Accomplishments

I was reading this article on Baby Center and I thought I'd mark some of Kat's accomplishments. I'm copying the article for reference:


Self-care
As your child gets older, she'll learn to do more things for herself — from taking off her shirt to getting her own bowl of cereal in the morning. While watching your baby's growing independence can be bittersweet, learning to take care of herself is an important part of your child's personal and social development.

How it develops
Although your child won't make significant progress in self-care until the toddler years, you'll see the first stirrings fairly early on. At about 8 months, your baby will begin to understand how objects relate to one another and may begin using them for their intended function — brushing her hair, babbling on her play phone, and so on. A few weeks later, she'll start learning how to drink out of a cup, and in a few months she'll be able to hold the cup herself (the one-handed grip will come at about 24 months). At 11 months, she'll even start holding out her arm or leg to help you dress her. Kat was doing this around 9 1/2 months... she's always wanted to be independent.

Your child will really start developing her own sense of self in the first few months after her first birthday. By 15 months, your toddler will recognize herself in the mirror — no longer will she reach out and try to touch the "other" baby. She already recognizes herself in the mirror. I'm not real sure when that started though. And soon after, she, like most toddlers, will probably go through a period of adamant no-saying. It's her way of asserting her new feelings of individuation. She hasn't mastered the actual word, but she will hold up her hand and shake her head no often. Especially if she points to something, you grab what you think she's asking for, and that's not it... she'll shake her head no and re-point to the correct object.

As her sense of self increases, so will her achievements in self-care. Over the next three years, your child will master:
Using a fork and spoon: Some toddlers may start wanting to use utensils as early as 13 months, and most children have figured out this all-important skill by 17 or 18 months. By the time she's 4, your child will probably be able to hold her utensils like an adult, and she'll be ready to learn table manners. She has tried this before, but she did a real good job just this last week at Disneyland. She spooned her whole tub of applesauce and fed herself. It was a bit messy, but what an accomplishment! She was proud of herself.
Taking off her own clothes: While this may lead to lots of naked-toddler chase sessions, it's a key accomplishment, and your child will learn to do it sometime between 13 and 20 months. Not yet. When it's bath time, she'll go to Daddy and he'll undo one side of her diaper, then she'll pull it down. She pulls on her clothes like she wants to undress herself, but she doesn't quite have it down yet.
Brushing her teeth: She may start wanting to help with this task as early as 16 months, but she probably won't be able to do it on her own until sometime between her third and fourth birthdays. Kat has been "brushing" her own teeth for probably a month now. When she sees a toothbrush, (anyone's, she's not picky) she starts to brush those cute little teeth. She likes watching Hubby and I brush.
Washing and drying her hands: This skill develops between 19 and 30 months and is something your child should learn before or at the same time as using the toilet — you don't want her spreading bacteria. Kat washes her hands. If you put soap on them and tell her, "wash, wash, wash" she'll rub her hands together. She also washes her hair and belly in the bathtub. She's not really interested in drying, though.
Getting dressed: She may be able to put on loose clothing as early as 20 months, but she'll need a few more months before she can manage a T-shirt and another year or two after that before she'll really be able to get dressed all by herself. At 27 months, she'll probably be able to pull off her shoes. She takes her shoes off now. And she tries to put them on. She hold socks up to her feet but she can't get them on. She puts shirts up against her head but she doesn't realize there is a hole there to get through. She wants to be a big girl so bad.
Using the toilet: Most children aren't physically ready to start toilet training until they're at least 18 to 24 months old, and some won't be ready to begin for as much as a year after that. Two key signs of readiness include being able to pull her pants up and down by herself and knowing when she has to go before it happens. For more, see BabyCenter's complete toilet training guide.We are trying to sit Kat on the toilet each day and talk to her about what she should be doing there. Nothing yet, but she'll do it when she's ready. She is able to tell me "poop" but not before...
Preparing her own breakfast: Toddlers as young as 3 may be able to get themselves a bowl of cereal when they're hungry, and most kids can do it by the time they're four and half. If your child wants to give this a whirl, make it easy for her by leaving kid-size containers of cereal and milk in the cupboard and fridge. She isn't allowed to pour her own yet, though she's be happy to if I'd let her. She isn't that coordinated yet, she's pretty messy! She does go into the cupboard and bring me food when she wants me to cook it for her. And she brings me a juice cup when she's thirsty. She also helps herself to candy that we accidentally left out!

