Monthly update for May 2008

Age: 22 months

Size/weight: Quite a few 2 year clothes, especially dresses, though still plenty of 18-24 month clothes. Still have issues with most trousers, that they tend to be too tight or too long (her mum suffers from the same issues!). I noticed, when she was asleep in her bed fully stretched out, that she seems to be longer (taller) than half the bed length.

Health: Generally very good this month, though she has just developed a bit of a cold and a cough.

Teeth: She has the four top and four bottom, plus a molar at the bottom right and I think another molar coming through at the bottom right and possibly corresponding ones at the top, though they're more difficult to see. She willingly opens her mouth to show us now, but she hasn't quite got the hang of getting her tongue out of the way!

Toiletting: Still in nappies. She knows when she's really, really just about to do a poo. If there's a potty very close by, we'll try to grab it, but usually she's not too keen. She often says 'I need to wee', but isn't usually interested once the potty is there and her nappy's off! She seems quite interested in the toilet - more so than the potties, I'd say - so it may be that she'll just go straight to using the loo (I think her Grandma said that Chris did that?).

Sleep: She has a pretty good bedtime routine going now, thanks to her dad (and it's now usually her dad who puts her to bed, though I can do it too, as can my sister and my mum). The routine is roughly bath (around 8-8.30pm), watch 2-3 episodes of Charlie and Lola (or something else, but they're probably still the most common), dimming the lights (e.g. full light for one episode, bedside light for one episode, no light for final episode), switch of TV and DVD and go through to her room, get into bed, go to sleep. (The last bit can be very quick and can take a while, depending on who knows what, but it's generally pretty quick.) The timings can vary, too, and when she goes through to her room is usually decided by how tired she's acting. [Chris may want to edit this section, as he knows about the sleep a lot more than I do!]

Nap time is usually OK as welll, though if she's over-tired she can get very stroppy and not be sure how to go to sleep (usually, it's still Muilk (her abbreviation for Mummy Milk) when she comes in from being with her Granny or from being out at swimming/toddlers. Weekends are often more difficult because timings go a bit wonky then. Sometimes she falls asleep in her buggy and will be transferred to her bed with no trouble, but she does usually wake for a bit of Muilk if that happens. It's probably time to try and develop another (non-Muilk dependent) nap routine, especially if the stroppiness increases.

She still wakes in the night, though is more often managing only one waking about 3 hours after going to sleep and then sleeping through to 6 or 7 in the morning. But she is frequently getting up at 6 or 7 in the morning, which is a bit early! Naps are, for the most part, 2 hours; sometimes 1.5 hours and 3 hours.

Eating: She's getting a bit fussier it seems, which is supposed to be quite common at this age, so we're trying not to fuss too much about it. She prefers to graze throughout the day and, as long as it's a balanced mix, we're trying not to be too worried if she does this and then doesn't eat loads at dinnertime. One thing we've been doing quite often is putting her unfinished dinner in the fridge and getting it out again at breakfast time and letting her graze on it in the living room. This is generally very successful, unless she really hates the food (not that common). She sometimes sees it in the fridge and says 'Ooh, my dinner's cooled down!', so perhaps she prefers cold food. She still likes most fruit (she's going through a banana phase at the moment) and quite a lot of vegetables, which is great. There's not much meat or fish that she enthuses about, though she had some fish in JRooL the other day which she seemed to really enjoy. But now her molars are developing, Chris thinks she'll probably be more into the meat.

Speech/communication: This is still amazing. She's asking questions now, the main one being 'What's that?' and she's waiting for answers and listening carefully. She knows loads of nursery rhymes and will quite often sing them to herself when going to sleep. There are a few grammatical things that can bug us a bit, particularly her insistance on asking 'Pick you up.' and 'Carry you' instead of 'Pick me up' and 'Carry me'. She's said the right ones a few times, so does know it. And she gets the pronouns the right way round for other things. She says 'Hola', 'Arriba', 'Empujen' and 'Gesundheit' - the Spanish are pretty much entirely down to Dora the Explorer, rather than any particular efforts on our part. The 'Gesundheit' is us, though, and she loves it - it makes her giggle and she'll do fake sneezes and then say 'Gesundheit' to amuse herself!

Intellectual development: Seems to be pretty good. She's very good with all the shape sorters and those puzzles where there's a block of wood that shapes fit into (not explaining that at all well, sorry). She's developing an imagination and creativity now - for example, the other day she made herself a slide out of a broom propped up against the sofa. She can draw zig zags now, as well as circles and lines. She's reading books (not literally, of course) on her own a lot more. She can point out lots of things in the pictures in books and when she doesn't know what something is she asks 'What's that?'.

Emotional development: She's still being very loving with many people (will cuddle little children and say 'I love you', for example) and is frequently telling us 'I love you'. She's also developed both a real and fake shyness. The real one involves cuddling into one of us when someone she doesn't know/know well is talking to her. The pretend one involves tilting her head a bit into her shoulder and saying 'I'm shy of Mummy' or 'I'm shy of Daddy' - and then giggling. She's really getting into the tantrums, though they are still (and hopefully will remain) fairly short-lived. She will scream quite quickly if she's frustrated with something, or one of us has misunderstood her/gone against her wishes.

Social development: See above for the being loving and being shy. She's still not really understanding sharing (though not expected to at this stage, really) and so when at toddler group, we have to be vigilant to head off attempts to 'steal' toys from other children. But she does also quite often play in the home corner alongside other children and give them things (e.g. give them a 'cup of tea', a 'sausage', etc.). Still has never been left in a creche or nursery without one of us, so don't know how she will face that. That's something we need to at least try a couple of times before she starts going to play group, I think.

Likes: Far too much TV - Dora the Explorer, Charlie and Lola, Peppa Pig, Wonder Pets, playing in the garden, going to the park (especially going 'up the stairs and down the slide'), walking when out, money (?!!), swimming (though sometimes likes the idea of it more than the actual act, especially if she's supposed to go on her back), pink milk, ice cream, spaghetti, bananas, pears, toast and peanut butter (especially mummy's toast and peanut butter). Probably lots and lots more that I can't think of right at this moment.

Dislikes: Anything involving not getting her own way, having her hair brushed, rinsing the shampoo/conditioner off her hair, sitting at the dining table for a protacted amount of time.

Developmental worries: None

New tricks/skills: It looks like she may be able to open her bedroom door now, as she did so three times last night, though it may have been that the door wasn't closed properly. Will have to keep an eye/ear out for that!