Eluned G. Sharron Bethea » July 2009 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Sat, Jul 25, 2009 10:00 PM
Bertha's backyard is an orchard. Not literally, but it is filled with fruit trees: oranges, apricots, peaches, lemons ...

I have a lot of reasons to like those trees. (The shade is lovely). In particular, though -- Eluned is growing up in a city, far from the sources of her food. (Let's not get in to my failures at patio kitchen gardening.) Those trees give her a chance to watch the fruit she loves through its growth cycles, from flower to small green fruit to ripe edible fruit to fruit folding itself back into the ground.

And Els does love fruit. She doesn't know the word "fruit" yet, so she calls everything "apple" except bananas, which she knows by name. Today she pointed to a picture of a melon and said "apple," so she really does get the concept. (Well, then she said "ball.") And we name all the other kinds of fruit for her as she eats them or finds pictures. I'm not sure how she settled on "apple." My friend has a son the same age, and he calls all fruit "mango."

Comments:
sarah: Gosh, this entry brought back memories. Jenny's first fruit word was berry. Berry, berry, berry, I can still hear her playing with the word. I think she liked the sound of it and would happily call any fruit a "berry". To this day, she still loves berries of all kinds.

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Thu, Jul 23, 2009 10:00 PM
I got to watch Eluned learn this evening. We went for a walk and started out at the playground. Els climbed up one of the play structures and found a slide.

Now, up until this point, because she was so little and couldn't climb back up by herself, Will or I would pick Els up at the bottom of the slide and lift her up to the top to go again. But this time, since she had climbed up there almost entirely by herself, when she reached the bottom and waited I explained that to go down the slide again she would have to go around and climb back up.

It took a little coaxing and directing, but she did it. The next two times down the slide Els again waited at the bottom for us, but she was willing to go with me around to the steps.

The fourth time down the slide, I hardly said or did anything. Els hopped down and went around to the steps herself.

And we had another breakthrough tonight. Our playground is surrounded by an octagonal fence with only one opening. Els has been confounded by that fence for months, although I've tried to show her that if you just keep walking along it eventually you reach the entrance. Tonight, when she was done with the slide, Els looked around for her Daddy. Will was watching from the other side of the fence with the stroller. Els just took off, and we realized that, with no prompting from us, she was running along the inside of the fence until she reached the opening. Then sure enough she turned and ran back along the fence to Daddy.

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Tue, Jul 14, 2009 10:00 PM
Eluned had her 18 month appointment this morning with Dr. Zimble. She's 22 pounds and 31 inches tall, 25% percentile on both counts. Everything else looks good.

This visit was the first time Els was really mobile, and she took full advantage of it. There was only one other family there this morning, with a newborn, so I mostly let her. There was a big wire-and-bead toy in the exam room that was just her size and held her interest for quite a while.

After the visit, which ended with a few more shots, I thought Els would want to leave. She did want to get out of the exam room. But once we walked down the hall to the waiting area, and the nurse who had given the shots helped Els pick out some stickers, Els was ready to hang out. She admired the mobiles hanging from the ceiling. She asked me to help her up onto the chairs. She stood at the glass front door and we watched the cars go by on the boulevard. When she found the toys in the corner, though, I had to insist that it was time to go.

Comments:
Kate: I gather that the data behind the growth charts might not be truly representative. But assuming it is, I think the idea is if you gathered 100 18-month-old girls, about 25 of them would be smaller than Els, and about 75 would be larger.

Sarah: When you say 25%-ile, what does that mean? I was never clear on how they make that evaluation. My daughter was so long and tall, it was never a topic of discussion. Mostly the doctor wanted to know what I was feeding her.

I think it's great that Els is so relaxed about seeing the doctor. Obviously not upset at all. She is quite a girl (but you don't need me to tell you that!).

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Mon, Jul 13, 2009 6:00 PM
Eluned is a trader, which comes in handy for me and Will. She will happily trade one thing for another. Els is very good about giving things to people; if I ask her to hand something to her Daddy, she often will. We can't rely on that, though, so it's nice to have trading as an option.

Els is so willing to trade that I feel really bad just taking something from her and do my best to avoid that -- usually only if there is an immediate safety concern.

Els trades according to her own values and priorities, which aren't always evident to the rest of us. When we were up visiting my parents, Els helped Poppa empty the dishwasher by grabbing a couple of forks and taking off. Nothing would convice Els to give up those forks -- not asking nicely, not the standard trade items. Finally I remembered the gingersnaps on the counter and offered Els a cookie for each fork. The child who had been running away to protect her forks a second before couldn't turn those forks over fast enough.

Comments:
Aunt Ginny: She is a wonderful rascal! It was so good to see both of you and play with Els. How about some new pics??!! Love you all.

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Sat, Jul 11, 2009 7:00 PM
We may have a girly-girl. A few nights ago, Eluned woke up at around 3:30 a.m., looked at me, said "shoes," and then went back to sleep. In addition to her love of shoes, Els has started wearing hair ties as bracelets and carrying around a little bag like a purse.

My sister and I took Els to the mall recently. Rachel watched Els while I was trying on clothes, and reports that Els led them to the accessories section full of bows and ribbons. Later, I had to chase Els out of a purse store. The store employees said we were both welcome, but Els had Nutella on her face and hands, and it was an expensive store.

But then, I was talking to a friend who has a 2 year old boy, and she said her son carries a purse sometimes and otherwise does much the same things.

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Fri, Jul 10, 2009 10:00 PM
For the first time Eluned is exhibiting behavior that she definitely learned from someone else. There have been moments before, things we wondered if she learned from Nathan or one of the other folks at Bertha's, but nothing conclusive.

Els has started saying "woof woof" for dogs and "caw caw" for birds. Except ducks; she knows ducks go "quack quack."

I'm more of a "bark bark"/"cheep cheep" type myself. Will does use "woof woof" but goes to "chirp chirp" for birds. (Actually, when asked, he launched an impressive medley of bird impressions, but he opened with "chirp chirp.") The point is, if she had learned animals sounds from us, she would have learned different sounds. So someone else, presumably at Bertha's, has been practicing animal noises with her.

Els is enthusiastic about her new skill. Right now a bird is anything bird-shaped and/or flying, but Els doesn't know the word "bird" yet, so we hear "caw caw" a lot. She calls any dog a "puppy," and she tries out "woof woof" on some of the dogs we meet.

Comments:
Nicky: Molly Brown "woofs" at every child she sees...and because she is a Newf, with a big, deep "woof", most kids run screaming for cover. I think she thinks kids are very strange looking and smelling dogs, since they are eye-to-eye height wise, and her "woofs" kindof have a question mark behind them. It would be funny to see a "woof" conversation between Els and Molly.

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Thu, Jul 9, 2009 12:00 PM
Eluned looked at me this morning, said "poop," and pointed to her diaper. (And she was right.)

Comments:
Sarah: And you said "poop" and pointed to the toilet? Don't you love the way you can go from a polysyllabic enhanced adult to uttering "poop" in an instant?

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