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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Miriam at 18 months

Even though she's not quite 18 months yet I took Miriam in for her 18 month check up on Thursday. She did amazingly well through the whole appointment—opening her mouth when the doctor asked her to, showing off her vocabulary and gross motor skills, etc.—until the nurses jabbed her with a set of needles.

Then things got pretty rocky.

Having Miriam get shots, though, is super easy compared to battling Rachel under the same circumstances.

Miriam started sobbing, "Ow, ow, ow! My knee! My knee! Momma! Noooo!"

But she stayed still on the table while the nurse administered the last shot.

Then I said, "Oooh! They brought you a pretty bracelet!"

And she said, "Me, me, me!" and put the dinky, neon pink bracelet on, and tried to smile through her tears.

She had finished crying by the time we got back out to the waiting room and no one stared at us with bemused expressions as we entered. In fact, I don't think anyone knew she had gotten a shot at all.

That is never how things went/go with Rachel. With Rachel they usually call in a couple of nurses as back up just to hold the child down and then she screams bloody murder for the next half hour. Everyone in the waiting room always knows exactly how she feels about her maltreatment.

Anyway, Miriam is doing well. She's a little smallish, but that's alright because she's still on the charts. She's 30.6 inches tall (in the 24th percentile) and weighs 21 lbs. (in the 9th percentile). The doctor said to try to fatten her up, if that's possible. She already eats all the time so I really don't know if it is.

The doctor also said she should be saying 6 or 7 words and asked if she was anywhere close to that. I told him she was saying so many words I didn't know how many words she could say, but it was probably close to sixty.

Just yesterday she started saying cuddle, diaper, and "happy bunny."

She can say Momma, Daddy, Rachel, Bumpa (Grandpa), and Naanii. And Nora (which is the name of Rachel's doll, which means that it is almost as important as a family name, right?), but much to Grandma's chagrin she hasn't yet uttered Grandma.

She can say socks, shoes, pants, shirt, and coat.

She can say arm, toe, eye, ear, knee and nose.

She can say go, car, school, and church.

She can say sit, dance, clap and potty.

She can say push, pull, pinch, bite, and hit.

(Good words, right? She may or may not be a little bit of a tattletale already.)

She can also say buckle, door, baby, bear, apple, cracker, cookie, milk, water, cup, bowl, plate, bow, banana, up, backwards, book, see, do, teeth, bath, towel, duck, cougar, wash, Elmo, Dora, animal, purple, blue, colour, mine, me, I, ice, Jesus, prayer, nursery, more, nurse, yes, no, hug, pretty, hi, bye, on, video, shower, wash, cloth, snow, cereal, gone, story, backpack and beam (as in sunbeam).

I'm sure she can say other things, too, since she's always surprising me with new words. Like I said, she says so many words that I really don't know how many words she can say. I have lost track.

She's certainly a joy to have around! I hope the terrible twos never hit...

3 comments:

  1. I simply can't believe how much she talks! (Not that I think you're lying....just that HOLY COW!) She's a sweetie.

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  2. @Amy - she comes by it naturally. Nancy was an early talker.

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  3. Espen is another chatty kid. At 14 months, we've long since passed 30 words. He doesn't really put them together too much yet, but seeing as the pediatrician was expecting one or two words at his 12 month appointment, we're not in any hurry. Walking, no. Talking, absolutely!

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