One year, two months

Guess who turned fourteen months old! Despite my blogging silence (sorry about that, won’t happen again), Caroline keeps growing and developing. Let me catch you up on what she’s been doing …

This month has seen some major developments. First, Caroline took the turn into toddlerdom one exciting week in early-November. Now her preferred mode of locomotion is walking over crawling – and oh how cute she looks doing her wide-legged penguin walk all over the house. She likes to practice going up and down stairs too (mostly when we’re not watching). She gets better every day, and we recently purchase some official “walker” shoes to help her become even more steady on her feet.

Second, Caroline’s receptive language took a giant leap forward. She can follow all sorts of simple directions, from “open your shutter” first thing in the morning, to “get a clean diaper” and “go find dot-dot (her blanket)” during bed time. It’s fun to test out and see how much she understands!

She “talks” all the time with noises, sounds, hand gestures, and pointing. She was eating apple pieces in the car the other day and shouted out “Maman!” When I turned around to look at her, she pointed at the apple in my hand and made the sign for “more”. Pretty darn good communication, I’d say!

Of course, her lack of expressive language can lead to some frustration too. We have bouts where she goes boneless and collapses in a heap on the floor to express her dismay at being misunderstood or denied. More dramatic is the collapse and bang, when she falls to her knees and bangs her head to the floor. Between the expressions of frustration and her newly minted walking skills, the girl is bruised from head to toe. Nonetheless, she looks adorable – her hair is growing longer and blonder, with curls emerging at the nape. Her eyes are still the bluest blue, and I hope they stay that way! And she’s big and strong and healthy – just the way a baby -- I mean toddler! -- should be.

She’s also become more attuned to books, and will sit still (most nights) to hear her bedtime story instead of trying to eat the book. She can point out Max in Where the Wild Things Are and the Cat in the Hat in Dr. Seuss books. Her favorite toys are her brother’s matchbox cars and any sort of ball – golf balls, tennis balls, balled up socks. She could care less about stuffed animals but will wrestle and play with her boys with vigor. I think she’s going to be a tom boy.

She’s fearless and has no qualms about launching herself off furniture, climbing up furniture, or walking with speed across the stone steps. She is fast as lightning and you need to keep an eye on her every minute, or she’ll be into something she more than likely shouldn’t be. At nearly every opportunity, she’ll move HER stuff out of the way to get her hands on the one thing on the table that isn’t baby safe.

She’s Caroline, and every day her strong personality sharpens a little more. You always know where you stand with our little girl – when she’s happy, she’s very happy. And when she’s displeased, she’ll let you know. She gives big, sloppy, spitty kisses – but only when it suits her to do so. Which makes those kisses that much more precious, because you never see them coming.