Today while doing her night night routine, she did all the signs for Itsy Bitsy Spider. She can point out most of her body parts and she can usually show me a circle and a square. She seems to recognize blue, but she doesn't get it every time. When I ask her something, she'll think about it, and then shake her head yes or no. When she says yes, she also verbally says "ga" while she shakes her head. When she says no, it's just the head shake. I think I'm not so looking forward to when she starts saying it. She's said it a few times, but it hasn't really stuck.

She recognizes Goofy from Disneyland. She says, "goo" or "ga" and points to the doll Matt bought for her. She also says Brat, Matt, Poop, Yeah, Momma, Daddy, down, that, cracker, please, thank you and some other stuff I can't remember. Oh, Brown bear and Piggy, and baby. She tries to say Kat. None of these words are completely clear, but she is trying real hard. She'll try to repeat almost anything we say, so we have to be careful.

She's a love.

No Naps

Every night Hubby and I read Kat several books before bed, then sing some songs. We always sing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star with the hand motions. Kat has been able to do the twinkle twinkle part with her hands for quite some time now, but last night she started doing the rest of the motions too. She did up above the sky by putting her hands up, and she did "like a diamond" by making a little diamond with her monkey paws. Smart kid!

She also does "Itsy bitsy spider" and "pat a cake".

She has also decided, as of about 24 hours ago, that she isn't going to be a good girl at bedtime now. We keep going through this phase. She'll go down like a little trooper for weeks and then all of a sudden she cries and cries at bedtime. It's very frustrating. She has cried for an hour at both of her naps today. (we go in every 15 minutes to reassure her that we're here, but it's night night time). We don't know what the problem is. Last night I went in and rocked her and talked to her for a few minutes and then put her down, and she did go to sleep, but woke up a couple of times in the night. She could be teething, but we gave her Tylenol and that didn't seem to make any difference. Maybe a power struggle? But you think she would have learned by now that we enforce nap time. We'll figure it out. Right now she's a happy, tired monkey who didn't get much rest today. Hopefully bedtime won't be a nightmare for us all....

funny little girl

Such a monkey. I really should have written sooner, because I'm sure I'm going to forget some of the key things I always think "I need to write this down".

Anyway, she started saying 2 word sentences a week or so ago. We were in bed and she pointed to Chad's pillow and I told her the word was "pillow". Then she pointed to the door and said, "daddy?" I told her daddy was at work. She pointed back to the pillow and said, "daddy pillow" It sounded more like "Day pao" but I knew what she meant. So dang cute! And when Matt and Jess watched her last Monday, she started saying "brown bear". (She has a brown bear she's in love with) Again, it sounded more like "buh beh" but still, you know what she's saying.

She has started throwing tantrums again. She did it for a week and then got over it, but she started again today. She throws herself down oh so carefully onto her belly, then hits the floor and kicks. It's funny that she'll be calm until she's on her tummy... it's not like she throws herself down. She's too smart for that.

Today, when it was naptime...I couldn't find Piglet. (She always sleeps with a piglet doll and her brown bear) I told her she could just sleep with brown bear for now. She yelled and started running around the house yelling, "piwit! piwit!" Like she was calling for him. It broke my heart. Thankfully, he was found, and nap time went as planned.

When she cries in the night and Chad goes to get her to come to bed and nurse for a bit... she'll be standing up yelling and as soon as he walks in, she grabs either piglet or brown bear, or her blankie, or a combo of and then reaches to be picked up. She doesn't want to leave her friends behind, it's so very cute.

Also, yesterday she told me she was all done napping by standing up and yelling, "MOM! MOM MOM! mama! mamamamam! mom mom! What could I do? I hopped to and got her!

Last night was the first time in a while that she slept through the night. From 8:00PM to 6:00AM we didn't hear a peep. Then she nursed and slept again until about 8:30. What a good girl.

She found her dolly stroller today and she loves pushing around her stuffed animals in it. Not too coordinated yet, but it's adorable.



She uses everything as a makeshift microphone. She'll say, "lalalala!" into her actual microphone, as well as anything that remotely looks like a microphone. I sang the abc's to her the other day and she copied up until about g with the tune only. Very smart girl!

That's all I can remember for now.

testy, testy

My little monkey is such a little girl now, I hardly see any baby left at all. Kat definitely likes to test authority... just to see how much she can get away with. She's usually pretty good, but she always pushes just a little. Like just now, I heard her playing with the Christmas ornaments... when I went out there, she dropped the one in her hand and started to walk away. Mischievous!

