Sunday, April 18, 2010

Baby V at 18 Months: Mum Mum Linda's Report (photos by KKB & JML)


Dear Dave.

I told you I would tell you details about V’s stay with us in Half Moon Bay.  She came in really late and then adjusted to the time change so well, and mom K** said she did when she got home too.

 

V seems like such an independent child.  She can amuse herself and is not one of those whiny kids.  She saw her cousins Ben and Theo at night --  she called them Baaaaaan and Feo the whole time they were here,

 

I think she found Ben the most fascinating, and he really played and read to her.  One time I heard him say "V are you sure you want me to read you this book for the fourth time -- can't we read another one?"

 

As soon as she was lifted out of her pac and play in the morning. she started to call the boys and went down the stairs in search of them.  She has this thing if you are sitting on the floor she just comes and sits in your lap.  I had gotten her a cheap doll and a doll stroller; she did play with that a lot.  Ben tried to help her put the dog in and for a few minutes Bubbles........let himself be pushed.  V was talking so much and would try to say any word you would say to her.  For a few months K** said she thought V was saying my name but it sounded so much like mama that I thought K** was wrong,  K** would say listen to it.  iI is just a little different then mama.



So this time she called me mum mum clear as a bell, even though I had always said grandma to her,  I guess that was what she had been trying to say.  She would enter into block playing with Theo, and even he said she was good at it. They made a number of things, and she was real careful with putting the block on the higher one.  Up it went, and when it fell, she didn't cry, just started to make a new one.

 

 V loved the little dog, Bubbles and would drag him around a lot.  He never growled, just let her carry him.  She was into going around in circles with Theo and then acting like a drunken sailor, and she loved dancing with Ben.  She would follow Ben around a lot.

 

I took her to the store to buy her a pair of shoes.  I told the woman -- she owns the store and we know each other -- that it seemed her foot was fat, but it worked out good to put on a shoe that then had a strap over the top that could be adjusted. V loved the shoes and was very compliant about trying them on.  We finally asked her to pick between the three pair, and she picked a green pair with flowers,  She would look at them and say “dis” for the green one,



I decided to buy her the brown too.  She got a white helium-filled balloon as a result of her purchases.  She really liked it, and I tried to put the string around her hand, but no, she wanted nothing to do with that.

 

We got in the car, she got the balloon and I could see in the mirror that she was biting on the balloon at the spot it was tied to the string. I told her to take it out of her mouth.  I would look and she would have taken it out but then she wouldn't look up front, just the view from the side and put it in her mouth again.

 

Many reasons she should not be biting on the balloon, so I stopped the car and said 'V, I know you heard what I said, I am going to take the balloon away from you and put it in the front seat and we we get home you can have it back.’  She shook her finger at me and said no no no, but she didn't cry.

 

When we got to the house I said in a happy voice, ‘Here V, now you can have your balloon.’  I got out to get it and give it to her and take her out of her car seat, but she had her arms folded, her lip out in a pout, and when I said, ‘Here is your balloon, Honey,” she shook her head no.  What a character,  She finally decided to take it after all, but she is really funny when things don't go her way -- she doesn't really cry.


One evening the boys wanted K** and V to go to Kevin’s apartment, right down the street, to see the huge war fort etc. they had made out of legos  They kept showing her all their things, and she would look and act interested, but we didn't think about letting her bring her own toy down to play.  Finally she got her blanket.  She wrapped it all up and then rocked it like it was a baby doll.  She is just so damn smart.



 She would play with the toys and have them say things or attack or be nice.  She was getting out spoons to feed them, etc.  It was really cute.  She did ask for her dad, and I think when they got home she was really glad to see him.  She loves loves the books and never wants to let you stop reading them.

 Love to you and Katja,

Linda

 

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