We have welcomed a few new members to our household this month. Isla's "friends," as she calls them, often join us at the table for dinner, ride in the backseat of the car and just plain follow us whereever we go. I've asked her what their names are to which she usually responds "I don't remember." I'm pretty sure there are a lot of them but honestly I couldn't tell you because I can't see them. Oh yes, we have reached that momentous milestone of imaginary friendships and no, my daughter's not in the corner talking to herself. She's talking to her friends.
Though she may not be able to come up with names for these pretend friends, she sure comes up with creative ones for her babies and animals. Some popular favorites include "Eeekah," "Mop" and "Leek."
We've been flying around to a lot of different places lately on Isla's pretend airplane. Usually we go to the park but sometimes we also go to one of her cousin's houses. She likes to have us stand in line, board the plane,
get buckled in (heaven forbid we forget that one!) and then wait for various extended family members who were running late to board the plane (which, by the way, is our staircase). Isla will line up every single baby and animal she owns along the stairs and make sure each one is buckled individually. On a good day, we actually arrive at our destination but usually we spend the entire time getting/gathering/doing more things so we are ready to go. :)
Isla continues to love arts and crafts. This month we broke out the finger paints which she loved. She ended up rubbing the paint around on her hands like lotion and made some fun pieces that we hung in the girls' room.
I am so, so, SO happy to announce she is completely, 100%, totally potty-trained! We only had to put her in diapers while she slept for a couple short weeks and then into underwear she went. We made her a chart with 6 empty boxes and each time she woke up clean and dry, she got to put a sticker in a box. After 6 stickers (in 7 nights--only one oops!) her chart was full and we ordered her reward: A BIKE!!
Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Wilson! I'd been wanting to get Isla a bike but with her birthday so late in the summer, I didn't want to wait until then. But I couldn't just give her a bike for no reason so we used it as a reward (win-win if you ask me!) Though she really wanted pink at first, she settled on blue as a more neutral color was needed as it will be passed down amongst the grandkids. We found a nice blue floral helmet to keep in girly (though her pink-loving eyes did wander toward the hot pink Barbie one first--no thanks!) She's doing a great job figuring the bike out, a slow but steady process.
Isla continues to nap once a day (for 2-3 hours) and usually sleeps from ~7:30PM-7:30AM at night. We've been hearing an awful lot of singing and talking coming from the girls' room "after hours" so I think she's having a bit of a harder time falling asleep. She remains in her crib at night but sleeps on the double bed in the guest room for naps. She's totally ready for a big girl bed all the time but, until she tries to climb out of that crib, why fix something that isn't broken? She asked me once if she could climb out by herself, I told her "no" and she hasn't ever tried to do it again. Boy did we luck out! The other day though, Isla went in "to get Emma" after her nap and I came in to find the foot rest for the rocking glider pushed next to Emma's crib and both girls inside!! Smart girl.
Isla's fascination with breasts continues! Thankfully she has only asked people we know about their breasts and so far all the people she has approached have been women. Phew. She talks about them daily and even found one in her bacon the other morning. You know how bacon gets bumpy when cooked? Apparently lumps = breasts. The best part about it all is the way she pronounces it: "breffs."
One challenge we've encountered as of late is Isla's ever-developing ability to stall and dilly-dally. We are trying to crack down on it as the process of getting her pants back on and hands washed after going potty has grown painfully long. She is definitely testing us!
I had heard rumor that "the terrible twos" would be more aptly changed to "the terrible threes." I'm beginning to wonder if that might actually be the case. We aren't quite at the 3 year mark but the tantrums that have materialized in recent days are epic and seemingly out of no where. If Isla is willing to accept help (which is rare), she usually wants it to be from me. She's started screaming and yelling if ever Graham tries to take her to the bathroom or put her to bed "Mommy do it!!!" Of course we don't let her get her way and so things get loud.
The other morning, after a record-breaking tantrum that closed out the night before, Isla matter of factly informed me "I'm going to start calling my ducky 'Princess Isla'!" WHAT?!!? Ironic maybe, given her princess-like behavior the evening prior, but most off-putting to me what that she a) knew what a princess was and b) that she was attaching it to her name. Apparently I'm not a fan of princess play, something which sort of took me by surprise. Of course Isla blamed our friend Jeremy and said he taught her about them which I find quite hilarious as he is the very LAST person in our life who would even say the word "princess."
I can't believe it has taken me this long to get a picture like this posted on here but this is our very dear friend Olona and her dogs Martha (Isla calles her "Marfa") and Louise. They are our walking companions and Olona is my running buddy and has played a HUGE role in keeping me going. Olona and Isla have a very special relationship which warms my heart tremendously as her mother.
Isla loves band-aids and finds various "wounds" almost daily on her skin that she feels require one. I've started telling her that she only gets a band-aid if her owie is bleeding a lot to which she usually responds "Mom, it's bleeding a lot!" Graham's test this week for his Masters program was timely as it involved performing a full physical assessment on a test subject. Who better to examine than his own daughter who seems to be "falling ill" and needing lots medicine and band-aids? Of course she ate it all up and had a good time playing doctor with daddy.
No comments:
Post a Comment