Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Hey! Mom! Write about me, too!

It's been a while since I've written a post just about Sweet Miss N. She's sick this week, with the cough/fever she got from her big brother over the weekend. It's so pitiful to hear her struggle to sleep, only to be wakened by another round of coughing, but thankfully she's doing better today. Here are some of the ways she's figuring out how to be her own little person lately.

New favorite toy: washcloths. The best are the infant ones we use to wipe her face or to bathe her, but really any old one will do. She likes to drape them over her head like a little veil, or use them as a blanket for one of her "babies." Occasionally, she'll even use one to attempt to mop up a spill, which I guess makes up for the fact that she leaves them littered everywhere, and since she usually unloads them from the clean laundry basket before I get them put away, there is a shortage of them for their intended uses.

Some of my favorite new words she's acquired include: "durdle (turtle)"; "yight (light)"; "yankie (blankie); "dohyer (stroller)". Really, she's functioning quite well without words at all, right down to her new habit of holding out her hand to me as if she just wants to hold my hand. When I take it, she starts pulling me in the direction she wants me to follow. Usually, it's the freezer for a popsicle, which I tend to deny her at 7:30 AM, even if it is quite cute.

She's quite the problem solver, as well. When I won't actually give her what she wants, she pushes one of her little chairs across the floor to attempt to get to whatever it is. The other day I found her standing on the chair in the laundry room trying to reach the Sams Club giant box of fruit snacks I keep "hidden" on top of a cabinet in there. She had had to fling two different area rugs out of her way in order to get the chair to slide across the floor. Those chairs will probably be the end of me, and there goes my usual quarantine spot for them, the laundry room.

Summer weather has caused a couple of wardrobe difficulties. Firstly, dresses and skirts without the accompanying panty/diaper covers allow her access to her diaper, which she has figured out how to remove on her own. I occasionally hear her over the monitor saying "poop, poop" and I know the diaper is at least partially off. Fortunately, this seems to be her word for "diaper," so no scary surprises yet. Secondly, no long sleeves. This wouldn't seem like a problem, except that for her, shirtsleeves have become a comfort object. When I won't give in to a shriek, or let her out of her stroller, or otherwise offer the shoulder of my own shirt for her to gnaw on, she lifts her arm up to her mouth and sucks away. Yesterday, after banishing her from flushing O's wipes down the toilet, I caught her sticking her bare forearm in her mouth. Is it any wonder her eczema flares up on her face first?

Speaking of the eczema, we've got a system in place that seems to be working quite well. If she misses a dose of Allegra, I can tell. Same for missing an Aquaphor application after baths. And yes, that means, she is basically a little squirmy greased pig, and if I don't remember to change into the "Aquaphor shirt" (basically any old t-shirt I'd wear to bed), I can count on ruining yet another article of clothing, unless someone can give me a helpful hint for removing petroleum stains.

Also recently often overheard over the monitor: some girl that sounds like she's thirteen hollering "Mom! Mom!" We skipped from "ma-ma" right over "Mommy" and right to the impatient, annoyed "Mom. Mom. Mom. MOM!"

In the same vein, if you happen to eat something off of her plate that has gone untouched the entire meal, she sounds an offended "Hey!" This is also her word of choice if anyone happens to invade her personal space.

I'm already training her for allergy avoidance. One of her books is an ABC lift the flap thing, with a picture of a peanut under the "N." (legume, not nut, but I guess we don't need the book to get that technical, do we?) Once, when we were reading it, I said "N. doesn't eat nuts. Yuck!" Now, every time she lifts that flap, she makes an exaggerated "yuck face, holds her hand out and shakes it as if pushing it away from herself. The toy catalog that came this week and has been fought over ever since has a game called "Count the nuts" with plastic peanuts as its playing pieces. (You're supposed to feed them to elephants, I think. Again with the inaccuracies!) She broke out the yuck face for this page, and quickly wanted to turn the page, so maybe we're on to something.

1 comment:

mep said...

Again, love is in the details. N. will cherish this post someday.

Isn't the "Mom, mom, mom" thing funny? Bub often calls me "mom" instead of "mommy," but I remember being conflicted when I was around eleven or so because I wanted to start saying "mom" instead of "mommy" and felt awkward about it.