Girly girl

Susannah recently managed to swipe my blush while my makeup drawer was ajar. I was shocked to see that she knows exactly what to do with it!

Susannah at 18 months: sugar and spice with extra spice

I spend way more time on this blog than I do on Susannah's baby book. I figure a baby book will just sit there, but the magic of the internet allows me to easily share Susannah's childhood with anyone who is interested. So, in true baby book style, here is my attempt at a comprehensive documentation of Susannah at 18 months. I'll try to stick to the facts, but I may brag a little, too. (hey, it's my blog!)

For those of you who like hard data (ahem, Dad):
Weight: 22 lb, 11 oz (25%ile)
Height: 31.5 in (50%ile)
Head circumference: 75-90% (gotta put that big brain somewhere!)

Verbal development:
She has been and continues to be quite the little chatterbox. She narrates everything with a mix of real words and sing-song babble. I did my best to list her current vocabulary below (along with alternative pronunciations, if they deviate significantly from the normal way of saying it. Some of them are quite funny):

Uh-oh (her first word)
No
OK
Yup
Up
Down (dow)
Buckle
Puppy
Bird
Bear
Bunny
Monkey
Animal
Mouse (mow, rhymes with how)
Baby
Keys
book
Car (ca)
Sock (cock...hopefully she'll get this one straightened out)
Shoe
Clothes
Jacket (yock-a)
Mommy
Daddy
lego
Ball
Walk (wok-y)
Bath (bai)
Go
Moon
Star (sta)
Tree (tee)
Pen (bye) (I know, this makes no sense)
Hi
Bye (accompanied by wave and/or blowing kiss)
Poop
ID (Alex's work badge or any card-like object)

Body parts:
Eye
Nose (No)
Ear (Ea)
Mouth (same as mouse, see above)
Chin
Neck
Hair
Head
Teeth
Toe
Knee
Elbow (elmo)
and she can point to many more....including bellybutton

And she's going nuts with the animal sounds:
Baa for sheep
Moo for cow
Quack for duck
Meow for cat
Neigh for horse
Woof for dog (woop)
Oink for pig (oak)
Grrr for bear
Oooh-oooh for monkey
Funny tongue thing for snake (hard to explain, you'd have to see it)

Food words:
Apple
Raisin (ray-ray)
Blueberry (boo-bay)
Cheerio (O's)
Meat (meep)
Pea
yogurt
Cracker
Grape (brape)
Bread
Bottle (ba-ba)
Soup
Spoon
Cup (puc)
Bowl
Coffee (cockee)

Libia, the woman who runs her daycare, is from Peru and only speaks in Spanish with the children. Susannah's Spanish vocabulary (that we know of) consists of:

si (yes)
agua (water)
leche (milk)
zapato (shoe)
nariz (nose)

As of this writing, she is just beginning to recognize a few people by name (other than mommy and daddy); interestingly, they are all other toddlers, including her "friend" Esme (Em-may) and a few of the other kids at daycare.

Activities:
Susannah is extremely active, and spends much of her waking time running around, climbing on things, and generally getting into some kind of mischief. She also loves dancing, and will dance to almost anything, including the ring of the cell phone, the annoying music that her toys play, and even the elevator music that accompanies the safety video on airplanes. Her current favorite toys are legos (an Xmas gift from my parents) and a little box with holes of different shapes that match blocks with corresponding shapes (she can match almost all the shapes now!). She also LOVES books, and one of her favorites seems to be "Goodnight Moon". As we read, she points out various things in the pictures, including the mouse, which is pretty impressive since it is tiny and moves to a different place on each page! She loves any book with animals, and will accompany the reading by making the appropriate noises for each animal (see above).

Feeding:
She is quite adept with a spoon and likes eating when she's in the right mood (see pics below), but is generally a fairly picky eater. Favorites are oatmeal, sweet potatoes, crackers, apples, raisins, and turkey meatballs.






Susannah vs. oatmeal


Disposition:
I would describe her disposition as "sugar and spice and everything nice".... but with extra spice. She is very sweet and affectionate, loves waving and blowing kisses to just about anyone, and has recently started hugging and kissing us, which is heaven! She is quite strong-willed and can be very stubborn (for example, she has suddenly decided that she doesn't like the stroller and would rather walk everywhere HERSELF). This can be a real pain if you actually want to move from point A to point B in a reasonable time frame, but the last time I tried to wrestle her into the stroller against her will, I also felt so proud of her. She is so smart, and if she wants to do something, watch out, because she does not give up easily! As long as we do a good job as parents, she will be a force to be reckoned with someday!

Cute misconceptions

One of the amazing things about being a parent is that you get to watch your child figure out how the world works. For example, most of us take the principle of gravity for granted, but we easily forget it wasn't always this way. As babies, we learn through trial and error that when we drop things, they fall to the floor. (Some babies like to test this A LOT, just to make sure!) In general, kids think very logically, but their ideas are often based on incomplete information and misconceptions, which leads to some pretty funny moments. Here are a few things that Susannah's mind is currently working through (to our great amusement):

Lesson #1: The streetlight is not the moon.
Susannah learned the word "moon" from a few of her books. One evening at Grandma and Grandpa Watters' house, she pointed out the window at the moon in the Vermont night sky and shouted "MOON!" We were really impressed that she identified the moon based only on (not particularly realistic) depictions in her books, with no coaching from us. Now that we're back in San Francisco, the abundant city lights make it difficult to see the real moon, and she thinks the streetlamps are "moons"!

