more milestones

Butterfly is spending the weekend with my parents so yesterday, daddy and I enjoyed cuddling Ladybug between us on the bed. It occurred to us that by the time Butterfly was this age, there was already another baby in the house (Ladybug was born when Butterfly was 17.5 months old).

Ladybug is thoroughly enjoying having all the attention to herself, and I have to admit, I like it too. I think one-on-one time is important. So we have been playing with her favorite toys (megablocks), reading her favorite books (anything with Cinderella or animals), watching her favorite cartoons (mickey mouse clubhouse) and cuddling. After a brief food strike, our feeding monster has returned. Favorite snacks are goldfish crackers and string cheese. Favorite foods (aside from anything she can dip in sour cream) are bread, rice, cereal and pasta. (we call her carbo kid). But a new favorite is oranges.

We got a first official sentence. She was protesting having been put to bed so she stood crying in her crib. Finally she screamed "daddy come cuddle me!" (luckily he wasn't home or it would have worked). Last night, she was protesting bedtime again (up until this weekend, she was the miracle bedtime child with the easiest and shortest routine known to man). She was standing up in her crib, screaming and crying, and finally hit that dreaded milestone: she fell out of her crib. I'm sure it was an attempt to climb but the thump at the bottom sent her off into a fresh round of tears.

Other milestones, she has been without a bottle for over a week. Mostly I was tired of her intentionally dripping milk from them (she delighted in the patterns she could make on our dark hardwood floors). So we have moved onto sippy cups only with surprisingly little resistance. She also graduated to a booster seat (as she refuses the high chair and won't eat if we try to wrestle her into it anyway). She insists on a real fork and won't eat with a plastic baby fork. She loves to help me in the kitchen, her favorite chore is unloading the dishwasher.

She continues to be obsessed with our cats, shoes and her blankets. But now in addition to carrying around and sleeping with a pile of blankets, she wants a stuffed animal too. Her favorites are her new mickey doll from DisneyWorld and a little kitty with oversized, pouting eyes that I gave to daddy when we were still dating. She still sings when she eats (more of a hum or general vocalization but something she has done since nursing). Now that the snow has melted, she regularly begs to go outside ("shoes? ride?") and loves to walk holding my hand. In music class, she constantly dances and moves with the music and frequently vocalizes the pitches (especially at the end of the song). Even her music teacher commented and complimented her vocalizations and pitch.

She is now attending nursery at church and does okay when daddy drops her off. She clings to the male nursery leader (still showing a definite preference for men). She only cries for daddy if she gets hurt (even a little bonk, while not painful, reminds her she is away from daddy and gets her upset). Butterfly was eager for nursery, practically kicking us out of the room so she could play. But Ladybug, being more reserved and shy, has had a harder transition.

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