WSDW: Lil' Pumpkin

This week has been a pretty good one for Jia. The last 3 days, she hasn’t cried at all when I drop her off at daycare, which is a huge step in the right direction. And, her teachers told me that she hardly pays attention to her lions the last few days, either. When I arrived to pick her up Tuesday afternoon, her lions were already put away in her bin (usually she’s clutching them until we put them away together and leave to go home). She’s easily distracted at drop-off, now that she’s really paying attention to the toys and projects around her rather than our impending separation, and this morning she spent maybe 10 seconds worried after I kissed her goodbye. Huge win! She’s getting used to this routine and I’m really proud of her!

Here’s what we did/she’s done in the last week:

According to BabyCenter, at 19 months and 2 weeks, babies know on average 20-50 words. Jeff and I really thought this was an undercount so we started thinking of all the words she SAYS (not just identifies or is familiar with), and we’ve totaled it to be over 220! Seriously.
- If you’re curious: pasta, moon, sign, cloud, seagull, beach, water, pool, doggy, boat, kitten, car, fire truck, carrot, apple, blueberry, circle, cheese, turkey, fish, house, ball, shoes, socks, pants, shirts, swimsuit, horse, duck, cow, sheep, Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Goofy, burgers, chicken, bus, trash can, vacuum, pens, spoon, fork, high chair, new, lights, work, home, coming, books, car, stroller, more, eat, lunch, dark, fridge, grass, tree, butterfly, bird, lemon, strawberry, tomato, cucumber, pom-poms, slide, climb, airplane, water, milk, juice, cookie, cupcake, dress, boots, cup, bikes, locks, the numbers 2, 5, and 6, drink, pump, basket, flower, colors (red yellow purple blue green white black orange pink), school bus, corn, pumpkin, clouds, sky, fruit, grapes, oranges, pouch, different, noodle, crayon, diaper, cream, lotion, sunscreen, avocado, arms, back, butt, potty, head, elevator, stairs, bubbles, peas, doggies, chest, pugs, eyes, hair, head, face, toothbrush, elbow, poo poo, pee pee, sit, belly, peas, crackers, food, snack, brie, goat cheese, purse, backpack, giraffe, coffee, toothpaste, keys, bugs, yucky, nasty, soft, hot, cold, tasty, spicy, helmet, flag,triangle, heart, star, rabbit, monkey, snake, pig, pineapple, peaches, elephant, hand, feet, foot, toes, leg, nose, ears, seatbelt, buckle, paci, froggie, lions, duck, boy, girl, jia, mommy, daddy, gran, sleeping, a-yeh (what she calls Jeff’s dad), walk, paw-paw (what she calls my mom), gung-gung (what she calls my dad), brother, sister, kona, mei mei, phone, buggy, hair tie, ribbon, brush, cap, treat, pancake, applesauce, banana, leaf, itchy, hold, open, outside, inside, flying, mushroom, zipper
- phrases:
  - hi!
  - bye bye
  - brush teeth?
  - Jia try? (if she wants some)
  - ride pink car? (she wants to go outside in her pink car)
  - please/thank you
  - bless you!
  - uh oh
  - let’s go!
  - ready?
  - more?
  - I take it?
- That’s over 229 words or phrases. Of course there are words we’re forgetting and even words she knows what we’re referring to when we say them (like, “let’s go give the doggies food” and she goes over to the dog’s drawer and feeds them treats without us realizing it)
She buckles the chest clip of her car seat and even pulls it up to armpit (she tries) level! She says “Buckle?” and tries to do it herself. She’s successfully buckled it herself only a couple of times but she knows we do it all the time and she knows we always pull it up!
On 9/30/15, Jia peed in her potty. She pretty consistently tells us when she’s poo poo’d, but when we say “do you want to go to the potty?” she says either “no” or she walks over to the potty so we can help her pull down her pants, remove the diaper, and she sits without doing anything. I’m saying it here – by Christmas, I feel we’ll be potty trained! (she’ll be 22.5 months old by then)
Draws circles. I read somewhere that brain development matures to the point where toddlers have more control over the fine motor movements of their hands, so they’re able to draw circles rather than just scribble long lines off the page. So this was momentous when she started drawing circle with her bath time crayons.
As mentioned above, she knows some numbers. It’s cute – There is a package of small foam colored shapes I got from the Target dollar bin a while ago and Jia & Jeff group them into a stack of 1 blue square, 2 red hearts, 3 green stars, 4 orange squares, and 4 yellow circles. Well, Jeff stacks them and Jia lies on her belly trying to help him. So she points out to each stack (where she learned the word “stack”) and says “two… (points to another) five… six!” Though she’s not pointing to the corresponding stack, she’s still learning her process of counting.
I’m so excited for Jia’s first time Trick or Treating this year! Holidays are way more fun when you have kids, because getting them excited about the holidays is really exciting. We took Jia to her very first pumpkin patch this weekend (her very first trip to a farm with hay rides, slides, etc. was last year at Cox Farms with her god mommy Megan, but she didn’t stroll through a pumpkin patch, just posed on top of a bale of hay) and she had a lot of fun trotting through the pumpkins, picking them up and dropping them, peeking through tee-pees, petting animals at the petting zoo, and riding the little pony ride. For Halloween, we’ll be going to a ucla football game during the day but then in the evening, we’ll be taking her trick or treating through this town in Redondo Beach that has streets entirely closed off to cars so that the little kids can visit dozens of stores and get her treats. I was reading that they have thousands of trick or treaters each halloween. I’m really excited for this! Let’s hope ucla kicks butt so that the game doesn’t last too long and we have time to get home to get dressed!