Lesson #2: Mommy does not wear diapers.
The other evening, I was kneeling over, trying to find something in one of the kitchen cupboards. Susannah got behind me, pulled out the waistband of my pants, and said "Poop?" (EXACTLY like what I do to her when I'm trying to figure out if she needs a diaper change).

Lesson #3: Unfortunately, stuffed animals will not obey your commands.
The video should be fairly self-explanatory (listen carefully for the "UP, UP!" right after she drops the ducky)

Christmas III: Meeting Isla

After spending Christmas in Vermont, our next stop took us to Keene, NH, for a brief stop-over with our friends Jim and Karen. They are good old friends from our days in Seattle, and we haven't seen them in awhile, so it was great to catch up over lunch. Next time, we'll definitely stay longer!



The final stop on our whirlwind Christmas tour of New England was David and Colleen's house in Beverly, MA. Here, we met our sweet five month-old niece, Isla (pronounced "eye-la"). Isla is five months old (about one year younger than Susannah) and has big blue eyes and scrumptious chubby cheeks - she really is a cutie! We decided to relax at home for most of the time due to the frigid temperatures outside, combined with challenge of dealing with the demanding napping and eating schedules of two babies. It was so cold, in fact, that our ventures outside were limited to a trip to Babies-r-Us and an afternoon drive around the North Shore area so that Susannah and Isla could sleep. David remarked that you know things have really changed when your idea of "relaxing" is driving around so that the baby can sleep. Yes, indeed.
We had such a good time just hanging out with David, Colleen and little Isla. In addition to taking care of a new baby, David and Colleen are doing a major house renovation - we were impressed!
During our visit, Susannah alternated between showing little interest in her baby cousin to saying "BABY!" and pinching her ear and poking her in the face. Thankfully, Isla didn't mind too much. So, we can't exactly say that they're buddies yet, but hopefully that will come eventually.


Isla looks concerned as Susannah tries to give her a kiss





















This one's a keeper! Note the matching shirts on the dads, and the adorable matching sweaters on Isla and Susannah (beautifully knit by Cynthia). Nice work with the maracas, Dave!

Christmas II: Watters family and "Muppy"

Alex and I made the brave/dumb decision to make a cross-country flight this Christmas with a wriggling 17 month-old who has no interest in sitting still for 3 minutes, much less 6 hours. While the travel was certainly not what I would call easy, I am happy to report it was better than expected and we had a wonderful time visiting Alex's family. We flew a non-stop red-eye from San Francisco to Boston on Christmas eve, then drove 3.5 hours to Middlebury, VT on Christmas morning. Luckily, Susannah slept for the entire flight and most of the car ride, and since we were traveling on Christmas day, traffic was relatively light. A pre-Christmas snowstorm blanketed much of the northeast in a nice layer of snow, so it was actually quite a pretty drive. At Chris and Cynthia's we relaxed on Christmas day, reserving the gift-opening and Christmas dinner for the 26th. We really enjoyed spending time with them, as well as Martin and Mae who were visiting from Tennessee.
We also worked in a short visit with Alex's high school friends Jon and Lisa and their two adorable girls, Stella and Eva. To our amazement and delight, Susannah played with Stella and Eva for an extended period of time while the grown-ups relaxed with dinner and wine nearby (and by "nearby", I do not mean a nearby restaurant, but rather the other end of the room). Thanks to four year-old Stella, who did a fantastic job keeping and eye on things, we enjoyed a tasty and relatively interruption-free dinner with Jon and Lisa.

For Susannah, I think the highlight of the visit was the Watters' dog, Molly. She has been fascinated with dogs as of late, and as soon as we arrived she could barely contain her excitement, crying "Puppy, puppy" and following poor Molly all over the house. We tried to get her to call Molly by her name, which she did for a bit, but that quickly morphed into "Muppy!". Thankfully, while Molly is not nearly as enthusiastic about Susannah, she is a very good sport about the whole thing.


Susannah makes a tentative approach towards poor, unsuspecting Molly


Sofa time with Grandma and Grandpa


Discussing various aspects of vitamin A metabolism with Grandpa


Three cuties: Stella, Susannah and Eva



Story time with Uncle Martin and Aunt Mae

Christmas I

We were lucky to spend time with both the Berkes and the Watters this Christmas, and since there's lots to talk about (and more importantly, lots of pictures!), I'll post in a couple of installments. The weekend before Christmas, my parents made the long drive from Arizona to do a pre-Christmas celebration with us. They came bearing many gifts. Susannah enjoyed opening her presents, and cracked us all up when she tore off tiny, tiny pieces of wrapping paper, then ran off to the bathroom to attempt to throw the paper into the toilet (hey, white tissue paper and toilet paper aren't so different when you think about it. Really, anyone could make the same mistake!) We didn't do too much because the weather was chilly and Susannah wasn't feeling well, but we did manage a walk around Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, where we took all of the pictures below. All in all, it was a wonderful visit!




A "relaxed" stroll around the lake requires constant vigilance - Susannah is always running off as the mood strikes her


Susannah is generally still a little bit wary of some men, including her grandfathers and uncles. While she was momentarily transfixed by the assorted water fowl at Stow Lake, I managed to snap this cute photo of her calmly resting in my dad's arms. (By the way, Anna made the adorable cupcake hat!)