Toddlerhood

I believe we have officially crossed the threshold of toddlerhood this weekend. The transformation seemed to have occurred over night as though I tucked my baby into bed on Saturday and awoke the next morning to find a vivacious little tot in her place. I can hardly keep up with all of the new and exciting things she is suddenly capable of. For starters, her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. Not only is she learning dozens of new words, but she is beginning to pronounce the words she already knows with greater accuracy. Some of her latest words are Hi, I See You, Cracker, Sticker, Shhh, Diaper, Eye, Belly Button, Back ( as in "put it back"), Guh Guh (Grandma), Shoes, Night Night, Hat, Bottle, More, Yee Haw, Boat, Choo Choo, and Down. Oh, and we must not forget our all time favorite word, NO! From my rough count I have figured she has about a 40 word vocabulary so far!

She is  also very interested in her books at the moment and has started "reading" them to herself. She knows certain words on certain pages and says them as she flips through the book. It is absolutely adorable to see her sitting in her reading corner with her little nose in a book. It is great that she loves reading so much. Maybe it will counterbalance her other obsession, watching Elmo videos. I'm afraid I must take the blame on this one. I had every intention of following a strict no-TV-until-at-least-the-age-of-two policy when she was born. We were doing great without TV until I had the brilliant idea of showing her a couple of Sesame Street clips online one day. Of course she was instantly hooked and we haven't stopped hearing about "Melmo" (Elmo) since. Up until this past week we have had a pretty easy time distracting her with other activities to limit her screen time to 10-15 minutes a couple days a week. Our recent plunge into toddlerhood however has really shown it's face with her new-found persistence. This kid knows what she wants to do when she wants to do it and God forbid you tell her no. All day long we we battled tantrums over videos. I have come to terms with allowing her a limited amount of screen time but this is getting out of control. Daddy and I are trying to figure out how to implement some rules that she will understand. All I know is that I want to nip this in the bud before it really becomes a problem.

Speaking of problems, E has discovered her excellent climbing abilities this weekend as well. In addition to the coffee table, the dining room chairs, and TV stand, this little monkey figured out how to climb onto the counter tops today.  E climbed up on her Learning Tower this morning while I was doing the dishes and was attempting to blow out a candle that was well out of reach on the counter. I turned around to see her with her little foot hiked up on the counter ready to pull herself all the way up. I wanted to see if she could actually get up so I stood back and watched her successfully shimmy her way all the way onto the counter. No more candles on the counter and it looks like we will be finding a new place to put the Learning Tower when not in use.

She is growing and changing way too fast. Where did my little baby go?