Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Tot

Amelia is currently obsessed with the song "Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat" from Disney's The Aristocats. Since last night or so, she is prone to incessantly beg "ey-buh-ee" until we play it. I am content to play the song on repeat without the video up on screen, but she really likes the video too. Last night she was really tired (and possibly feeling unwell?) and whimpered "ey-buh-ee" over and and over again until I sang it a capella. And I sang it over and over again until she slept. Yikes.

I think she is having a wordsplosion right about now. It would not surprise me to report that she regularly uses 300-400 words, especially after attempting to create an extensive Amelia-to-English translator's dictionary. Such a thing might be impossible without recording every word she says over the course of a few days... and even if I were to do that, while I was compiling a list based on that data, she'd probably spout off another fifty new words just to spite my attempts at scientific completeness. Oh well. Here is a very partial list of Amelia's vocabulary...

dooo! = I do! [yes]
no, pee! = No, please!
nao... = No [Mother, that was a stupid suggestion]
my! = mine!
pee = pee, please, pink, pizza, piano
poo = poo, spoon
pah-ee = potty
pie = Pinkie Pie, My Little Pony
shy = Fluttershy
uh-shy = Fluttershy
cuh = color
pah = pen, pencil, marker, paper
cull = popsicle
chee = cheese
chee(oh) = Cheerio
cho = Cheerio
djoo = juice (or other non-water liquids for drinking)
bubboo = water, bottle, bubbles
doot-doo = music
shao = shower, bath
bao = ball
boh = bow, bowl
buh = butt
beh = belly, belly button
birh = bird, bear
boooo = book, boob, nurse
dao = down, up
dreh = dress
gwee = green
bwoo = blue
bwao = brown
yeh-oo = yellow
weh = red
meow = cat
*blows raspberry* = elephant
see = seat, chair
all gah! = all gone
all duh! = all done
tee = tree
twee = three
too! = two, numbers
priy = pretty
prey = pretty
appoh = apple
nana = banana
sih-dao = upside-down
bee! = B, letters, bee
wai = wipes
sai = outside
cah = car
yay! = yay!
yeah! = yeah!
uh oh... = uh oh...
eye! = eye
ee-uh = ear
tee = teeth
no = nose
hey-uh = hair
aff-oh = flower
uff-oo = puzzle
awful = waffle
cwai = cry
shoo = shoes
sah = socks
nay = naked
Pah-oh = Paul (our friend)
Cah-ee = Cassie (our friend)
puppy = puppy
keeee = keys
foh = phone
cheh-ee = cherry
nee = need
neeee = knee
aahhh = arms
toh = toes
fee = feet
eeeewww = ew
goh = gross
ew, goh! = ew, gross!
fah = fall

About here I realized I had set myself an impossible task and decided to do something else.

In any case, you may or may not have noticed that Amelia has something against consonants. Or multisyllabic words. Or both? It's like she picks her favorite syllable from a word, chops off a consonant or two, and then goes with it. I guess that's baby talk for you.

Except sometimes she deigns to speak more fully. Sometimes longer sentences will spill out of her mouth, and at those times the words themselves sprout their appropriate missing consonants so as to sound more proper and such. Examples: "It's just so funny!" "Where's the puppy?" "That's not juice!" "That smells." [This one was said to a passing smoker, hah!] "I peed and pooped!" "The cat says meow!" I suppose there is also "I am cry 'cuz bedtai." That one... I had told her that I don't like it when she screams. She responded by explaining that she wouldn't cry if I didn't enforce bedtime. Hah. Yeah, RIGHT.

She's also been inventing signs. She invented one for "smile" the other day. She smiles and runs her fingers across her teeth. She is now very happy to point out that other people are smiling or happy using this sign. Her sign for "dance" is to dance with her pointer fingers.

Oh, music. She loves it. She is beginning to recognize when a song sounds "sad" and will start making mournful noises, point to the speakers, and say "sah". She understands "tempo" in some sort of crude way. She is already responding to the beat and will sway in time to a waltz, and convulse in time to something more exciting, like "Everything is Awesome". I am somewhat amused to report that her dance moves are a bit monotonous. It's always the dancing disco pointer fingers, even if she is dancing to a hymn. Ha.

Another favorite is "Let It Go"... If she's in the mood she'll do all the arm movements Elsa does in the movie. She's been doing that less often recently, though, because we've been limiting screen time... at home, anyway. Kind of. It is just too easy to watch a gajillion random Internet videos. And then Amelia gets upset when we stop. So we try not to start up on those. We are even attempting to make ourselves not click on random videos in our news feeds. This is turning out to be extremely difficult. Especially for James, it is just an automatic to click play when y'all share videos.

