Diary - Year 2

Month 20 (thru January 20th, 2003)

I can say “apple” when I want applesauce or want to chew on an apple; I even know where mommy keeps them. I can also say “go”, “moon”, “car”, “all gone” and “cheese”. I say “more” when I’m eating my favorite foods so that mommy and daddy know I’m hungry and need more (especially yogurt, applesauce and chicken). I say “hat” and “coat” when I want to go outside and can even get them for mommy and daddy to help me put on although I can almost do it all by myself. Sometimes I have to take mommy by the hand and bring her to the coat closet so that she can get hers out or put it away. I’m always reminding her when we get home.

I like going outside in my stroller when mommy bundles me up to go out for a walk. I don’t always keep my shoes and mittens on though. I notice all of the airplanes flying over us and I points up when I see or hear one or when I hear someone say the word “airplane”.

I went to visit grandmom and granddad for Christmas. I was afraid of Nikki (the dog) at first because she barked right in my face when I knocked on the door; then I chased her around the rest of the time and had lots of fun trying to catch her. I told her to "go" and pointed, then hit her on the bottom as she walked by to get her to do what I wanted. I got braver and fed her biscuits, then even let her lick my fingers (which really tickled and made me laugh). I don't think that she liked me as much at the end but I really liked her a lot when it was time to go home. Aunt Marianne got me a sit ‘n spin for Christmas and after they got it put together with my help, it only took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to spin really fast. But I needed a few weeks away from it before I was ready to play with it again.

Mommy decorated the house for Christmas and even put out a Mickey and Minnie Mouse in red outfits next to the tree that were almost as big as me. They were a little scary at first because they wouldn’t stay still but I liked touching their ears and noses and even learned how to say their names. I always had to remind mommy and daddy to turn the Christmas tree lights on, and then they would forget about the tree by the front door, so I would have to walk out there and wait until they turned those lights on too. Sometimes I had them turn on the fireplace too.

Daddy taught me how to do a somersault and I’m getting really good at it. I even remember to put my hands down first when I do them on the bed and the floor.

I can say “Ernie” and “Elmo” and get excited when I see their pictures in my books or see them on TV. Sometimes when I get up early in the morning before school, mommy and daddy let me watch Sesame on TV while they get ready. I love my little bear with the blue and white pajamas and let him hold my pacifier at night while I sleep. I can say “bear”, but sometimes I call him “B” for short. I have a bunch of other little bears to play with and sometimes cover all of them up with my blanket after I have my bath. I try really hard to get the blanket just right and sometimes have to cover and uncover them several dozen times before mommy helps me put it on perfectly straight and tells me its time for bed.

Month 19 (thru December 20th, 2002)

Great Aunt Louise came to visit for Thanksgiving and we had a lot of fun reading books and playing with all of my toys. I helped her bake some yummy apple pies and we didn’t make too much of a mess. Aunt Louise and Aunt Diane stayed home with me one day while mommy and daddy were at work and we were very busy the whole day. I got to go visit lots of doggies and read lots of books and went for three rides in my stroller. I was sure that mommy was hiding in her bed when I couldn't find her so I kept calling for her and looking for her. I was really happy to see her when she got home from work.

I’m talking even more now. One night I was reading a book with mommy and saw a picture of a banana on one of the pages; I was feeling a little hungry and thought that a snack would be good before bed, so I got up and walked into the kitchen and pointed to the bananas and said “nana” and “yeah” when mommy asked if I wanted to eat one – then I ate the whole thing! Another day, I wanted some grapes and tried to get them for myself. I pulled on the refrigerator door as hard as I could and mommy finally came over and opened the door so that I could pull open the drawer and get grapes out since she didn't know what I was saying although I thought I was pretty clear.

I tell mommy sometimes when I need to use the potty and get very excited when I really use it, help mommy and then flush it in the big toilet for her.

I really love to read books – my favorite one is "Its Not Easy Being Big" with Big Bird and Elmo, whose name I like to say. I also like mommy to read "I Love You Sun, I Love You Moon". When I want someone to read to me, I bring over a book, climb onto their lap usually by backing up into it, I grab their hand by the thumb and hold it in book holding position until I stick the book in their hand and then help turn the pages. Mommy cleaned her stuff out of one of the cabinets in the coffee/dancing table, so now I have a place to store my books. I love going over to pick out books and sometimes have to straighten them so that the door will close.

