a pipdate - 19 months
Having a little girl is everything I expected it to be, and nothing like I expected to be at the same time. I get to put together cute outfits with matching bows, she plays with and takes care of her baby dolls, and she copies everything I do, including putting on makeup, doing my hair, and wearing jewelry.
BUT, she is anything but demure and ladylike. She is hilarious, strong-willed, and cheeky. She spends large chunks of her day running around the couch in circles. She loves to play ball, climb, jump, yell, and wrestle. In other words, she is so much fun!
toddler idiosyncrasies:
- she now introduces me, then herself, to everyone at the grocery store. Unfortunately, she pronounces her name as "Poopa."
- P: Hi!
- Customer: Oh hi there!
- P: Mommy! (points to me)
- C: Oh, that's your mommy?
- P: Poopa. (points to herself)
- C: .....?
- Me: Oh, and this is Pippa.
- C: Ohhhh. Hi Pippa!
- also at the grocery store, a man with shoulder-length hair walked past our shopping cart. Pippa's eyes lit up, and then she yelled, "Bye Jesus!"
- also at the grocery store with my mom, she started clutching the cart and yelling, "Help meeeee!" (a phrase one of my sisters taught her).
- she likes to sing in church when everyone else is singing, and fold her hands when we're praying. She'll even yell, "Amen!" every now and then!
- Pippa and I love to have dance parties when the days at home get kind of long. Her absolute favorites are Shake It Off by Taylor Swift, and Conga by Gloria Estefan. Kid's got moves!
- against my better judgment as a parent, I let her watch the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch when we were at my parents' house for Christmas. She totally identified with the Grinch character, and spent the rest of our time there asking, "Jrinch, where are you?"
- she loves raspberries and blueberries (or rasbies and bluebies)
- sometimes puts herself down for a nap by asking for chupie (pacifier) and George (Curious George, her stuffed animal), then grabbing my hand and leading me to the stairs so I can put her in her crib.
- after an episode of Curious George, she'll come up to me, hold up one finger, and say, "One mo'." That's really hard to say no to.
- when Justin makes a bad joke, she'll smile and go, "Daddy," in that exasperated tone of an embarrassed teenager. I thought she was just repeating what I said, but then she applied it to anyone who makes a bad joke.
- she pronounces Granddad as "Gahn Gahn."
- for about 2 days straight she walked around saying, "Biko biko biko," and we had no idea what she was talking about. Finally Justin figured out she was saying ombligo - the Spanish word for belly button.
- she reminds us to pray before every meal by folding her hands and looking sternly at us.
- she has long conversations on her pretend phone (or anyone's iPhone she can get her hands on) with pauses to "listen" to the other person, responses, laughter, and "k bye!" at the end. Sometimes I wonder if she's actually hearing someone else on the other end...
We are enjoying her so much lately! Her cheesy smiles, her sweet hugs and kisses before bed, and how quickly she catches on to anything we teach her all make me want to slow down time and capture the memory of each day. She is so close to putting together novel sentences instead of just repeating memorized ones (like "where are you?") I can't wait to hear what she'll come up with next!