22 Months !

The mind of the inquisitive child has begun. Sloan has started asking "What is that" "What is this." or "What are you doing?"...

I LOVE it! We were at my grandmothers house and when we went to the potty, Sloan asked what the bars were in on the edge of her bathtub. i explained they kept Grandma from falling when she takes a bath (she IS 88 years old!) Sloan is pretty good about accepting explanations and not asking why. Not yet at least.

Sloan is quite expressive. When she likes something, "I LIKE IT" when it has to do with food, she rubs her belly in a circle while saying that. Or sometimes just,  Mmmmmmm.. When she doesn't like something she will tell you, "I no like it" or "NO mommy, No" sometimes just "NO NO NO NO NO" it is almost sing songy.

Potty "training" is a thing of the past. Sloan has had very few accidents in the past month, so few that i cannot count more than three, and once because a toilet was occupied and she couldn't hold it before it became available, the other time on a very long bike ride with her daddy, and that is all i remember in the last month., so i guess it was just two.

Food:
Mom says: Kiwi Fruit, Chocolate Chips, Pop Corn, Bread. Noodles. Potatoes.
Dad says: Chips. Broccoli.

TV:
Mom says: Timmy Time (a spin-off from Shaun the Sheep), Yo Gabba Gabba, Blues Clues
Dad says: Timmy Time.

Movies:
Mom says: Finding Nemo, Madagascar 3, Tangled
Dad says: Madagascar 3, Wreck it Ralph, Nemo, Monsters Inc.

Songs:
Mom says: London Bridge is Falling Down, Jesus Loves Me,  Jammin' (bob marley),
Dad Says: Sloan and Daddy (they made it up and she loves to sing it - to the tune of Love and Marriage)

Toys:
Mom Says: Her stuffed bunny and a cabbage patch kid "diaper bag", hard plastic care bears, all of her dolls
Dad Says:  Mommy's spinning office chair, her teddy bears


Books:
Mom says: Marvin K Mooney,  the Heads Book
Dad says:  The Heads Book, Barney flap book

Activities:
Mom says: Spinning, Singing, dancing, Being Outside, the bean game
Dad says: Bike Rides, Coloring with mommy, the bean game

What's new:
We are leaving for Paris at the end of the month and that has us pretty busy.  I have a small Eiffel Tower from my last visit to Paris that i keep on our book shelf. I decided to take it down to show Sloan to familiarize her with at least one thing Parisian.  She calls it the big tower, or the Eiffel Tower (and her recall on the name is impecable). I am so amazed by her memory. I can't wait until she sees the REAL big tower, she will think our model is merely child's play.

She also knows a few French words, but does NOT know what they mean, from what I can tell, aside from Merci Beaucoup. She says , Bonjour, Au Revior, s'il vous plait, je t'aime, and Excusez- moi (ala Miss Piggy).  WE shall see how her first international trip goes.  I am very excited!

The bean game is merely a bucket full of beans (dried kidney beans) that we pour out into other containers. She likes it. I think it is a good sensory game and we also use them to give the animals a bath (stuffed variety).

Sloan will ask for the radio to be turned on when we go for rides. (i don't tend to listen to any music in the car since it is  WAS my quiet place). The other morning we caught the end of Ice Ice Baby and she requested More Ice Baby. It was pretty cute. She also likes for me to sing to her and will ask me to sing "Again Mommy" and sometimes she will tell me "NO mommy, another one" when i sing something she doesn't want to hear. I am constantly amazed by her memory. After singing London Bridge to her one time, she was running around singing, Take the Keys and Lock her up. She has the words to Jesus Loves Me memorized as well as the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She skips some words here and there but she has the gist of it.

Sloan's imagination is growing. She pretend talks on the phone to her Grammy and Mimi. She cooks, she takes are of her baby dolls, and draws things like fish, zebras, and whatever she has her mind on at the time. It is pretty cute to see her tell you what she is drawing. Sloan has also finally named her first stuffed animal. Her pet dog is now called Bingo. AT least for now. The rest of them have names like baby, bear, bunny (essentially a descriptor of whatever it is we are talking about). Se also likes to play dressup and came to visit me at school one day in a pair of butterfly wings.