I help daddy when we get home from work: I help him take his belt off and put it in the closet, put his shoes away, and I pick the pennies out of his coins and put them in the penny jar for him. I know the referee sign for false start as well as for touchdown now. I can open doors and love to jump. I dance a lot and ask for my “Wiggles Dance Party” video by pointing to the cabinet where it is kept and say “dance” while dancing until mommy or daddy put it in for me.

Month 18 (thru November 20th, 2002)

I went trick-or-treating on Halloween with daddy. We went to see the neighbors and they gave me lots of candy to fill up my pumpkin head. I carried all of the candy by myself and tried to get more from mommy when we got home. I don’t know what happened to all of the candy after we got home, because all I ate were a few pieces of that red chewy stuff and the next thing I knew, my pumpkin was empty again.

I like to talk even more now that mommy and daddy can understand me. I can say: dance (when I want mommy to play some music for me to dance to), bye-bye very well with a wave (especially when it’s time to go), juice (and I even know where they keep it), cold, shoes (when I have to tell mommy and daddy to put them on and take me outside), book (as I put the book in mommy’s hand so that she can read it to me), yay (when I’m cheering and watching sports with daddy), yeah, no, balloon, bug, bubbles, ladybug (when I see my Halloween costume), hello (whenever I hear a phone ringing), up and go.

I have lots of fun at school. I always look for Harold in the morning when I get there and say his name a lot (he makes breakfast and lunch for us). When mommy and daddy come to pick me up, I run over to my friend Michael and give him a hug goodbye, sometimes I have to catch him first. If he sees Mommy and Daddy first he gets excited and runs to the door to greet them and says my name. Sometimes I just want to leave right away so I run over and point to where my jacket is so daddy can help me put it on.

Mommy saw my poopy face and asked if I wanted to use the potty, I said yes and we went upstairs, when we got there she saw that I already pooped in my diaper so she took it off, after I was cleaned up I wouldn't let her put a clean diaper on and I stood up and went back to the bathroom and sat on the potty, when mommy was washing her hands I pee-peed in the potty and mommy was very happy. I’m not ready to use the potty all the time, but sometimes I’ll sit with mommy on my potty when she’s on hers and if she gets me there at the right time, I’ll use mine too.

Month 17 (thru October 20th, 2002)

I like to talk a lot now and try to get mommy and daddy to understand. I can say “cracker”, so at least I can tell them when I want to eat some of those, and I even know where mommy and daddy keep them. I can say “baby” when I see really little ones and others that are about my size. Sometimes the babies at school come over to the window to say hello and touch hands, and my boyfriend Michael and I go over to laugh and play with them. I know what a doggie looks like when I see one, and get very excited and say “doggie”, but it comes out “dada” sometimes when I try to say it. I like to go across the street and visit the doggies over there. The big one is always happy to see me when I go over and she even lets me hug her when I pet her. I’m working on saying “gargoyle” now, but it still sounds like “gagie” when I say it. I go over and point to my favorite ones over the fireplace and growl at them. Daddy picks them up and growls back for them, and they are pretty scary when he puts them close to my face, so I laugh and scream and turn my head to try to get away; one day I scared mommy and chased her around the kitchen with one of my toy gargoyles and growled at her. I can ask “what’s that?” when I want to hear
mommy and daddy say something and when I get excited about seeing some of my favorite things, I say “ooh baby”.

I am really good at eating with a spoon now and won’t even let mommy and daddy put a bib on me now. I turn my head away if they try and sometimes I have to yank it off so they understand. I have to nod my head a lot so that they know what I don’t want to eat and turn my head when they try to feed me something that I don’t want. I’m careful when I’m eating to make sure that I don’t burn my mouth, so I always blow on my food after I say “hot” to mommy; she gets confused when I say “hot” when I’m eating my popsicles though.

I can go up the stairs really fast now and sometimes I yell down at mommy and daddy in the family room when I get upstairs or sneak up on mommy in the bathroom in the morning. Whenever I want to go outside, I just bring my shoes to mommy or daddy to put on for me, and if it’s cold outside, I bring my jacket to them and go to the door in case they don’t understand. A lot of times, I just want to sit on the step outside the front door and see what’s going on. I had to tell mommy that the step was hot one day that we were sitting there together.

Mommy took me to get a new pair of shoes, and I love them so much that I don’t like to take them off and then I try to put them back on or get someone to do it for me. They are so pretty, that I had to touch them a lot and show them to everyone at school.

