While Claire naps (fitfully today, I might add), I’m going to crank out a post about her.

First of all, her language acquisition is amazing. When asked what a rooster says, she replies with “Cocka do do!” When she eats food she likes, she says, “Mmmm, ‘licious!” (for delicious). She is game to try saying any word or phrase and often comes very close. She always asks, “Doing?” and we describe what we are doing to her. She is saying short sentences, such as “Mommy brush hair,” or “Daddy go potty.” Her fourth molar is nearly through completely, thank goodness. Then we’ll have cut the four canine teeth and then some peace until the last molars come in around 24-36 months.

She has quite a will, and it shows in several ways. For example, in the first year of her life, on rare occasions we would go upstairs to watch a PBS show called Between the Lions. It’s a language show featuring a muppet-like family of lions that run a library. (The pun is twofold — you go between the lions into the library, and you can read between the lines to understand more.) Anyhow, she had seen it maybe ten times in her first year. About five days ago, Claire stood at the bottom of the stairs, pointed up and demanded, “Lions! Lions!” and made her lion roar. When we understood what she wanted, we took her up to watch an episode. Now it’s a daily request. It doesn’t matter if she’s seen the episode before; repetition is how kids learn, after all. So I figure 30 minutes a day won’t hurt. We watch with her, although we do this in part because the room is NOT child-proofed. I also reserve the right to say no, but this usually creates a tantrum.

I also recently introduced crayons and a spiral drawing book. (I tried the toddler crayons, but her hands are too small to hold them, and she prefers the regular shape anyhow.) Several times a day Claire requests “Crayons! Crayons!” I take them out and draw pictures for her, then write out the word. She says, “Again!” and “Drawing, writing.” She tries to scribble and is still working on her grip. Her grandparents gave her wooden blocks with letters, and more than making towers, she loves to have us spell out words with them. Her other grandma gave her a Leapfrog game (but it cost much less than the Amazon price) that resembles a computer (she is dying for one of ours) that teaches letters and sounds. Several months ago, Claire knew the letters O, Q, T and X; since Christmas, she has learned to identify A, B, C, D, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, R, S, W and Z. I’ve lost track of her vocabulary, but it’s large.

The last area where her will is formidable is the milk in the bottle issue. She still refuses milk in a sippy cup. She still wants to take milk in a bottle with only me holding her. She can produce a huge tantrum if other options are offered. So, I’ve got a plan. Did you know there is a bottle fairy? She comes to children who are ready to drink milk out of cups and takes away all the bottles and leaves a gift! (A mother at preschool told me this idea, which she said worked with her 19-month-old.) I talked to our pediatrician, and she loved the idea; she thinks it’s a gentler way to introduce the transition (though there will still probably be tears). She suggested I talk about this to Claire for a couple weeks; tell her about the fairy, show pictures (which I will have to draw), and build it up. The gift that the fairy will bring is a rocking horse. At the holiday party last weekend, Claire monopolized the rocker there, and since then she has tried to rock on every type of rocker she has seen at the park and preschool. Rocking soothes her (she does it a lot even without a rocker). I couldn’t find one locally I liked, so I ordered one from Little Tikes.

I will say this: she has relatively few tantrums, and usually it’s due to a thwarted desire and not to frustration over being misunderstood. We have the good fortune that she speaks as many words as she does and that she enunciates so well. It could be worse!

We adore her so much!