Alas, Claire is still on a milk strike. She wants and asks for it, and becomes angry and cries when offered milk in the cup. This morning I handed the cup to her and she gave it back saying, “Put away.” Then she cried. I comfort and talk to her, and usually offer yogurt, which most of the time she accepts. I really, really, really want to give her a bottle. However, now and then she’ll pick up the cup and play with it and take one sip. Husband thinks we should wait her out. The other day I was at a play date, and Claire wandered in holding the toy bottle from my her playmate’s dolly. She brought it to me and said, “Milk?” Claire has also regressed a little in that she has been crawling more.

On the other hand, she devours solids now, and I think she seems a little bigger and sturdier. In the past week — since getting the rocking horse and learning how to mount and dismount from it — she has become more agile and steady. She mastered the slide at the park; she is now able to slide down and remain sitting up without holding on to anyone’s hand. (She used to flop on her back or ask to hold hands.) She also mastered the stairs and walking down the crawling ramp at preschool.

Claire certainly has become feistier in recent weeks. She has more tantrums. One day she went to the fridge, took the photos (laminated and hanging with magnets) off and threw them down on the floor while growling. When she wants to see her show, she will whine and cry about it if I say no, but I’m trying to be consistent. Our rule is no more than three times a day (90 minutes total): once before nap, once after nap, and at Mommy’s discretion, one more time just before Daddy gets home if it seems as though Claire is going to melt down altogether. I’m fortunate the tantrums only happen at home now, but it’s only a matter of time before I’m the parent with the screaming banshee that everyone else looks at and judges (either with compassion or derision).

She likes to narrate her activities. If she’s walking, she says “Walking!” and if she runs she says “Running!” and so on. Her words and sentences continue to accumulate. She’s also putting concepts together. We make towers with her blocks. The other day, I had stacked her little cups of food on the kitchen counter as I prepared us for an outing. Claire saw this and said, “Tower food. Tower food!” Yes, I confirmed, it was indeed a tower of food. Because she loves her television show (about a lion family who runs a library), she often asks to go to the library. We wander around, but she’s too active to sit long and read books. She says, “Hi!” to all people she meets. It’s adorable. Claire also recognizes two of anything and will say, “Two [whatever the item is]” When asked to count them, she counts to two while pointing at each one. She is flummoxed by any set of items greater than two, but she will count up to 20 with me as we walk down the stairs of our home.

She is amazing! And she is officially 17 months old today.