Last week, a friend was asking me about when the little D had started talking more. And I realized that I actually couldn't quite remember. And thinking about it more, I've realized I've been bad about noting milestones in general. So I'm going to make a desperate attempt to catch up, just so my kid doesn't have yet another reason to hate me as a teenager. Actually, what happened too was that I started googling a bit to see what was normal at her age, and realized that she's quite a sharp little cookie. And whatever happens the rest of her life, at least she can look back on these years and know that she was at the top of her game.
Communication: It's in this area that the little miss shines. Clearly takes after her mother! I read that between the ages of 2 and 3, a child's vocabulary grows from 50 to about 300 words. But I remember starting a list soon after her 18-month appointment and counting almost 50 words already. So we have to be well on our way at this point. Back then, her vocabulary consisted of mostly animals and body parts. She could identify more wildlife than I could. Nowadays, her vocabulary has grown to include more useful things, telling us what she wants to eat, ordering the dogs around, and answering simple questions. Her ability to identify pictures in books - which started ages ago now, it seems - has grown by leaps and bounds. She often knows what's coming in her favorite books before we turn the page. She knows purple, pink, yellow, red, green, and blue consistently. And can usually point out orange, white, and black. This was a leap from even her 2nd birthday when she knew just purple. She high fives and fist bumps and waves.
She makes short sentences now, of 2-3 words. Sometimes she seems to even be using pronouns properly, which is a recent development. So for example, if I say, "Oh Diya, there you are", she might say, "Here I am."
She's not very clear to anyone but us, and I'm not sure how much pronunciation fits into all this. Her poo poo sounds a lot like purple, and she says "meore" instead of more. Words that she's been saying incorrectly for a long time, she continues to say the way she always has. Elephant has always been "yaya", though I imagine that if she were to learn to say it now, it'd sound closer to the real thing.
Cognitive. Not sure what exactly would fit in this, but as far as I can see, the kid's too smart for her own good at times. She's starting to recognize her name when she sees it spelled, and has started trying to spell it. She gets as far as D-I-Y on a good day, with prompting. She can count to 3, misses a few, and then can pick up again with 7-8-9. She recognizes a few other letters too, besides the ones in her name, like M. She knows that red light means stop and green means go. She's all about organizing. So when she plays with Legos, for example, she puts the same color blocks together, and hates when you mismatch. She makes believe all the time now with her stuffed animals. First, it started off with her giving us tea back at 18-months or so. Then she pretended to give her animals tea. Now, she puts her animals to sleep or talks to them and has them talk back to her. "Yes, bear? No bear, you wait," I've heard her say as she drags her bear with us to go to potty. "Diya pee pee, bear wait."
Soon after we told her she's going to be a sister, she took 2 of her stuffed bears and started calling one of them "baby bear" and the other "sister bear."
Her memory is better than mine.
Social/Emotional: The little D's always been shy and that hasn't changed. She's interested in other kids but only from a distance. She's recently learned the meaning of "scared" and says it often now when other people are close, as she hides behind my legs. Actually, she seems to have a decent grasp on several emotions, which I found fascinating. I don't know, seems so abstract. But she knows scared, happy, and sad, and we've been working on hopeful, patient, and selfish. By "working" I mean that we have a little book that talks about emotions and she seems to dig the pictures. :)
Recently, I was washing my hands, and she climbed up her stool, saying "Diya's turn." So I guess she gets the concept of waiting her turn.
Motor: Here's where our kid's skills are weakest. Well, I guess it depends on what you look at. Her fine motor skills are pretty incredible, I think. I was recently looking at a list of good toys for this age, and the site suggested 3-4 piece puzzles. The little D's been doing that since she was at least 18 months old, probably even longer She's way past that now. G actually bought her a 50-piece puzzle with the 50-states a couple of months ago. I'd say she's on the young side for that still, especially on the east coast, but it doesn't stop him from showing her. We have these magnetic tiles that she'll build things with. She can get a good stack going with blocks and legos. She's great with tweezers, picking up something small and putting it somewhere else. She's been able to eat with a spoon since just over 12 months, and drinking from a regular cup pretty reliably for almost a year (thanks to our daycare, nothing to do with us). She can organize our silverware and nowadays we only sometimes find things out of place there.
With the big stuff, I imagine, she's quite behind. Even before we found out she had hip dysplasia, she was slow in this area, slow to roll over and sit up. She started crawling in her brace at just over a year, and took her first steps a few months before her 2nd birthday. She's walking well now, and builds up pretty good speed, but not running. She seems uncertain still in different terrain, like sand and tan bark. And her gait is still that of a younger toddler, I think, wide-legged. She can't jump with both feet off the ground, although she seems to be trying. She needs help climbing up stairs. She can get up onto couches on her own, and if we give her time, into her carseat. Over the weekend, we were out and G and I were talking and suddenly realized that our kid had pulled herself up onto her stroller and was sitting and waiting to go. Just a couple of weeks ago, I saw her trying to walk backwards, but she hasn't seemed too interested in doing this regularly. She can pull toys behind her (she likes walking her alligator and snail), and carry a bunch of things while she's walking.
