The Pumpkin Piper

My "changes" post was supposed to post TODAY, not yesterday... so my Wordless Wednesday became Wordy Wednesday. Oh well.

On to more updates. Our little Piper is now 17 months old and is turning into quite a character, at least around us. Our neighbor watched her yesterday while I had a dentist appointment and said she didn't talk at all. Hmmm. Maybe she's got the shyness gene I have. We'll see.

Here are some words Piper has added to her vocabulary lately:

Dance - "Da... da" (usually while swaying back and forth or turning in circles)
Stomp - "tomp" (If you're happy and you know it, stomp you're feet!)
Open - "op"
Ball - "ba"
Beep Beep - "bee-bee" (like honking a car horn, or pushing the "buttons" to the microwave in her play kitchen)
Apple - "a-puh"
Button (Belly button) - "dubba dubba"

Pretty cute. I still worry that she doesn't say "Daddy" or "Mama" really. Some times she'll say it when you tell her too, but not voluntarily. If you ask her "Where's Daddy?" she'll look right at him, so she knows who we are, she just doesn't use our "names." It just seems so strange that she's adding other words, but not our "names." I'm going to ask the Dr. about this at her 18 month appointment, if she doesn't start saying it by then. She definitely has way more words and overall better "functional communication" (pointing and body language) than Morgan did at this age. This gives me hope, but I still have a lot of worries.

On the other hand, she is impressing me by what she is picking up from us. Just this morning we were in the car at Morgan's school and I put some lotion on my hands. She watched me rub the lotion in and started making the same movements, rubbing her hands together. She seemed very pleased with herself for doing this. I think little things like this do show that she is socially aware of what other people are doing around her. Also, she was doing it totally on her own, without any prompting from me.

Piper is also doing a lot of pointing at things she sees, like pictures on a wall or something bright colored. She's been saying "ba-da!" while she does this. I'm not sure what this means, but she's calling our attention to it. This is something Morgan only does once in a while.

I hate to compare the two of them, but I really can't get around it. They both have their strengths and challenges. We still call Piper "hyper Piper" sometimes. I don't really think she's hyper, but she reacts very quickly and intensely when she wants something or if something is taken from her. We joke that the little ponytail on the top of her head is a fuse because she's a firecracker about to go off. David says someday she's just going to spontaneously combust.

We have two girls who are very strong willed. Challenging, yet I'm glad they know what they want. The other day I had a basket of clean laundry on the floor while I got Piper dressed for the day. She went and grabbed a shirt out of the basket and put it around her shoulders. This is how she "puts her clothes on." I grabbed a different outfit from the basket and tried to put it on her. She screeched and pushed the shirt away and went and got the first shirt and brought it to me. I guess that's what she wanted to wear that day because I was able to put it on her without a fight. She also seems awfully fascinated with shoes. Uh-oh.

She's getting better at using a spoon. She won't let me feed her anymore, so I have to put up with the mess if I'm going to let her learn. I'm behind on working on the open cup because I'm dreading more mess. Gotta get on that one.

What else? She's still pretty wobbly on her feet sometimes, but she still moves pretty fast. I've also got this on my list for the Dr (the wobbly part). She doesn't crawl anymore, so I know this will get better, but she falls down an awful lot. It doesn't seem to bother her though. She climbs on everything. She can even climb into her car seat all by herself which is especially impressive in David's bigger car. She really wants to climb up onto the stools in our kitchen... but I won't let her. She gets pretty mad, but sorry kid, you're not ready for that (or I'm not).

This kid's got some pretty good fine motor skills. Her Dr. mentioned this at her 2 month appointment as she tore apart the paper on the exam table as he was giving her the exam. She stacks blocks pretty well and puts the Little People in their various vehicles. She scribbles in coloring books (when she's not trying to eat the crayons) and she works well with the magnets on her doodle board. Pretty good.

Piper is even starting to display some pretend play. She turns any rectagular or oblong object into a phone and says "hi, hi." She puts play food in the pots in the play kitchen and stirs them with a spoon. As mentioned above, she pretends to push the buttons on the microwave. She pours us "tea" from her teapot and "drinks" from her own teacup. She brings us play cookies to eat. A good start, I think.

Oh and I almost forgot. The other day we went to Jump and Bounce again and Piper climbed all the way up the "ladder" on the biggest slide and slid down all by herself. She took her time getting up and didn't mind when the bigger, faster kids went around her. She just chugged her way up. She slides down any slide feet first on on her belly. So funny to watch. Go Piper!