In The Waiting Room

Yesterday, Margaret had her 15-month checkup (you know, the one where we shoot her full of autism!), and she developed a very important skill: reading while she waits in the waiting room.

And then she developed another important life skill: wearing a book as a hat.

The pediatrician’s office had this awesome chair that was just her height, and she had a ball climbing in and out of it.  Of course, she has yet to figure out how to approach the chair, turn around, and sit, so she climbs into the chair frontwards and turns around while standing on the chair, which is a little nerve-racking when one is her mother.

While we were waiting, I also taught her to fist-bump.

And her stats – she’s 28 lbs and 32 inches, which puts her in the 95th and 90th percentiles.

Proportionality, here we come!

Tickle, Tickle

I have video proving that Margaret is able to say “tickle.”  It also proves that I can say it, but I imagine that people will be less surprised and less excited about that fact.

Unfortunately, I haven’t caught her on video saying tickle with the tickling motion, because I’ve only tried the once and this is the best I’ve got.  But trust me that most of the time, she tickles herself.  And last night she tickled Leo.  But not me, because as I am telling her very firmly, I am not ticklish, not even a little bit, and so she shouldn’t waste her time.  Not at all.*

She also appears to be able to say “shoes,” and she seems to be getting a handle on “Daddy.”  And she’s been able to say a phrase that means “There it/he/she/I/you/we is/am/are” for a few months.  Oh, and she says “hello” when she’s pretending to talk into the phone/sandwich/blueberry/block/teddy bear.  Tickle is by far the least useful word on this list.

*A little overemphatic?  Perhaps.  But so far, effective.

Margaret the Builder

Margaret is constructing towers.  The stacking of blocks has become a fairly frequent occupation, and she’s getting really good at it.

She never underestimates the importance of a firm foundation.

She’s very precise in her movements, which helps with the stacking.

She knows when to stop.

And she knows when to move on to a different type of block, and a different tower, because a fourth alphabet block would be too much.

She frequently attempts the fourth block, and I’d say that she manages it about a quarter of the time.  She is very clever.

Knowledge Is Power

You remember how I used to make jokes about Margaret getting up in the middle of the night to come and read the parenting/development books I had lying around so that she could figure out what she was supposed to do next?

You remember when that was a joke?

Well, not anymore.

She found the book.

She picked it up and examined it.

She was taken aback by something she found.

So she checked with me.

And I suggested she look in the index for more information.

I’m a little worried about what tomorrow will bring.

This Little Piggy

Like many other children, Margaret enjoys the cautionary tale of pigs told on her toes.*

She’s turning the tables on us now, though.

And then she turned to Leo with a cute little look, no doubt to make sure that he understood what was going on. 

He did.  He’s very clever, you know.

*It’s my contention that “This Little Piggy” is about two pigs, one of whom went to market and had roast beef and ran home, and the other of whom stayed home and didn’t eat roast beef.  There are two possible morals, depending on your mood – the first is that if you leave home, you’ll get a delicious lunch.  The other is that if you stay home, you will be less likely to eat one of your neighbors for lunch.**

**Yes, I know, but I spent the last decade training myself to think like this, and it’s a hard habit to break.

Mr. Albert Bear

Margaret has a bear.  A Perfectly Normous Bear, which she loves, and will occasionally hug, and whose nose she frequently honks. 

And sometimes, she just hangs out with him.

His name was something that took a while to figure out.  We have settled on Bertie.  It’s short for Albert, which is the translation of his real name, which is Albertus Ursus.  (What, your baby doesn’t have a bear with a Latin name?).

And Oh, Father Christmas, If You Love Me At All, Or An Unseasonable Praise Of Big Red Balls

In the last year or so, I have developed a sophisticated understanding of the ratio of expenditure to enjoyment in children’s toys.

What I have come to understand is that if you spend a lot of money and (and this is the important thing) get something that is shipped in a big box, enjoyment will be had.

One purchase with a very favorable cost to fun ratio is the big plasticky, light-weight balls that one can get at the grocery store or Target or many dollar stores.  Margaret has been enjoying hers greatly.

She really likes lugging it about, no doubt realizing that if she falls while holding it, she will just bounce up again.

But one of the things that we have been working on is playing catch.  We’ve started on the easy end – Margaret throwing things for us to catch – and she’s doing really well.  I am, of course, quietly working on annoying phrases like “it’s catch not chase” and so forth, but in general we’ve kept these games of catch low-key.  And she’s really getting the whole throwing thing.

She’s particularly good at throwing her cup of milk.  We’re very proud of her.