So there you have it. Not too shabby, eh? I'll probably try to do this more often just so that I can keep track of how she's coming along. I feel bad that I haven't been doing it more already. I guess milestones don't really matter until you realize your kid may be rocking them. :)
Communication: It's in this area that the little miss shines. Clearly takes after her mother! I read that between the ages of 2 and 3, a child's vocabulary grows from 50 to about 300 words. But I remember starting a list soon after her 18-month appointment and counting almost 50 words already. So we have to be well on our way at this point. Back then, her vocabulary consisted of mostly animals and body parts. She could identify more wildlife than I could. Nowadays, her vocabulary has grown to include more useful things, telling us what she wants to eat, ordering the dogs around, and answering simple questions. Her ability to identify pictures in books - which started ages ago now, it seems - has grown by leaps and bounds. She often knows what's coming in her favorite books before we turn the page. She knows purple, pink, yellow, red, green, and blue consistently. And can usually point out orange, white, and black. This was a leap from even her 2nd birthday when she knew just purple. She high fives and fist bumps and waves.
She makes short sentences now, of 2-3 words. Sometimes she seems to even be using pronouns properly, which is a recent development. So for example, if I say, "Oh Diya, there you are", she might say, "Here I am."
She's not very clear to anyone but us, and I'm not sure how much pronunciation fits into all this. Her poo poo sounds a lot like purple, and she says "meore" instead of more. Words that she's been saying incorrectly for a long time, she continues to say the way she always has. Elephant has always been "yaya", though I imagine that if she were to learn to say it now, it'd sound closer to the real thing.
Cognitive. Not sure what exactly would fit in this, but as far as I can see, the kid's too smart for her own good at times. She's starting to recognize her name when she sees it spelled, and has started trying to spell it. She gets as far as D-I-Y on a good day, with prompting. She can count to 3, misses a few, and then can pick up again with 7-8-9. She recognizes a few other letters too, besides the ones in her name, like M. She knows that red light means stop and green means go. She's all about organizing. So when she plays with Legos, for example, she puts the same color blocks together, and hates when you mismatch. She makes believe all the time now with her stuffed animals. First, it started off with her giving us tea back at 18-months or so. Then she pretended to give her animals tea. Now, she puts her animals to sleep or talks to them and has them talk back to her. "Yes, bear? No bear, you wait," I've heard her say as she drags her bear with us to go to potty. "Diya pee pee, bear wait."
Soon after we told her she's going to be a sister, she took 2 of her stuffed bears and started calling one of them "baby bear" and the other "sister bear."
Her memory is better than mine.
Social/Emotional: The little D's always been shy and that hasn't changed. She's interested in other kids but only from a distance. She's recently learned the meaning of "scared" and says it often now when other people are close, as she hides behind my legs. Actually, she seems to have a decent grasp on several emotions, which I found fascinating. I don't know, seems so abstract. But she knows scared, happy, and sad, and we've been working on hopeful, patient, and selfish. By "working" I mean that we have a little book that talks about emotions and she seems to dig the pictures. :)
Recently, I was washing my hands, and she climbed up her stool, saying "Diya's turn." So I guess she gets the concept of waiting her turn.
Motor: Here's where our kid's skills are weakest. Well, I guess it depends on what you look at. Her fine motor skills are pretty incredible, I think. I was recently looking at a list of good toys for this age, and the site suggested 3-4 piece puzzles. The little D's been doing that since she was at least 18 months old, probably even longer She's way past that now. G actually bought her a 50-piece puzzle with the 50-states a couple of months ago. I'd say she's on the young side for that still, especially on the east coast, but it doesn't stop him from showing her. We have these magnetic tiles that she'll build things with. She can get a good stack going with blocks and legos. She's great with tweezers, picking up something small and putting it somewhere else. She's been able to eat with a spoon since just over 12 months, and drinking from a regular cup pretty reliably for almost a year (thanks to our daycare, nothing to do with us). She can organize our silverware and nowadays we only sometimes find things out of place there.
With the big stuff, I imagine, she's quite behind. Even before we found out she had hip dysplasia, she was slow in this area, slow to roll over and sit up. She started crawling in her brace at just over a year, and took her first steps a few months before her 2nd birthday. She's walking well now, and builds up pretty good speed, but not running. She seems uncertain still in different terrain, like sand and tan bark. And her gait is still that of a younger toddler, I think, wide-legged. She can't jump with both feet off the ground, although she seems to be trying. She needs help climbing up stairs. She can get up onto couches on her own, and if we give her time, into her carseat. Over the weekend, we were out and G and I were talking and suddenly realized that our kid had pulled herself up onto her stroller and was sitting and waiting to go. Just a couple of weeks ago, I saw her trying to walk backwards, but she hasn't seemed too interested in doing this regularly. She can pull toys behind her (she likes walking her alligator and snail), and carry a bunch of things while she's walking.
So there you have it. Not too shabby, eh? I'll probably try to do this more often just so that I can keep track of how she's coming along. I feel bad that I haven't been doing it more already. I guess milestones don't really matter until you realize your kid may be rocking them. :)
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