Sloan got to see a baby calf just hours after it was born. Here she is with my cousin Charlie trying to chase it back to the barn.


My cousin Christina has three boys (and a girl due in a few weeks!) Here is her current baby, Luke, who is exactly 9 months older than Sloan. These two are adorable and look like they could be twins!


Sloan definitely has curls in the humidity.  Not sure where that comes from. My brother and sister have curls.  Sloan with her great Papaw



Happy 22 months baby girl (yes this is almost a week late!) Your daddy and I love you very much. And for the record, Sloan is ready for another baby. We saw a baby at the park today and we asked Sloan if she wanted another baby. She she does want a baby, preferably a sister, and that she wants me to call it Mommy's Other Baby. It was adorable! We will keep that in mind, but for now, we are enjoying having just one.

The Mis-adventures of a Cupcake

While visiting my sister in Florida, Sloan gets a "healthy" cupcake:

After watching her lick only the icing, I decided to break it in half to help her eat it

You " BROKE IT!," she exclaimed, breaking into hysterics.

 

What did you do to my poor cupcake?!

So i traded with her (after taking the icing off of mine)

Testing out that the new one is "intact"

Don't you ever do that again mama!

BATH TIME!

21 Months!

Happy 21 months baby girl, time sure is flying!

People keep asking how old Sloan is and I can’t get my head around the fact that she is almost 2!

How cute is this pic?

This has been a busy month! We celebrated Easter, went to the beach, lots of bike rides, swimming, trips to the park and a first trip to the dentist.

Sloan did AWESOME at the dentist. He said she was the best THREE year old he has ever seen. I laughed and reminded him she was under 2. Our dental office has televisions on the ceiling and wall so she can watch TV and be distracted. Since we still watch little amounts of TV it was a treat to her. They were able to brush her teeth and look inside her mouth without a fight.

Everyone seems to love being around Sloan. She can't go anywhere without a compliment on her eyes. I do hope she sees value in her smarts too.  Sloan is also turning into a bit of a fashionista refusing to wear certain clothes. It’s pretty cute but can be frustrating. “Mama, I no like this”. She definitely has her own opinion about what to wear some days. 

Sloan is officially potty trained, Her last THREE  MANY BM’s have been IN the toilet including one  several now at school!  We are so proud of her! I think it is official, and for the books we can round up to 21 months!

She also has quite the vocabulary.  I kept hearing her say “peacock” but just couldn't figure out what she was saying.  I finally realized that she was saying “BIG TRUCK”… OOH!  She speaks many complete sentences and often forms them on her own.

We like to watch the trash truck and recycle truck come by  the curb on Wednesday mornings.

We LOVE to play outside with bubbles, running down the hills in our yard, going on bike rides, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk (and sometimes on my car!) and sand boxes.

Sloan loves the playground, and will say playground when she sees one, but it's more of a request... She will ask what a noise is, and often answer herself, “Noise?” “Wawa” such as when the ice maker refills in the fridge.  She will ask “Where did daddy go?” or sometimes “Where ARE you?” to me if I leave her sight. She has a very engineering type mind, where she is trying to figure out how things work, often turning her toys upside down and looking inside. She does not like toys that move on their own. Her grandparents gave her a singing duck and she HATES it because it moves back and forth. Too scary for her! Stuffed toys are not to come alive! I also had to turn off "Chuck the Truck" because he moves on his own.

Sloan LOVES birds, and will ask to see “more birds” when they fly away. We have a bird feeder just outside of our kitchen window for bird watching while we eat. Our favorite is the mama cardinal, which Sloan can say. We have several in our yard, and it is obvious why this is the “State Bird”.  She LOVED being at the beach and seeing the masses of seagulls!

So far, we haven’t had too many tantrums to deal with. When one begins, I will get down on Sloan’s level, look her in the eye and let her know that we don’t throw fits. Because her communication is so great, the tantrums are typically b/c she isn't getting her way, like today, she wanted to push the buttons on the elevator, but we were in the middle of lunch. I told her AFTER lunch, which upset her, she started to throw a fit, I got down on her level and let her know in a gentle way, that it was not OK, and she stopped.  I let her ride the elevator up and down TWICE (after lunch). She started to throw another tantrum after we had to get off the elevator (who doesn't want to ride up and down all day) and I scooped her up and asked her to stop. She did.  Typically Sloan is easy to calm unless she is overly tired or hungry.

