Twenty Months Update!

Twenty months have passed and Little Miss gets bigger and brighter every day. Time for another update on her development…

Physically Darci is still a big girl, larger than most of her peers. She fits in size 24 months – 2T right now. She climbs well to get up on chairs and such, and has been climbing more at the playground. She runs at a good speed and can get away from you pretty quickly. She is able to turn doorknobs and will open and shut doors as she pleases.

She hasn’t tried climbing out of her crib again at all, so she is still in the crib and we haven’t had to convert it yet to the toddler bed. She is a good sleeper at night, she goes down between 6:30 – 7 every night with no fuss and no waking during the night, and I usually get her out of bed at 7 AM. Lucky us! Naptime is not the same story, however, and poor Daddy has to deal with something different every day.

Darci can help you dress her by lifting legs out of and into pants, holding her arms up when asked and she will help pull the shirt off over her head. She hasn’t undressed herself yet, but I don’t think that is very far off. She shows no preference for wearing one thing or another yet. She won’t allow any hair bands or barrettes yet, she just pulls them right out.

She prefers to feed herself but if it’s something really yummy she’ll let you help. I recently got her a fork and some new spoons. She’s gotten pretty good with the fork and can poke and eat with the best of us. But the spoon (also one of her favorite words) is not the same story. She just can’t seem to understand the need to keep the food on the upright side of the spoon and not to turn it upside down before sticking it in her mouth. She is still fairly open to try new things but she decides sometimes that she doesn’t like something and it’s tough to get her to try it again. Omelettes, mandarin oranges and yogurt are her favorite foods right now. And anything you happen to be eating.

Toddlers are known for being emotional, and Darci is no exception. She is capable of understanding good behavior and is a very good girl for the most part. Even though she can climb and get into anything she can reach, she really doesn’t do much of that and we don’t have child locks on most cabinets, just the key ones with dangerous items. She gets frustrated easily and it’s best if you can head that off when you see it coming. She plays well by herself but will engage you when she wants to play and plays well with us, she’s not demanding or selfish with her toys right now.

She’s learning very quickly and is eager to be learning something all the time. She asks us to read to her, and most of reading right now consists of asking her where something in the picture is and having her point it out. She can identify a couple of hundred items, shapes and animals, a few numbers, and maybe a letter or two. Numbers, letters, and colors are things we’re working on right now.

Her vocabulary seems pretty wide when it comes to knowing the labels for things, and she understands us as long as she knows what we’re talking about. When you give her a new word now she will repeat it most of the time and wants to say it with you over and over. Only certain words make up her daily language, though she seems to know many more than she says. Once she starts making a new sound (last week it was the B sound) then she likes to say words with that sound, like ball and baby. She uses a few two word phrases but the only thing close to a sentence is “I love you Daddy!” (you can actually understand it most of the time) which she shouts whenever one of us is out of sight. We shout back “I love you Darci!” and she laughs uproariously. Doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

Ohana Aloha

Ohana is the Hawaiian word for family. Darci’s ohana in Hawaii has one member she hadn’t yet met until last weekend – Aunt Michele! Darci thinks Auntie Michele is the bees knees. She loved her! Mike and Michele came from Honolulu for the weekend of October 16-17 and we had as much fun as possible in such a short amount of time. Doug and Mike love to cook good food, so there was a lot of eating going on. Darci enjoyed grilled steak, shrimp scampi, and more!

Activities included a trip downtown Lewiston for Pumpkinpalooza. I’m not sure this event lived up to the “palooza” moniker, but it was fun to get some snacks and get out in the fall weather. Auntie Mishi got Darci an apple cider sipper in a mini pumpkin (still very popular with Darci) and picked up some yummy cookies.

Sunday we made it out to Wawaiwai Park, a popular destination for us with visitors! It’s such a beautiful oasis and there’s almost never anyone there. We grilled some brats and relaxed in the last few hours of sunlight. We’re so glad that we get to see each other again in April next year – only this time we’ll bring our little ohana to Hawaii!

Duck Migration

Darci’s had lots of great visits lately! Her Grandparents and Aunt from Oregon were here the second weekend of October and we had a fun weekend together. They arrived on a Friday afternoon and left Sunday morning.

Friday dinner was at Rooster’s Restaurant on the waterfront. Darci and Emily had fun coloring and Darci charmed the waitress who was expecting her own bundle of joy at any minute. After dinner we took a trip to Baskin Robbins, where we learned that there are now far more than 31 flavors to pick from. Grandpa shared his chocolate ice cream with Darci and she loved it, of course!

Saturday morning the girls were up bright and early and ready to play. Darci loved having her family here, and especially Auntie Emily, who straightened up after Darci and made sure her magnets and toys were well organized. They were able to play together more this visit than before since Darci’s a little more interactive now.

We enjoyed a trip to the park before lunchtime. The girls played on all the equipment and everyone spent some time on the swings. This was the first time Darci’s really enjoyed swinging. When we put her in the baby swing she usually looks uncomfortable and then asks to be let out. I held her on my lap this day and she loved it! She laughed and laughed, it was so adorable.

After everyone was fed and napped we went out to the corn maze by the rodeo grounds. The maze itself was a little complex but not too hard, the corn was really tall and covered in bugs, that part was gross. We made it through without incident and enjoyed a yummy Mexican dinner at El Sombrero afterwards.

We packed in a few fun outings and a lot of great food. Can’t wait for next time!