Today is Alethea’s seventeen month birthday.  Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Alethea’s big accomplishment this month was learning the word ‘no’.  It is her new favorite word and sometimes I think she answers questions with it just because she knows she can.  Still, I don’t mind that she learned it.  It is fun to watch her growing self-awareness and independence.

Her other favorite current favorite word is ‘baby’.  She says it so much it has become almost meaningless, but I think she does have some idea what it means.  The other night she pointed at Peter and said “Da-yee” and then at me and said “Mommy”.  Then I asked her, “Who are you?” She pointed to herself and said “Baby.”  However, the age group that is encompassed by the word ‘baby’ for Alethea is a bit larger than the usual definition.  The other day we were walking through a parking lot and Alethea saw a little girl (probably about 3 or 4 years old) and pointed to her as she exclaimed “Baby!”  The girl was quite insulted and turned to her mother to indignantly say, “That little girl just called me a baby!  I’m not a baby!!!”

We’ll find out next month when she has her eighteen month check up whether she is in a growth spurt or not, but I really think she is or will hit it soon.  Mainly I think so because she generally eats two or three times more at any given meal than she did just three weeks ago.  But also I think she seems a bit taller too.

While we don’t know if she’s grown physically, we can tell she is constantly processing information and is increasingly communicating it as well.  The other day I was quizzing her on colors of objects around us and after talking about her pink coat and blue toy, I held up my water bottle and asked her “Alethea, what color is this?”  Without missing a beat, she responded “Eh-woh” (yellow).  And she was right, it was yellow.  I was super impressed and made a big deal out of it, but then after that every object I asked about was ‘yellow’.  *Note to self, don’t overreact when child answers question correctly or child will expect the same response every time he or she uses that answer.

One of Alethea’s most requested activities is to watch Elmo on TV.  While I’m not crazy about my child being so enamored with a TV character, it does have its upsides.  For example, we were having a really hard time getting Alethea to let us brush her teeth at night.  Then I discovered a toddler toothbrush and toothpaste with Elmo on it and now she can’t wait to brush her teeth before bed.

Besides Elmo and babies, Alethea also loves her same favorites: puppies, Grandma, playing the piano, going outsides, cars & trucks, balls, books and anything that doesn’t look like a toy (i.e. food containers, cooking utensils, papers, boxes, etc.)

She seems excited about her new room, although I’m pretty sure at this point she views both her big girl room and the nursery as belonging to her.  However, I’m hoping as we get more furniture moved into her new room she’ll find it increasingly interesting.

We do tell her on a regular basis that a baby is coming to live with us and that she is going to be a big sister, but we’re still pretty sure the words don’t mean a whole lot to her yet.  Only time will tell if her current love of babies will survive actually having one in the house, but we are encouraging it nonetheless.

Well, I think that’s all for this month.  Stay tuned as always for the continuing adventures of Alethea Margaret!