My 21-month-old...

... loves making sounds. When she says "owl," she automatically follows it with "hoo." For cars, she vrooms. Frogs are "ribbi." For bears, she growls ("roar!").

... has a vocabulary that also includes toddlerese versions of more, ball, door, go, car, baby, bee, eye, whee!, woo woo! (for fire trucks), bop!, hi, bib, blue, yellow, red, green, numbers two through six, eight (but never one, seven, nine, or ten), and almost all of the alphabet (favorite letters seem to be g, p, o, and m. She never says w). And for some strange reason we have yet to uncover, her word for cat is "wah." She uses this consistently whenever she sees cats either in books or in real life, so we know that's what she means. We just have no idea why.

... imitates me when I stretch before a run.

... is showing clear signs of readiness for potty training. She maintains dry diapers for hours at a time, enjoys the potty books we inherited from her cousin, grabs at her privates when she's wet or dirty, "hides" in another part of the room when she's about to go number two, wants to know what I'm doing when I'm on the potty (hey, it's teaching!) and, well, is almost two. Luke and I plan to buy a potty chair next month and see how she reacts to it.

... can constantly be found wearing Luke's or my shoes. She also has a soft spot for the boxes.

... is spending more and more time outside of her stroller and getting better and better at holding our hands out in public.

... finally eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with minimal coaxing.

... still mainly eats pasta in marinara sauce, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, cheese slices, chicken tenders with barbeque sauce, pizza, applesauce, yogurt, bananas, mandarin oranges, cherries, blueberries, pancakes, French toast, regular toast, eggs, cereal, crackers, and Cheerios. Mashed potatoes are iffy. Vegetables are vehemently rejected (unless Luke hides them Sneaky Chef-style). With such a bland palette, you can imagine our surprise last night when she voluntarily picked up a Japanese pan noodle and ate it. And then asked for more! Beef is the devil, but Asian cuisine she likes. Whatever.

... will not touch any form of juice. Milk and water and that's it.

... comfortably wears size 3T clothing, a size six diaper, and size nine-and-a-half shoe.

... loves looking at dogs but is afraid of them up close. At KJ and Marin's birthday party earlier this month, she wouldn't get ten feet near Danny but always wanted to know where he was and what he was doing. My original hope way back when was to get a dog before Luke and I had kids so they would never be afraid of them, but we then we lived in apartments for several years and by the time we got our house, Nathan was on his way--not the ideal time to train a pet. Now, we are both passionately committed to not getting a dog until both kids are potty trained and we are in our next house. (We spent more than $5,000 on this carpet, dammit; spit-up and human urine is quite enough for now without adding animals to the mix.)

... watched her first television show last week! (Snippets of All My Children and Beverly Hills, 90210 don't count.) Luke and I have been pretty strict with the no-TV-until-age-two guideline, but as Kara inches ever closer to her second birthday, we've been talking more and more about how to introduce it to her. Her first exposure to children's programming was ten minutes of The Wonder Pets. Luke and I didn't understand what the hell it was all about, but Kara took to it like a fish in water and was mesmerized the entire time it was on. Saturday morning brought us fifteen minutes of Max and Ruby, which was much more to my liking, seeing as it's based on literary characters and we have a Max and Ruby book that Kara likes a lot. We didn't finish it because she was acting so zombie-like I could only imagine what a full half-hour would have done to her IQ. Though later on that afternoon when we were trying to work out a contract with a door-and-windows guy and all Kara wanted to do was poke at the sample window on the floor, I ignored my fears of brain damage and said, "I'm going to do something I don't normally do," and the door-and-windows guy actually replied, "I bet I don't want to see this," because apparently he thought my last-resort bag of tricks involved beating my child in front of a total stranger. (To be fair, Luke later said that even he thought I meant a spanking, if just for a brief moment, despite our unanimous agreement that spanking is not for us.) All the men in the house breathed a sigh of relief thirty seconds later when I asked, "What channel is Noggin?" and proceeded to let Kara watch 45 minutes of Olivia while Luke and I finished signing papers. Oh, well. A for effort, overall.

... plays with all the toys we have but especially loves a hand-me-down animal treehouse from her cousin, her Little People airplane, Nathan's stuffed monkey, Luke's old Curious George, and various puzzles. We recently pulled out a big-wheel tricycle my parents bought for her first birthday, and she's getting a kick out of that. For Christmas, Luke and I want to focus on toys that will encourage imaginative and creative play; I so want to get her a play kitchen, but even the plastic ones run about a hundred bucks, and that's without the cost of food and kitchenware. I won't even tell you the prices of the ones that are wooden and/or handmade. We're thinking that may be a better fit for next year, anyway, when Nathan will be old enough to enjoy it with her and we can make it a joint gift for both of them.