I'm getting pretty good at body parts these days. I can show you my feet, my nose, my hair, my finger and my ears (sometimes). My favorite is my belly. I'll be happy to pull up my shirt and show you my bellybutton. It's also really fun to find mommy or daddy's belly and give it big loud smooch!

I got to visit my Aunt Denise at Uncle Tom and Aunt Robin’s house and I also met my cousins Matthew and Carolina. They are bigger than me, so I was a little scared at first, but then we played together and danced until it was time to go home. I had a lot of fun.

Month 16 (thru September 20th, 2002)

I really love to look at myself in the mirror and kiss Jenna if you ask me to; one day I even gave her a hug when I saw her in the big mirror in mommy and daddy’s room. I found some pretty sandals in my closet and took them out of the closet and handed them to mommy to put on for me. She didn’t understand at first, so I held one foot up in the air while standing in front of her until she had me sit down and put them on. I really like wearing them around the house, so if I have bare feet, I bring them to mommy or daddy to have them put back on.

I can stand on my tiptoes and push my basketball into the basket and I’m really good at throwing balls now. I also love playing hide and seek with mommy and daddy and chasing them and being chased, especially around the the kitchen island. Another one of my favorite games is “cover me”; I lie on my tummy on floor like I do for nap time at school after handing a blanket to mommy and daddy, and turn my head and look at them like I want to be covered up, then I jump up as soon as they cover me and hand them the blanket again. I also play this fun game by myself using a stuffed bear and blanket – mommy and daddy are always surprised that the fun never seems to end for me.

I started working more on talking this month. I can say “bye-bye” and wave when mommy and daddy ask me to. I woke up and called for mama in the morning from my crib and of course she came right in to see me and said good morning and gave me a kiss. When I want daddy to play catch with me, I tell him to “get ball” and he throws it upstairs to me and I throw it back down to him; sometimes I throw it down the stairs instead of over the railing so that he has to run around to get the ball. I said “tree” when mommy had me outside near a tree as she pointed at it. One night, I walked into daddy’s dark office after getting up from having milk before bed and got very excited when I stood in front of his desk and looked at all the pictures of me on his computer screen. Mommy came to see what I was so excited about, so I pointed up at the screen with my pretty pictures on it and yelled “Jenna” but it sounded more like “dida” to her, so I had to keep saying it and pointing until she understood. I say “ooh wow” when I get excited after seeing that I am getting one of my favorite foods to eat. I got two more teeth on bottom and can brush my teeth by myself now.

I can climb and stand up and balance on my little chairs and on my pink car. No matter how careful I am, mommy still gets scared when I do it. I don’t have any problems climbing on and off the sofa or mommy and daddy’s bed whenever I want to.

I still like getting my "milky" from mommy, especially at bedtime. It's also nice to be able to get a little snack whenever I need one - I'm not shy about sticking my hand down mommy's shirt to find what I'm looking for!

Month 15 (thru August 20th, 2002)

I started out this month with two more teeth popping through on top. Mommy makes popsicles for me to chew on to make my gums feel better and I really like biting pieces off and chewing them with my new teeth.

We went to visit grandmom and granddad and Aunt Marianne this month and while we were there, we went to the beach twice. I loved the water and sand and only ate a little of it, I chased the seagulls running on the sand and mommy and daddy helped build a sand castle for me to step on and to feel the sand on my feet. The second day we went, I remembered not to eat the sand. I went out in the water to jump over the waves and tried to stop them with my feet when mommy and daddy picked me up.

Granddad taught me the sign for touchdown and I laughed and put my arms up whenever he said it. It makes everybody smile and clap, so I keep doing it so I’ll be ready to cheer with daddy during football season. I also had a lot of fun with Aunt Marianne’s cute black dog. I chased Nikki around trying to pet her because she usually ran away from me, but sometimes let me pet her. I squealed really loud when I saw her and she ran away after she put her fluffy tail in my face.

When we got home and mommy was helping me take a bath I heard daddy coming up the steps and said "dada", then mommy asked me who it was when he got up there and I said it again for daddy.

I have a new guitar to play music with; I pushed the buttons and held it up in the air as I turned around in circles dancing. It was a lot of fun, so I kept dancing around in a little circle until I started feeling a little funny and fell down. I got up again and started dancing, and then after three more circles, the same thing happened; so I decided to just stick with two circles when dancing with my Elmo guitar so that I don’t get dizzy anymore.

Daddy lets me help him in the morning by getting the newspaper and dragging up the driveway to the car for him. I also help him get the mail and usually try to make it out into the street to visit our neighbors while I’m down at the mailbox. I always stand at the curb until daddy tries to get me to come back, and when he gets close, I step down and run into the street.

