Little is sleeping in her crib again.

Yesterday evening we ventured out after dinner in search of a bed-rail. We found a couple at Wal-Mart and bought the one we thought would work the best. (aside: We hadn’t looked there yet because I don’t like shopping at Wal-Mart. Not for any reason having to do with the company as a whole, just an issue I have with our local stores. But that’s another tale for another time.) When we got home Matt began doing the necessary assembly to get it onto the bed.

While assembling the rail, Matt happened to read the warnings; one of which was “Warning: Never use bed-rail on toddler bed.” Whaat??? Despite the warning we were going to risk life and limb and use the rail because, really, aren’t toddlers the ones who need rails the most?

Anyway…Matt put the rail on only to discover that it really wasn’t going to be any different than having the crib side on the bed. It was a quite a bit lower than the crib side but took up the full length of the mattress.

We were now confronted with a new decision: put the crib side back on the bed and leave her in a crib a bit longer, put her crib mattress on the floor and let her sleep there until we get her twin size bed, or leave things as they were and continue getting up in the night to put her back in bed.

Ack! The crib won’t fit through the bedroom door without taking it apart or taking the door off the hinges. Not a task we were up for last night.

Thus, Little is once again sleeping in her crib with the rail-side on it. The funniest part is that she seemed very excited to see the crib-rail back on her “nite-nite” when she went to bed last night.