Lenore at 21 Months

21 Months Old (in my outfit from 1983)

RIP Old Dog. You're officially MIA. I contacted the owner of the condo we stayed in on vacation, and he contacted the other people who had stayed there since us, the property manager, and the cleaning staff. The dog is gone. :(

What she's doing this month:

• She likes to sit at the computer and 'take notes,' I will call it. She takes a piece of paper and un-caps a highlighter, then makes dots all over the page. And sometimes on her outfit, too. Pen on her arms. I thought highlighter would wash out easily--turns out I was wrong.
• Mealtimes are a mess. She likes to move things from container to container. Or the other day at lunch, it was from the table to the floor. Bread, cheese, turkey, methodically dropped on the floor, piece by piece.
• She has a particular way of eating sandwiches...traditional ones and sandwiched cookies and sandwiched crackers. She opens them and licks the contents (making a huge mess). I keep showing her to take bites, but it's not her natural instinct.
• She does not like being told No. I could see it going one of two ways...either she'll be tough and won't take No for an answer, or she'll be a brat. I really hope she isn't a brat. Can I say that? I just did. I can just see it going that way, and I hope it's just a phase.
• She is in an I-can-do-it phase. For instance, she can climb up on the dog bowls, reach the banana tree, pull off a banana, and open it. She will do that a few times a day, but she only ever eats about half of one banana--the rest she tries to give to me (and I can only stand so much banana/day). She just does it because she can, not out of hunger. At least bananas are cheap.
• Kind of along those lines, I noticed that she has started relying on Kevin and I to carry her down the stairs. Once I realized I was doing it, I stopped, and we've had some battles. She has stood at the top of the stairs screeeeaming for many minutes. Eventually she will come down, either enticed by going outside or to the basement or to eat or drink something.
• She continues to be fearless. She will run up to me full-speed and expect to be swooped up in the air (which I do). She will confidently step off of things (stairs, tables, fireplace, etc.) into my arms, fully expecting that I will be there to catch her. I guess I have been there, up until now, but she could really take a fall if I'm not there or not paying attention. Definitely keeps me on my toes. I am still planning to get her into some sort of tumbling class this fall because I think she'd really enjoy it.
• Speaking of fall, she is starting school in a few weeks! We decided to go ahead and put her in the Twos class, even though she misses the cutoff by 29 days (cutoff is October 1, birthday is October 29). The director said that most of the other Ones are quite a lot younger than her, so we are skipping Ones. She will do Twos (starting when she's almost 2), Threes, Fours, Pre-K, then start Kindergarten (in public school) when she's almost 6. We were also going to just do two mornings a week, but we've decided to do three instead. She does so well there, and we love it, and I know she loves being with the other kids.
• She continues to show some interest in the potty, but she hasn't gone yet. She has asked to sit on it a few times and mimics Lewis's standing-to-pee posture sometimes.
• She loves SHOES! She tries to put her own shoes on and loves to try on other people's shoes, too. She also loves bracelets, purses, sunglasses, etc. and has started playing dress-up a little.
• She has been showing some interest in dressing herself. We went shopping the other day, and she got some PJs and a swimsuit. Immediately, she had a leg through the PJ bottoms and her head through the swimsuit top. A budding fashionista, for sure!
• Along with that, her love for Minnie and Mickey continues to blossom. She picks them out of a crowd and just stares lovingly. It was a set of Minnie PJs and a Minnie swimsuit that I bought for her because she was SO excited and she caught me in a moment of weakness. ;)
• We've been seeing a LOT of Monkey See, Monkey Do this month between Lewis and Lenore. The good, bad, and ugly.
• Current Tooth Count: still 20, but I can feel her two year molars way way in the back! They're on the move.
• She's currently wearing 2T and even a few 3T items.