The other day, she came in to the bathroom to find mommy in the bathtub. She wanted to get in, but I had filled the tub with hot water, so I called Daddy to come and occupy her for a while. So he stood there for a minute in the hall talking to both Kat who had run to her room and me who was in the tub. Suddenly I hear, “Kat?” and she had gone in her room, taken off her diaper, and run back into the bathroom naked. She thought that was why she couldn’t get in the tub! So of course I drained the hot water and let her in. She’s so smart!

Yesterday, she started blowing kisses. We had been trying to get her to do it for quite a while and she finally just did it... to Uncle Matt.

Now she also will lift her shirt way up if you ask her, “where’s your belly?” And she will pull her stuffed animals and blanket out of her crib through the slats and then “go night night” pretty much anywhere.

If she is thirsty, she brings me a sippie cup. Hungry, she opens the cabinet and brings me some of her food. Tired, she brings me either her blanket and lays down in front of me, or like yesterday she brought me her “Goodnight Moon” book. This is always the last book we read to her before we put her down. She’s a very smart little girl.

When we give her food, she wants to always feed it to herself now. She’ll put it in her mouth and then nod and say, “good”.

She seems to be enjoying Barney more so than Sesame Street now, although she’ll still watch. I think we need to start letting her watch more stuff, she might be getting bored.

Kat dances now whenever we sing anything, or when music comes on TV. She’ll bob her little head and get her little body going... it’s quite cute.

Smarty Arty

Just wanted to mention a few things before I forget! Things change so fast! She is walking like a pro, and has been for a couple of weeks. She has been taking steps for a really long time, but just recently she's learned that she can get around this way! It's so cute to see her little body walking down the hall. She is much braver now, she'll go exploring without Mommy right there. Although, when I go into another room, she usually will follow, and just sit on the floor with me and play.

Kat is very good at occupying herself with things to do. She can make a toy out of just about anything.

She is so smart. The other day we got into the bathtub, and her duck was missing. She pointed to where it usually goes and said, "duck?" So we of course got her duck in a hurry! Don't want to displease the princess. When Chad leaves for work, she'll say, "dada?" and point to his side of the bed.

I was combing her hair the other day and it must have been bothering her, because she turned around, took the comb from my hand, and threw it far away. Then looked at me, like, "there!"

She waves to strangers, and if they don't return her salutations, she yells and puts stares at them until they wave back. She's very social and friendly. She doesn't like to be held by strangers though, just doted on.

Kat snubs her baby food and insists on eating Mommy and Daddy's food. She can take good bites and is very good at chewing. She's just growing up way too fast!

sweet little kitty

Kat is exploring her house more and more. She used to stay real close to me, but now she'll crawl into the next room and then look back to make sure I'm following. When Chad isn't there when she wakes up in the morning, she points to his side of the bed and says, "dada?"

Also, when I'm holding her and she feels that I'm not paying ample attention to her, she'll grab my chin and point my face toward her. Or she'll maneuver her little body and put her face right in yours and touch your cheek or something.

Kat loves her books. She'll hold one up and I'll ask if she wants me to read it and hold my arms out. She'll walk into my arms with the book and then sit patiently while I read it to her. Right now her favorites are Pajama Time and The Monster At The End of This Book. She's going to be very smart one day. She's such a sweetheart.

She is still sleeping with Piglet. She talks to him and lets him read books with us. Sometimes she uses him as a pillow. When we hold Piglet and make him talk, it makes her laugh. She's a love.

walking and clapping :-)

Kat is taking more and more steps without holding on. She still has to be distracted though, like if she's going after a toy she wants. She doesn't do it just because we ask her to. I think the most she's done at once is 4.

Kat claps her hands now when she does something good. We've always clapped and said, "YAY!" when she did something cute or sweet. Now she joins us. She'll clap when we say "YAY!" and sometimes when she just thinks she's done well. When I tell her no and she listens, she claps for herself!

She consistently now will raise both arms above her head when we ask, "are you SO BIG?" And sometimes she'll just do it if we're not paying enough attention. Then she'll clap of course! She smiles so big when she does it. I think she really loves the idea of understanding us.

She kisses her books night night, on her own. We've never told her to. She'll just lean forward once in a while and kiss the page. Especially the soft night night book with kittens and bunnies. She's such a love.

And now she sleeps with Piglet, her best friend. We've heard talking and gone in and she's sitting up holding piglet and talking to him. She even lets Piglet read books with her and she holds him while she nurses.