17 months old

Today my sweet potato punkin pie turns 17 months old. And as I sit down to record all the milestones Taylor hit during the last month, the first thing that comes to mind is how big she’s gotten. I’m around this girl all day, every day, and I can still recognize how much she’s grown in the last weeks. Chris was away from her for a little over a week, and when they were reunited, he just kept remarking on how grown-up she looks. Where’d our baby go?

And when I say big, I really mean BIG. Gigantic. And she’s getting heavy as all get-out. Almost to the point where I’m having a hard time carrying her all over the place. And, honey pie, it would really help Momma out if you would just HOLD ON TO ME. I’m serious. She’s never helped me out when I’ve carried her, and now it’s to the point that it’s hard to multi-task when carting her in and out of places. But at least I’m gaining some freakish strength in my left arm.

So she’s a big, happy toddler who is talking and jabbering ALL THE TIME. And she actually knows what she’s saying now, and is doing so well with learning new words and sounds. She wants her baby, she says, BAY-BEE. She wants a drink, she says, JOOS. She wants to harass her four-legged sister, she says, RUUUUUUBE. And while we were at my parents’ last week, she learned how to say, Thank you. Which is about the sweetest, cutest thing in the world, when you hand her a snack and she grabs it, looks at you with those big, blue eyes, smiles and yells, DANK-U! My Gomar would be so proud.

Unfortunately one of her favorite words is still NO. And some days that will be the ONLY WORD SHE SAYS. Taylor, would you like some juice? NO! Taylor, let’s go to the park. NO! Taylor, please don‘t pull Ruby‘s ears. NO! Taylor, you’re driving your Momma nuts. NO!

She’s also started to have some issues playing with other kids, noticeably marked by a handful of playdates that end with Taylor throwing her body on top of the other kid’s toys and screaming bloody-murder until she has physically tucked every single play-thing into her arms. Which is not only loud and hard to carry on a conversation over, but rather embarrassing. Who replaced my mild-mannered little girl with this toy-obsessed bully?

Oh, and another not-so-nice behavior that evolved this past month is the dreaded TEMPER TANTRUM. Thanks, Universe. I thought I had at least a few more months before I had to deal with the Terrible Twos. And trust me, I’m still in complete denial, and I’m pretty sure I’ll still partly blame all nasty outbursts on TEETHING until she turns 30. Because my loving, sweet baby girl would never flop around like a fish or wail at the top of her lungs unless she was in actual pain. RIGHT?

But, unfortunately, all her teeth are accounted for and we’re still averaging one to two melt-downs a day. And the other night, after she THREW her plate off her tray at dinner and sobbed through dessert, Chris and I had a sit down to discuss how we’re gonna manage these come-aparts. Because otherwise, Momma would be starting happy hour around two or three every afternoon. And the best solution we could think of is to just ignore her. Make a point of it, and actually turn our backs to her and pretend we’re not affected at all by her screams. And this morning, after she erupted because we wouldn’t let her feed scramble eggs to her baby - the horror! - we continued on with our usual breakfast conversation over her crying and flopping, and after about five minutes she calmed herself down and finished her food. And Chris looked over to her with a cheesy grin and said, Honey, Mom and Dad just won that battle. Get used to it.

So, yes, it’s been a challenging month. And I look back to when we first brought her home, and how hard we thought it was then. Come on! All I had to do was feed her a billion times a day, make sure she had a clean diaper and the rest was gravy. That was a cake walk compared to chasing her through an airport, calming outbursts and making sure she is constantly entertained. So, this is PARENTHOOD. And it’s HARD. Because what she’s learning from us now is going to shape her into the person she will always be. And now we’re ready for it, and we’re learning something new every day. And we’re LOVING it. And while everyday presents a new obstacle, and also tests my confidence in my mothering skills, it also holds a bazillion more moments where I just look at her and feel my heart surge with so much happiness and love. This is the best job ever.