Morning Smile For Mommy: Happy 18th & 19th Month Birthday Makayla!

Oh how time flies! I am almost 15 weeks pregnant with Baby #2 and only beginning to feel better from the "night-sickness" I've been experiencing for the last 2 months. This is the main reason why I have not been good about updating the blog. Since I missed last month's update, you will get a 2fer this time.

Although babies develop so quickly within the first 2 years of life, there are some months where their development seems to occur a bit more quickly and abruptly than others. For Makayla, I've noticed particularly drastic changes in month 3 (2 months old) when she started becoming very social, month 9 (8 months old) when she developed object permanence and subsequently separation anxiety, and month 13 (12 months old) when she seemed to have increased receptive language and desire for independence. Recently, during month 18 (17 months old) she seems to have improved immensely in her expressive language and maybe related to this, an improvement in her desire to communicate with others. Even though I am writing a 2 month update, many of these developments occurred prior to her 18th month birthday.

Cognitive development:

3-step commands- M can respond to commands really well now. She follows 3-step commands: go to the room, get the wipes, give the wipes to aiyi. This is significant because it uses expressive language and memory, both of which have come a long way since birth.

Symbolic play- M substitutes items for actual items. One day, Emily, Makayla and I stopped by at a local starbucks to grab a quick drink before heading to the Irvine Regional Park. Emily gave her a cup sleeve and a drink stopper to play with. This is what she did: [video to come]
Pretend play- M loves to play with her stuffed animals. She is still really into her buckles, but instead of simply buckling her high chair buckles, she will now look for a stuffed animal, put it in the high chair, buckle the stuffed animal in, asks us to put on the tray and sometimes a bib, and occasionally tries to feed the stuffed animal. She also brushes their teeth, combs their hair, pats them in the back, puts blankets on them, and sings "naptime" to them. She loves picking up the phone and saying "Hello- oh oh- otay-otay-bubye!" These are all examples of early forms of pretend play which tends to emerge alongside the development of pretense, receptive and expressive language, and mental representation. I absolutely love watch M participating in pretend play as these are moments when her personality comes out. But more than just watching M "being cute", it's nice to be reminded that M is actually displaying huge developmental leaps. Here is an excerpt about the importance of pretend play:

"There is a growing body of evidence supporting the many connections between cognitive competence and high-quality pretend play. If children lack opportunities to experience such play, their long-term capacities related to metacognition, problem solving, and social cognition, as well as to academic areas such as literacy, mathematics, and science, may be diminished. These complex and multidimensional skills involving many areas of the brain are most likely to thrive in an atmosphere rich in high-quality pretend play."
~ Doris Bergen, The Role of Pretend Play in Children's Cognitive Development

Language development:

Makayla is like a human sponge these days. She says a lot of animals like cat, dog, duck, pig, horse, fish, giraffe, lion (yiyon). She knows different articles of clothing like hat, shoes (in chinese and english), socks. Last month she enjoyed pointing to body parts when we asked. This month, she points to the body parts herself and says them, such as eyes, nose mouth, feet, ears, bee boo (belly button). In fact, she loves poking people in the face to identify their body parts. Other words she says include moon, star, heart, flower, apple, choo choo train, airplane, car, water, book, house, keys, bubble, buckle, door, apple sauce, noodle (noo-noll). When she finishes reading a book, she closes it as says "the end, tada!" Words she used to sign, she now speaks, such as more, please, all done. There are too many words to keep track of!

She has also learned to say the word "no"........ enough said.

She’s really starting to get good at identifying people by name. She says "Aiyi" for Raissa, and identifies the rest of her family Jojo, Jed and Mike. Jeremiah is just "baby". She also correctly identifies grandma and grandpa (in chinese), her uncle Jeff "Jeff", her auntie Emily "Emy". She also knows the name of a lot of her tv friends-- she randomly lists all of the yo gabba gabba characters, Chicca, Caillou, Super Why (Why), Elmo, Ernie, Zoe, Cookie Monster (Tootie).

She’s also started using verbs like sleep, eat, fall, jump, sit, fly.

She’s starting to speak 2 word sentences. Mostly it's simple like "Hi Elmo". She also says “I love you” and “how are you”.

One of the coolest things we discovered was that she can recite her ABCs with the exception of the letters L, M, N, and O. When she sings her ABCs, she sings "H-I-J-K-uh-uh-uh-uh-P" hahaha. M also counts from 2-10. We are not quite sure why she doesn't say 1.. Maybe because we usually say it for her.

She pretend reads (as seen on the video) by moving her hand along the words of a book while babbling and knows that reading occurs from left to right.

Socio-Emotional development:

M is talking more to other kids. One day when we were at small group, Sharon walks toward the TV, when suddenly, M walks up to her and wags finger at Sharon while babbling as if to say "You can't touch the TV". I wish I had gotten it on video!

M is increasingly interested in Baby J. When he's crying she says "shh shh" and "it's otay it's otay".

She is also imitating other behaviors modeled to her. For example, one morning she wrapped a pillowcase around her neck like a cape. I realized she was probably imitating Raissa's boys when they dress up like superheroes. The same morning, she grabbed some tweezers and tried opening the door with them, similar to how I use my keys to open the door.

Gender identity development- although M usually hangs out with boys and has exposure to plenty of boy toys, she does appear to prefer girly things. She loves to wear skirts, dresses, bracelets, necklaces, purses. When you tell her she looks pretty, she gives a cute smirk.

Gross motor development:

Makayla walks on her tippy toes.

Fine motor development:

M has suddently become interested in writing/scribbling. She holds a pencil or crayon pretty well.

M can stack more than 3 blocks on top of each other, although I think she much prefers to knock them down.

M can now complete puzzles on her own.

Physical development:

Remember how Makayla grew 4 teeth last month? Well she sprouted 4 more during these past 2 months. Her canines and molar on bottom are now in. She has 4 more teeth to come in, likely closer to her 2nd birthday.

Some new adventures:

I've been trying to venture out and explore new environments with Makayla. Here are some new adventures we've had the past few months.

- Kidseum- I think this kid's museum is fantastic for older children but Makayla we spent almost the entire time walking on the pretend bridge
- Irvine Regional Park- Makayla had a fun time on the train
- Visit with the Easter Bunny at Fashion Island
- Bubblefest- with Raissa at Discovery Science Center. This was perfect for her since she's been really interested in bubbles lately. I hope to take her myself next year.
- Newport Beach Public Libaray- the children's section was supposed to be pretty cool, but again, I think more fun when she's a bit older and can actually read.
- Santa Ana Zoo- not a great zoo but certainly good enough for a 1.5 year old
- Bubble bath!
- Makayla's first ballet class- Makayla now takes ballet with Raissa every Tuesdays. Who knew babies could take ballet?!