twenty-one months

It took Renee three and a half months to even attempt to utter her brother’s name. When we’d ask her to say Cameron or Cam she’d say BABY and then she’d laugh, like she was saying “There is absolutely no way I’m going to acknowledge that thing has a name.” It was worth the wait because one day this month she looked at me and said “Hammon’s shoes” and I just about died laughing.

She also decided this month that Hammon being big enough to play with things is totally not acceptable to her. He can’t so much as look at a toy, a block, a shoe and she rips it out of his hands or moves it far enough away from him that’s she’s certain he can’t reach it. "MINE!" Is currently her favorite word. SIGH. I guess it had to happen some time but I have to admit that there was this part of me that thought my superior parenting skills had instilled such wonderful morals in my daughter that she understood the importance of sharing at the ripe age of sixteen months. For the first three months of his life she would give him whatever I asked her to give him. Now what one giveth, one taketh away. Forcefully.

She’s still sweet about half the time though. The other day I told her to "watch her brother" while I ran to change the laundry and as soon as the words came out of my mouth I thought, "Are you MAD, woman, she's going to kill him." But, I did it anyways because she looked pleased with me asking and when I came back up she was laying on her belly on the floor next to him saying "Hi Hammon" and kissing his round little cheeks. She can try to tell me she doesn't love him but I'm not fooled.
 
She came home from daycare one day saying "Oopadaisy" and honestly I don’t think there is anything cuter in the world than when she rams her shopping cart into the couch, looks at me, laughs this little evil laugh and says, “Oopadaisy.” Then, she puts her chin down and bats her little eyelashes at me like she just KNOWS she’s cute.

She has also mastered her glare; the glare that I am certain will be shot at me at least once per minute when she is a teenager. She looks at me like I smell, like there is nothing more vile in the world than her mother who didn’t jump the minute she snapped her little fingers.
 
She can count from one to five but won’t do so unless I ask her, “What comes after One?” She says “TWO!” And “What comes after Two, Renee?” She giggles and says “TWEE!”

It drove me bat crazy mad that for the longest time she called every W she came across an M. Well, she finally got it right the other day and I reinjured my back jumping up and down screaming “Yeah Renee!” in celebration.

I am physically incapable of cutting her hair, her mullet of ringlets growing longer and more absurd by the day. I just can't do it, the curls are too blessed cute and I guess there is a part of me that feels like once I start cutting and styling her hair she won't be a baby anymore. Once in a while I trim her bangs and we call it good. She probably gets teased by the other kids at school but whatevs, my mom put a bowl on my head and gave me a mushroom cut for my first day of kindergarten and I lived to tell the tale.

She gives me big barrel hugs and wet, sloppy kisses before bed at night before snuggling in to read the Elmo Lift and Flap book for the seven thousandth time.

She loves water boots and insists on putting them on and watching the episode of Jack’s Big Music Show where Laurie Berkner wears B-O-O-T-S and dances around in them. And for a kid that cries when she comes in to contact with snow, she apparently loves rain and water. She walks through and splashes in each and every puddle on her way in from the garage. Then she flips the frick out because I didn't get her wet shoes and socks off fast enough.

She has sort of fallen out of love with The Jonas Brothers, preferring Laurie Berkner and Neko Case instead. She still loves music of any kind though. I think the phrase I hear most often around the house or in the van right now is “More musit, peas mama.”

She struggles with the hard C or K sounds, milk is still "milt" and music is still "musit." I think I will probably shed a tear or two the first time I hear her get them right because those two words sort of define her toddler hood to me.
 
She talks in sentences for the most part and says “Mama, big blue late [lake]” when we are driving home. She loves watching for school buses and city buses and the mail man when we are driving and she counts “One sool bus, two sool bus.”
 
Is it possible that this is the same baby that just yesterday was vomiting all over my shoulder every seventeen seconds and crying for hours on end? The transformation is astonishing, it is like black magic, in the blink of an eye she went from helpless to fairly self-sufficient, from crying every time we left the room to shutting herself in her room and refusing to let us in. I imagine I’ll get to blink once or twice more and she’ll be off getting married and having her own kids. I have to admit there is half of me that is sad by that proposition of half of me that secretly can't wait. Because when you're the grandma you actually get to sit down once in a while.

Comments

[kim]

OH MY GOD, her hair!! it's getting so long! i love it. i also love the picture of her eyelashes. :)

it's so funny how they do the same things. max does the W/M thing too. and he counts and we have to prompt him in the same way, except in the last day or two he's decided his favorite number is eight and thinks it's hilarious. i say, what's after one? EIGHT! what's after two? EIGHT! and we just celebrate after seven. :)

[Leslie]

When you were talking about her love with Laurie Berkner and asking for more music, it reminded me exactly of Reyna. We are frequent Laurie listeners. She LOVES her.

Love the pic's. She is too dang cute.

[Gretchen]

I LOVE Renee's hair! Please don't cut it! I, too, suffered the same fate as you shortly before kindergarten. I had long, thick hair and my mom cut it into something that can only be described as a bowl. When I look back at the pictures now my mom still insists that I asked for that haircut. I'm sure it had nothing to do with my mom not wanting to fight for an hour every morning just to get my hair combed before school :)

[AmandaH]

Love the story about her watching Hammon. What a good helper!
She looks like such a sweetie.

[AmandaH]

And how cute is the black and white pursed mouth photo?

[Davina]

That kiss is to die for, and her bangs are perfect!!! I can't believe she's getting so big!

[Melissa]

Super cute! Love the new pics. And I love the new look of your blog. The pictures there are adorable! Hope things are going well! Love ya!