Month 14 (thru July 20th, 2002)

I discovered that climbing is lots of fun this month; I climbed out of the baby pool all by myself after running around the pool and having my face go into the water a couple times. I also figured out how to climb up onto daddy’s recliner by lifting my knee up real high and pushing up with my legs and pulling with my hands until I make it up.

I can scoot down the stairs on my bottom pretty well, but it hurts by the time I get to the bottom, so I try to step down like mommy and daddy do; but they always grab me when I’m getting ready to walk down all by myself and tell me to sit down.

I like to help mommy water the grass; I run in front of the sprinkler when mommy is setting it up and I like it when I get sprayed in the back of the head and get my clothes all wet. I also like to watch mommy outside working, and I really want to help her so I try to tell daddy to let me go outside with her. I cry when I can see her through the door and windows and sometimes yell or bang to get mommy’s attention.

I’m trying to talk some now; I whisper “hi” when I wave to people and mommy says that I should say hi. I finally figured out how to tell mommy that I’m hungry; I just walked over to my high chair and pointed up to the tray and she gave me my lunch.

I just got my two top front teeth so now I can really bite into things; but mommy doesn’t like it when I bite her. When I eat something that tastes really good I say “mmmm” and smile and mommy and daddy usually give me more. My two favorite foods now are macaroni and cheese (daddy calls it “Jennaroni”) and peas.

Month 13 (thru June 20th, 2002)

“Aunt Candi” brought me my very first dolls to play with for my birthday. I really love to hug and kiss them when I carry them around; I even showed daddy how to do it.

Mommy stopped coming into my room when I wake up at night and ask for a drink, I still wake up sometimes and even stand up in my crib and look for her, but I get tired of waiting and just lie back down and go to sleep until it’s time for breakfast.

Mommy and daddy took me to the pool for the first time, I got to splash and walk around in the little pool and didn’t even get very scared when I fell over and my face went into the water. Mommy must have been scared though, because she picked me up and gave me a big hug.

I learned how to climb up the stairs really fast and sometimes close the gate when I get there. Whenever I get to the top of the stairs and try to step down like I see mommy and daddy doing, they grab me, even though I’m holding on to the railing or the wall and stop me. Daddy showed me how to come back down the stairs on my bottom, but I still try to stand up and walk down while he’s watching.

I moved into the toddler room at school and had to give up my cozy crib in the baby room and leave my little friends behind. I was a little scared at first, since all of the kids were bigger than me, but I’m having a lot of fun now and I get to visit the babies in the morning for a little while and visit with my favorite teacher, Miss Vicki. Now I sleep on a cot only at nap time after lunch next to the other kids. We also get to go outside and play on the playground instead of just riding around in the buggy. There is a little house with a door that I like to play in and lots of little cars to push and drag around. I get to drink
my milk out of a sippy cup now and eat lots of new foods for breakfast and lunch.

Mommy forgets that I can feed myself sometimes; she tried feeding me carrots and rice and I spit out the first spoonful, so she let me keep the bowl and spoon on my tray. I grabbed some of it out of the bowl with my fingers and ate that and then I reached for the spoon. Mommy put some on the spoon for me and I fed it to myself with just a little help. Another day, I ate a whole bowl of yogurt and oatmeal cereal by myself and hardly made any mess at all.

Some days after school, we go to the gym with daddy. While I’m waiting for him to finish playing basketball, I try to run away from mommy and say hello to everyone that walks by. I like to watch them first and if they look nice, I wave to them to say hi if mommy says it’s ok to.

I can walk really fast now and know all of the fun places to go when mommy and daddy turn around; somehow they always grab me before I really have fun and do what I want to do. I love to run into the bathroom when they leave the door open, and bang the lid on top of the toilet paper canister until I have to stop. Sometimes, if I don’t want to be picked up, I’ll just sit down and cry and throw my head back when mommy or daddy try to pick me up. This usually happens when they try to stop me from playing with all of the “Jenna No” things in the house.

I make lots of different sounds and sing a lot, I’m really trying to talk now, but nobody understands what I’m saying unless I put my arms up over my head to be picked up. The only thing that mommy and daddy seem to understand is when I say “uh oh” when I drop something; but then they tell me that I shouldn’t say it if I throw something on the floor on purpose.

01/22/03 08:00 PM
Comments














I'm just browsing around your site for the first time, interesting read
11/06/04 03:34 AM   by sara S