Some days are exhausting, Sloan is really showing her independence and strong will, but she is a very happy child. She likes to walk around singing and being silly.

Boy did we hit the jackpot with this one because I can’t possibly believe this is due to great parenting. Sure I would like to consider that we are in fact, good parents, but our child seems to be a bit spectacular. Sometimes I feel like we are just simply along for the ride.

Sloan is a wonderful child with a generous spirit and a grateful heart. She thanks us often, for trips to the park, treats (even raisins). She says please. She gives hugs and kisses often. She even makes Rick and i kiss because it makes her so happy to see. She loves giving BIG HUGS and kisses. Especially to ellie! 

FAVORITES:

TV: Blue’s Clues, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

FOOD: Goat Cheese. Berries. Noodles. Avocado.Chocolate ( we give her mini  chocolate chips some times), broccoli, cooked kale, Almonds.
MUSIC: Bob Marley,  the Beatles, The Lorax soundtrack, Veggietales Sunday School Songs
COLOR: Purple. Everything is purple, even when it is not.
GAMES: "you're not a baby" where Sloan gets on the floor and crawls and Rick chases after her and tickles her for acting like a baby. (or something like that),  Ring around the Rosie (with her dolls or parents),  Chase me!, Push me in my Car!
SPEAKING: What doesn't she say! Sloan even says "I love you" without hearing it first! She is such a sweet girl!
TOYS: Sloan plays well independently. She likes to make her dolls from the dollhouse walk around. She puts her stuffed animals to bed and feeds them. She plays with my old Care Bears and makes them do ring around the rosie. i have also seen her make them hug and kiss, as well has have the mommy doll kiss the bears. Can you tell our home is full of love?

Sloan loves to pray before meals and even tries to pray along with us. We end every pray with "God is Great, God is Good, Amen"  Sometimes she even ends her books with "Amen".

LEARNING:
SHAPES: Star, Circle, Heart, Oval. sometimes square.  She is pretty good with her Shapes Puzzle and her Tupperware shape sorter.
NUMBERS:  She can count to THREE and know that one finger on each hand is the same as when I do two on one hand (which to me shows cognition of TWO rather than just mimicking a hand signal) She was holding three objects the other day and running around saying, ONE TWO THREE.
COLORS: As i said above, everything is purple. She has picked a color and her color is purple. If i ask her to hand me the Green stick, she might, but if i ask "what color is that stick" she most likely will say purple.
ALPHABET:  Sloan can say ABC,  Zeeee. When she sees letters written down she will say, ABC (like hey, these are letters) so she does recognize the existence of letters, but that's about it. She might know what an A is.
ANIMALS and SOUNDS: Elephant, Dog, Cat, Bird, Duck, Pig, Horse, Bear, Fish, Lion, Giraffe, Penguin, Sheep, Chicken, and Cow.
SONGS: Parts of "Jesus Loves Me", she sings chorus to "Hey Jude", "Three Little Birds", "Row Row Row your Boat", "twinkle Twinkle", "Baby Bumblebee",  "ring around the Rosie"
DRESSING: Sloan can get her arm into her coat sleeve, She can take all of her clothes off, especially her shoes and socks.
EATING: Sloan eats with a fork, a spoon, and her hands. She prefers to eat the food off of MY PLATE with MY fork...
CHORES: Sloan can pick up her toys and put them away (with some direction), she helps empty the dishwasher, she can set the table with napkins and paper plates, Put away her shoes,  hang up her coat, put books back on the shelf. Her job before and after bike rides is to get the helmets and put them back on the shelf. She can also mop up the floor with a rag when she spills something.
BATHING: Sloan can help wash her body and her hair. She loves to wash her hands and brush her teeth "I do it myself".

Then:

Now:

Despite her serious looks, Sloan is playful and silly. We love her so very much!