Anyway, I'm not sure if we've actually reduced screen time much while I've been terribly sick and weak, but I think watching movies as a family is an improvement over random Internet vids. We've watched "The Lion King", "Kung Fu Panda", "Up", "The LEGO Movie", and "Frozen" in just over a week. Amelia, I think, is starting to actually understand much of what we are watching. Scary. Sometimes she will look at me questioningly to explain something. Last night I had to explain to her that Anna and Elsa were sad because their mommy and daddy had died.

Food... augh, food. Let me tell you, we were having some good success in breaking Amelia's cheese and juice fixation for a few days before I got sick enough to need IV hydration. All I did was just not give her cheese or juice and suffer through the whining. And there was a lot of it, because she was refusing all food except those two things, and was thus hungry. And also increasingly desperate. She actually started eating random stuff with me. Huzzah!

And then I got sick, and I have been nearly unable to eat anything that isn't cheese or juice. (What's up with that?) And there is no way on Earth I'm going to be able to convince the tot to eat alternative foods if that is comprising the vast majority of my own diet. Oh well.

Other foods besides cheese sandwiches and juice that I've been able to stomach include elderflower syrup in water, Rice Krispies treats, fancy Austrian chocolate, G.H. Cretor's Chicago Mix popcorn, and... well, yesterday I ate a vinegar-doused Greek pasta salad, then licked the extra vinegary stuff off the bowl, much to James' dismay. (For whatever reason, James cannot stand vinegar. It's really quite odd.)

Notice anything that all those foods have in common? They are invariably high-calorie, low-nutrient foods. Also low in fiber. Everytime I attempt to eat an actual fruit or veggie, I have massive difficulty. I am even having trouble with the tomato sauce on pizza.

I have to be careful with juices, too. Some juices I can't handle... like orange juice. Or the strawberry juice James brought back from Austria. Peach, apricot, grape, and even mango have all been fine. Oh well. Haven't yet figured out a homemade smoothie recipe that'll sit well in my belly. Again, oh well. The midwives and I are in agreement here: just eat it. I am having too much trouble keeping down macronutrients to worry much about micronutrients.

It just still feels so wrong. Sometimes I hear Dr. Fuhrman's voice in my head saying something to this effect: "You are poisoning your unborn child! And your toddler! And yourself! Bad Jenna, bad!" Don't worry. I beat him up every time he says that. I realize that suboptimal nutrition is better than no nutrition. I managed to gain seven whole pounds in the last two weeks to make up for the weight I lost during the very bad bit. Huzzah! I am smack dab in the middle of the "normal weight gain" curve today.

Today I also "completed" my hunt for 3T-sized clothes. HUZZAH. Ugh. I eventually decided that the best method, if forced to purchase clothing, anyway, is to purchase only at thrift stores like Goodwill and Value Village... and to buy only clothes with the color tags that happen to be half-off... Because I am unwilling to pay more than an average of $1 per article of clothing, especially since it is going on a crazy tot. This color tag method really only works if you show up first thing in the morning on the day they change the color tags... (Turns out both Goodwill and Value Village change the color tag sale once a week... Goodwill on Sunday, and Value Village on Thursday. I had the bestest luck showing up at Goodwill on Monday morning, and Value Village Thursday morning.) Only took a few trips after I started timing it right.

Now, my success noted, I am actually disappointed that the clothing I purchased is fitting so well, because that means it won't fit for long. 3T shirts all fit... well, perfectly. 3T dresses... also fit well. Importantly, none of the skirts end above her knees. 3T pants... well, dang. These don't fit perfectly. They are invariably too long, by maybe an inch or two. However, they fit her waist fantastically--better than the 2T pants, anyway--so she will be donning rolled up pant legs for a bit. I have this sinking feeling her legs are going to grow a few inches soon, anyway. Strangely, 3T pajamas (especially the nice Carter's ones) are all too big. I guess they just try to make pajamas roomier to be more comfy?

I actually bought quite a bit in 4T as well, especially in shirts, because they don't look all that big on her. I hate shopping for clothes. I hate it. And, in a year from now, I will be getting ready to move to California with a three-year-old and a one-year-old. While James has no income. Sounds awful. We are already saving dollars for this time, and plan to save nearly our entire tax return for this time, so I figured it'd be a great idea to save tot clothes, too. Especially when I am finding them for a dollar or even fifty cents.

