I have to admit, these past few months have been a struggle with Susanna. I just looked back at Elizabeth’s 20 month update, and I seemed so fine with everything, even 6 months pregnant (and housebound with real winter!). Sigh. Susanna is definitely a different girl than her sister. She’s 20 months going on five, or so she thinks, because she wants to do everything the big kids do. She wants to ride their big kid bikes (even though her feet don’t reach the pedals), color and do art projects with them, and most recently, sit in a big kid chair instead of her booster. (By contrast, Elizabeth was just now moving out of the high chair INTO the booster at this age!) The problem with doing everything the big kids do is that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing. She ends up just dumping out the whole bin of crayons, tearing up the paper angel we just cut out and folded up, or scattering the pieces of the building we were making. Too often, I let myself get just as frustrated as the kids, and we all get into the mindset that we can have real fun “when Susie is napping.” I don’t want to spend all day looking forward to the two hours when she’s not around! I think I didn’t mind doing little kid stuff with the other kids at this age because no one was doing big kid stuff. Now that we’re legitimately building with legos, doing science experiments, and creating recognizable art, it’s hard for me to put myself back into toddler mindset and think of age-appropriate things for us to do with Susanna.
(I took this picture a couple weeks ago and never posted it–someone looks so much like her Grandma Willett here!)
After talking to my best friend this weekend, I realized that I need to be more pro-active about interacting with a 20 month old. Laura has great perspective because Joseph is just leaving the toddler stage and Emma is just entering it. She reminded me that so much of our mutual frustration has to do with her wanting to be independent but not having the skills to do it all yet. So I pulled out Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready and looked back at blog entries from when the big kids were this age to remind myself of what 20 month olds should normally be doing. The bummer is that Susie is a bottomless pit for attention–even if I’ve spent the past hour playing only with her, she’ll throw a tantrum if I have to ignore her to make dinner. But we’re working on that.
On a positive note, she’s a good sleeper–wakes up around 7 am, naps 1-3ish, goes to bed at 6:30 (and falls asleep by 7:30). She is getting so much better at feeding herself. She imitates anything we say–the cutest thing lately is copying Elizabeth’s “Oh Dear!” Since getting her own baby doll for Christmas, she rarely fights anymore with Lizzie–though she now screams when she can’t maneuver Tacy as easily as her sister maneuvers Betsy.
Other highlights: she’s finally totally in 18-24 month clothes, she’s proudly wearing real shoes at long last (with it being so warm and dry here, she stayed in Robeez until this past month), she finally understands the concept of letting me brush her hair, and her 13th tooth is finally coming in!