The week of the monkey! She’s crazy about monkeys. Last night we put her in her favorite sleeper, which is covered with monkeys. Then we read Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, which is a book all about monkeys. Then she saw a monkey on one of her wooden blocks as we were saying night night to all the rooms in the house. Then she wouldn’t let got of AhEeh (her stuffed monkey) to settle down for sleep. Eventually I was able to convince her that AhEeh was going nightnight on the table next to the rocking chair. Only then were we able to get comfortable enough for her to settle down and go to sleep.

More teething. Oh the teething. She’s biting everything, she’s hard to get to sleep, she’s constantly sticking her fingers in her mouth. I can’t tell what tooth is coming but it’s clearly a tough one!

Frustration and anger have made their debut. She now expresses them by squinching up her face. I’ve got to get a video, it’s so adorable. On the flip side, if she’s frustrated with something and you encourage her that she can do it, the look of pride on her face when she succeeds is pretty wonderful. She’s always been pretty expressive and now she’s using that expressiveness accurately and it’s great!

We’ve stopped doing any potty stuff because we’ve been struggling with diapers, but I think it’s about time to get back to it. The other night she took off her own diaper (!) and ran around excitedly for a while. She also enjoys sitting on her potty. We’ve got a J-sized chair showing up soon, and once it does I think we’ll concentrate on potty vs chair.

What a month we’ve had! I’m ready for it to be over. J has been out of daycare for the last week and change due to the mildest case of diarrhea ever to be called diarrhea. The first couple days it was pretty bad, but she’s been basically just barely sick enough to be sent home from daycare repeatedly. Every time we bring her back, 30 minutes to an hour later they call me to come get her again. Dad and I have both used up all of our sick and vacation time, and the last couple days we’ve been hiring nannies from a local service that will send you someone with just a couple hours notice.

The first nanny we got was, I hope, the worst we’ll ever have. She was right on the edge of being so bad as to be unsafe. She didn’t change J’s diaper, she didn’t pay attention to her, she didn’t bring water when they went outside in the Texas heat, etc. She was terrible. J cried the whole day. But that’s over, and the second and third nannies we have gotten have been simply wonderful. I worked from home today and I actually had to close the door because J was having so much fun that her laughter was distracting. Also, when the nanny took her to the park, J was so excited that she barely even said goodbye to me. I love having this kind of problem!

Recently J has figured out animal sounds! One day she thought all animals went, “moo!” and the next she knew a bunch of different animals! Her current repertoire is:

– Cow: “Mmmm!”

– Kitty cat: “Mwah!”

– Snake: “Ssss!”

– Monkey: “Ah! Eeh!”

– Doggie: “Ah! Eeh!” (she’s still working on that)

– Duck: “Wah!”

– Sheep: “Baa! a! a!”

– Elephant: “Fffff!” (she can’t make the noise like Daddy does. Neither can I)

– Lion: “Rah!”

She also must have hit a growth spurt, because despite losing a pound in a week while she was sick (a pound she has since gained back, I might add) she has almost outgrown her 24m stuff. She has such a long torso! Her sleepers don’t fit anymore. 3T sleepers and 4T pajamas are fitting with room to grow. Only a few of her short sleeved shirts still fit her, but I bought some clothing lots on eBay and they should be here soon. They’re mostly fall clothes, so I hope the weather hurries up and catches up with me.

There’s more, but I’m out of time to remember.

Recently she’s been trying to take off her diaper, and as soon as she gets it off, peeing on the floor. She’s also had dry overnight diapers for 3 nights in a row now. So, I bought her a practice potty. This morning we woke up, and I took her into the bathroom and helped her get up on the potty (which she is excited by). She sat there for a minute, then stood up, then sat back down. Then started dropping my phone into the potty, so I took it and put it outside the bathroom. Then she peed a little bit on the floor and so I told her that potties are for peepee, and put her on the potty. She sat there a minute and then got up, then sat down by herself and peed! I helped her tear off some toilet paper. She wiped her shin with it. But hey! She peed in a potty!

I missed another week. Darn it. I was sick. Things have been strange since we got back from vacation.

First, she has finally adjusted to the new room at school. It was a hard time, but this week she finally seems to be happy to get there, unfazed when I leave her there (this morning I got a tiny little, “bah bah ee” and she didn’t even watch me leave), and not always eager to go home when I pick her up. All of this is great! I’m glad she’s finally happy there. I realize a week is probably a really fast adjustment and that I’m just spoiled by what a good kid she is.

She’s reached the point where on weekends I absolutely have to get her out of the house for at least a couple hours, or her energy is overwhelming. So far I’ve had a lot of success with the local pool (now closed), the nearby park playground (she’s a little young for it but does okay), and the nearest splash pad which is absolutely fantastic. I’ll be very sad when it gets too cold for the splash pad. I’m not sure whether a YMCA membership would be worth it yet, nor a Thinkery membership. She seems to be in between a lot of age-based activities. Not old enough for most toddler things, and too old/big for most baby things. Our back yard isn’t really safe for her to play in, but we’re hoping to get it ready for her to play soon.

Although she still doesn’t have many words, she is getting very good at communicating and showing she understands. I asked her yesterday where she dropped her water bottle (because I talk to her a lot, not because I expected a response) and she pointed. I was surprised to see it was exactly where she pointed to, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been. As for speaking, “Uh oh!” is pretty popular. Also adorable, because she says, “uh oo! uh! oo!” She also says, “ma ma ma!” a lot. It actually means, “more” and not, “mama” but that’s okay. I thought I would have trouble with her not saying mama soon enough, but it doesn’t bother me at all. In the same way it doesn’t bother me that she doesn’t seem upset when I leave her at daycare. I am glad that she’s so secure in me, in my presence and my eventual return, that she isn’t concerned that I’m leaving (usually). She squeals so excitedly when she sees me at daycare, I don’t need a “mama” to recognize her joy.

The only unpleasant thing we’ve been struggling with recently is a possible milk sensitivity. They have been giving her cow milk at daycare because she doesn’t seem very interested in breastmilk. Honestly, she mostly seems to just want water. We’ve had unexplained diarrhea, rashes, and vomiting since we got back from vacation and she started the cow milk. Each of them COULD be explained by something else, though. And we can’t get her to consistently drink enough cow milk to definitively say we should cut it out. Argh! We see the doctor this Friday. Hopefully we’ll get some answers. More likely, we’ll just get a note that they should give her soy milk at daycare, and punt the issue to later. Which is okay by me. I’ll talk to the doctor about her calcium intake while I’m there.