... has suddenly taken on some less attractive character traits typical of a child on the verge of two. This includes but is not limited to throwing random tantrums for diaper changes, baths, bedtime, car rides, and instances when she tries to take a toy away from Nathan and we won't let her. Consequently, I have taken on several nose-wrinkling character traits of my own, and it only takes one misstep to make me feel like a spectacular failure as a parent. Luckily, we both can cry it out and forgive each other.

... makes up for all of the hard stuff every time I enter the house and find her waiting at the kitchen gate, looking for me and smiling because she associates the sound of the garage door opening with my arrival home from work. She also continues to be generous with hugs and kisses. It doesn't get any better than that.

Jillian would be so proud.

 Wrong feet, honey.

My beautiful girl.

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For those of you not in the know, I used to write monthly updates documenting Kara's and Nathan's progress around the time of their birth dates over at Parents (Kara's falls on the 17th; Nathan's is on the 31st). At first, I wasn't sure if I would carry that idea over here, since the concept is so mommyblogish and readers may or may not be into that on a personal blog, but it really is a great way to capture all the little details I might forget later. Plus, my kids are too cool not to write about. Plus plus, I love them. You heard it here first!

Comments

[Cookie]

I'm glad you're still doing the updates. I've always enjoyed reading them. I can't believe how big she's getting! I was thinking about Kara's word for cat "wah" and perhaps she is trying make a meowing sound? My 18-month-old say mow for cat.

[daddyd]

Great process with words. She is moving ahead with words and numbers. Thinking all the time. Owl was one of her daddy's first words. Family tradition, I guess.

[Violet]

I know a lot of kid's tv is brain-meltingly bad, and a lot of it that I remember (or my husband STILL watches on DVD) is violent or scary, there is a lot now that is really good and positive. You might try the Backyardigans - that has always been my daughter's favorite. It is essentially a cartoon musical with animals, that has a moral. She loves to sing and dance along, so it's more interactive than just sitting glued to the screen.

And I have one of those Step 2 kitchens. Yeah, not cheap, but she has played with it a LOT, and it came with a ton of dishes and plastic food included (more than you'll want around, trust me!) :)

[AJU5's Mom]

We are there with you on so many things! (dogs, potty, stroller, toddler behaviour, shoes) Hopefully Kara won't be afraid of the potty chair like AJU5 is though (loves to look at it but refuses to sit on it). And she is so big! AJU5 is still in 18-24M things with the exception of a few 2T tops (and wears size 4 diapers and size 5 shoes).

[Molly]

I am so glad you'll continue the updates here! Later on there will be so much you've forgotten and will be asking Luke which kid did what and said what. More guilt, haha. I can't believe Kara is inching so close to two already. Time flies. Love, love the updates. :o)

[eva]

I've seen a lot of play kitchens on craigslist - nothing fancy, just the plastic Little Tykes stuff - may be worth checking out

And seriously? Shoes in size 9.5? 3T clothing? Incredible. Kara's diet sounds quite diverses for a 21 month old to me! I have one of those "yogurt and nut butter and red peppers and pretty much nothing else" kids.

We got Megan a bumbo potty insert seat and she LOVES it! Sits on the toilet, pretend wipes multiple times, and flushes! No peeing or pooping in there yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

Thanks for the update!

[Jen L.]

I love that you're doing your updates here. I always look forward to them. We want to stay in the loop with Kara and Nathan! What is up with beef being the devil??? It's that way at our house, too, only chicken is even MORE devilish. Pork, however, is acceptable, particularly if marinated in balsamic vinegar. (WTF?)

If you have Noggin, you may want to check out Jack's Big Music Show. It's our favorite. Lots of music and dancing and cute animal things. Dean actually said his first sentence (and by sentence, I mean 2 words with some gibberish in the middle) while watching that show.

Sigh. I wish boys were as interested in potty training as girls. Dean still stands in the middle of the living room and makes a productiong out of going number 2.

Kara is, as always, magnificent, especially when she wears a ponytail.

[Veronica]

I love that you are still going to do these. Nathan and Alexander (my baby) are so close in age that I especially like reading his. It's nice to see how our kids are growing. It makes me feel better sometimes because I have someone I can relate to. Thank you.

http://awildparentingadventure.blogspot.com/

[Grandma Molly]

After giving this some thought, Wah for cats may make perfect sense. What do cats say? They say. "Meow-wah."

[Joanne]

I love to read the updates, as I have a 20 month old and a four month old and who am I if I can't compare unfavorably my kids with your geniuses? :) I want to recommend Hi-5 for a good tv show. It's on Discovery Kids (103 or 104? on Brighthouse) at 9:30 weekday mornings and it's super cute and has humans singing and dancing. My 20 month old is enthralled by it.