The only thing we have to investigate further is a 3T or 4T swimsuit, but the 2T one she has is fairly roomy, especially if she doesn't wear a diaper with it. And maybe shoes. But I am picky about shoes. I usually buy those new. There is a reason Amelia has one pair of shoes right now that she wears everywhere. (We also have some bigger shoes available for when that pair gets too tight.)

Woot. Anyway, Amelia is getting better at taking care of herself. She is avidly trying to figure out how to clothe and declothe herself (as well as how to hang up clothes just perfectly) and is getting pretty good at it. Toileting... sigh. Okay, I shouldn't sigh so much about this. She is actually doing really quite wonderfully. She manages to use the potty most of the time, usually without us even asking.

The sigh comes from when she stealth poops in the potty by herself. She doesn't know how to wipe her own bum adequately, of course. Ugh, ugh, ugh. I do not care to elucidate on the cause of my sighs further.

This whole semi-success transition phase is rough. Just when I had my diaper-washing routine down, she stopped soiling diapers that quickly. I am now washing them three times every two weeks, when really, they were meant to be washed every other day. This means I have ended up submitting the diapers to a more exciting wash routine to combat the fact that the diapers now have more time to become BFFs with ammonia while waiting in the wet bag for a wash. It will help when Dragon gets here. Or perhaps we will need to go buy panties for Amelia soon.

Amelia's artwork is getting increasingly complicated. For those familiar with or interested in the stages of artistic development, she is firmly entrenched in the preschematic stage. She is now sometimes drawing boobs on Mommy stick figures. I know now what she considers my most important feature. (I promise, I didn't teach her that.) She also draws things besides people, on occasion... such as bees, trees, bananas...

Oh, and sometimes she tells stories about the people she draws. Once she was drawing lines down a face, and she explained to me that the guy "is sah, is cry, cry, cry..." Apparently, he was crying a lot, because she kept drawing lines over his face until you couldn't tell there had once been a person underneath.

At times I get a little freaked out by Amelia's leaps in artistic development... I mean, the standard wisdom is that kids don't start drawing like this until age 3, or maybe 4. I can tell James is a little freaked out sometimes too. Once, after sitting for a while with a concerned face, he asked me, "So... if she's 2, and she draws like a 3-year-old, does that mean her IQ is 150? Or maybe she draws like a 4-year-old. 200!" I laughed at him, and I assured him that art skills likely don't correlate that neatly with IQ.

Besides, I don't want to admit I have a kid quite that unusual until I absolutely have to. I mean, I was labelled gifted as a kid, both my sisters should have been (one was dyslexic and that got in the way, so sad), James was (and I estimate that his raw intelligence is higher than mine is), as far as I can tell, all his brothers and sisters fit in the gifted category (except maybe the one with Down syndrome... though I have a sneaking suspicion that if it weren't for that pesky extra chromosome, she'd be as intelligent as the rest of them) as did his parents, etc., etc., etc. So, I have just assumed all my children will be quite intelligent.

I am just now beginning to realize that, more than pride-inducing, it is just plain frightening to see signs of it in Amelia. It's overwhelming. I mean, I'm responsible for the majority of circumstances in her life, and just thinking back to the difficulties I had growing up with the gifted label makes me exceedingly nervous. How do I coach another small "gifted" kid through life?

I know the stereotypical reaction to a parent who thinks their child is unusual in anyway (especially if they let slip the g-word) is something like "Oh, come on. That's perfectly normal. Puh-lease. Stop bragging already." *eye roll, loss of respect*... That alone makes me scared to even express my anxieties. But it is the truth. Oh, of course, there is a part of me that is exceedingly pleased to see that Amelia is intelligent. How could I not feel that way? But the overriding emotion is the, "Oh goodness. Here comes the rollercoaster ride."

In any case, Amelia is quite good at drawing for her age. I don't know how much of that is hereditary, but practically my dad's entire family is exceptionally talented in the visual arts and many of them use that skill in some way to make their living. So, at the very least, there is that to look forward to. Predictably, my dad esteems it very important to encourage Amelia's interest in art as much as possible. He spent lots of money to send her a TON of art supplies for her birthday. So... you can look forward to more photos of artwork on Facebook.

Well... it is nap time.

Love and tadpole people,
Jenna
and Amelia
and Dragon