16 Months

My “Baby” girl is now 16 months old. This past month has been huge for emotional development. Our little Dixie Mae is officially a TODDLER! According to babycenter.com, this happened at 12 months, however, at 16 months I see a real difference in her thought and behavior. Dixie has displayed the following Toddler behaviors this past month;

Mini Tantrums

Yes… they’ve already started. Not to a huge degree, but I think they are forecasting the future. When walking with Dixie and forcing her to hold my hand, if she doesn’t want to go in the particular direction we are headed, she will use all of her might to pull her hand away from mine, she stopped walking and sits down on the sidewalk. Yes… I know, its probably pay back for my toddler years, as my dear mommy has so lovingly reminded me.

Memory

Dixie is like a little elephant! She has an amazing sense of direction (which she gets from her daddy, that’s for sure). We were at my work having lunch, and outside on the patio there are lovely water fountains surrounded by café tables. It was a particularly sunny day, so we headed to the fountains to start our lunch time walk. Well folks, this was a terrible place to “start” the walk. We should have finished the walk there, as Dixie did not want to leave the lovely water fountains. She was dipping her entire arm in, and taking drinks of the stagnant water. Luckily I have not seen any signs of diphtheria (yet). Anyways, we carried her away from the fountain (again, throwing a mini tantrum in the process), and walked at least 100 yards away before we set her down, and immediately she turned around and found her own way back to the fountain (which was not in sight). She did this 3 times in a row from different starting points! The girl can find her way back to the water fountains blindfolded.

Sense of Humor

Dixie loves to laugh, and has the cutest little giggle I’ve ever heard (although, I’m biased of course). After she’s done eating, she gives me the quick hand sign for “All done”, and then immediately starts to throw any leftovers onto the ground, and she giggles hysterically while doing so with a mischievous look in her eyes. I usually can’t help but laugh at this… which Sean scolds me for, since laughing only reinforces this type of behavior. I can’t help it though… she’s so darn cute! In this way, I am just like my mom, who has a very hard time keeping a stern (or even straight) face when witnessing misbehaving kiddos. Dixie also giggles when her daddy plays the “monster” game, in which he chases her around “roaring” like a monster. She always comes running straight to mommy. I try to play the monster sometimes, but it just doesn’t have the same effect as when daddy is the monster. She never runs away from me! We finally found a way to brush Dixie’s teeth (which she is fiercely protective of). We had to turn it into a game, otherwise there was just no getting in her mouth and with 2 new molars on the top, I was getting worried about cavities! So, I hold her upside down, she giggles, thus unveiling her pearly whites and I have about 5 seconds of access to her mouth. I know… 5 seconds probably doesn’t cut it…. But it’s the best I can get out of her for now! Any tricks or insights you might have for toddler teeth brushing would be greatly appreciated. Dixie might just end up with a gold grill by by her 3rd birthday.

Books

Dixie loves to flip through books. She brings a variety of books to us all day long, and sometimes she goes through the pile of books to find her favorite book. Her favorite is a counting book. She likes the number nine the best… this is the page with “9 big trucks”. I don’t know why she Loves trucks so much, but she does. Sean thinks that she gets to play with them at her babysitter’s place (who has 2 boys, and thus lots of toy trucks). I should probably get her some trucks to play with too, especially since she’s been stealing trucks away from other kids at the neighborhood park! Anyways, back to books, sometimes I catch her all on her own flipping through the books and just looking at the pictures for a few minutes at a time. A few minutes in toddler time equals an episode in adult time.

Attachment

Dixie is all about her mommy these days. When I am home, I cannot be in another room.. Dixie will find me. She follows me around from room to room, and is usually at my feet asking to be held. This means no sleeping in, no solo showers, gosh I can’t even eat a meal without Dixie tugging at my legs begging to be held! This melts my heart that my little girl loves her mommy so much. Daddy is ok too…. But is always second choice to me J. I wonder if she’ll still love (prefer) me this much when I am home full time while on maternity leave??

We sure do love our little toddler girl. She’s got such a nice little spirit in her, and our lives have been truly blessed since her arrival, 16 months ago.