20 mths, 3 and 4 weeks old updates

High five with the cardboard girl at Toys R Us!

Week 90 / 20 months, 3 weeks old and Week 91 / 20 months, 4 weeks old hightlights:

June 28: I’ve been MIA on these weekly milestone updates for the past two weeks due to reporting work and transcripts. I’m not even working that much, but after a live job, finishing the transcript the day of (the best part about short, half-day jobs), I’m pooped mentally (after eating and bath time and playing with bb) that I just haven’t had the chance to sit down at my steno machine to blog. Also, since I work in the basement for the live jobs, I leave my steno machine downstairs and haven’t been bringing it up to my office to blog. I feel like I’ve played with bb less the past two weeks too because of the work. I can’t imagine how full-time parents feel when taking care of their little one after coming home from a full day of work and actually shopping for groceries and cooking for meals too (I don’t even have to cook). And so because of spending less time with bb the past two weeks, I feel like I have less to report on her milestones. Or that I’m just mentally exhausted that I didn’t commit down to memory much of the things I observed about her.
With that said, bb has been progressing leaps and bounds with her language. She can say so many phrases and remember so many things about her surroundings. I can’t even remember everything to point out anymore.
She still continues to go to the park every day with grandma and near-daily walks with me and her dad. My allergies finally died down in the last two weeks so I have resumed our outdoor strolls. Yay!
Bb is still shy (I don’t like to label her that, but what other word can I use?), even when we go out for walks. When we pass by a stranger who we say hi or wave to, bb shrinks back in her seat.
We recently encountered someone and when we told her to wave, she actually purposely put her hands behind her back to hide the possibility of even waving lol… where does she learn this from? 😅
After DH massages my feet for me, bb comes over to grab hold of my feet too and tries to massage them. It’s the cutest thing because she has a nice grip too lol
We brought her to Toys R Us for the second time on June 12. This time, she played with different things than she did during her first visit. She still had so much fun though because there’s so many hands-on things for her to play with. She also had her first mango smoothie and veggie fruit juice from Booster Juice.
We were at a restaurant after the mall visit and the patrons across from our table were smiling and talking to her and complimenting her. Bb just stared and didn’t talk and just looked at them. This is her default when meeting strangers. 😅
Despite her “shyness” with new people, she is still improving little by little.
She was in a phase where she didn’t want to sit in the high chair. She didn’t want to sit in the booster chair either. The compromise one day was that she sat in the high chair seat but on the ground lol.
Richmond Hill had a community barbecue event at Richmond Green and we all went. There was free bbq food, booths, popcorn and cotton candy, and games for kids. Bb was so well behaved during the hour-long line-up for food, all things considered.
For Father’s Day, we took her to Lake Wilcox. She loved the playground there with the tunnel slides especially. She kept wanting to go back on it again and again. I liked that there weren’t too many kids there on a weekend either and bb was able to slide down numerous times without bumping into other kids.
Last week, we had our first restaurant dinner out with bb and two friends. We didn’t bring her booster seat and she sat in one of the restaurant high chairs. This was also the first time we ordered a kids’ meal for her! $8.50 included her meal, a side, a drink, and a dessert! And she played with crayons 😀 Again, bb was silent and not ready to come out of her shell yet during the dinner.
She prefers to have her diaper changed on the playmat or on her mattress these days. The best part is that when she’s laying down for it, she doesn’t move or squirm around. I can actually run to get a wet napkin if I need to (when it’s an extra messy diaper). She fully knows that her diaper is being changed.
We’re still working on getting her to eat more during meals, but this girl just doesn’t have a big appetite…
She continues to be sassy and always says the opposite of what we tell her. “Is something yummy?” She’ll say “Yes, yummy” and then right away say “No, not yummy.”
A few times, she wanted to do something herself and when we prematurely took the task away from her, she immediately started to throw a fit and break down. So then I immediately undo what I did and let her do it herself. She likes doing things independently now that she can.
She’s been napping 2.5 hours or 3 hours daily so far. We leave her in her room and she plays with her doll and rolls around when she actually falls asleep. It’s so warm these days that she doesn’t wear her sleep sack for her naps anymore and she’s learned to fall asleep without it.
It takes a lot of coaxing and words to get her to do something these days — whether it’s heading to bed, going for a bath, going for a diaper change, getting into her high chair to eat, getting out the door, etc. It takes way longer for a toddler to leave the house than it does an infant. With a baby, you can just grab them without fuss and out the door you go. With a toddler, you have to convince them and tell them what’s happening and they have to agree. I imagine it’s going to get harder as the years go on too.