"I am a toddler and I have opinions."-Lucy Lynn Bisha

More than once I have heard the question from parents wondering when their baby transitioned into toddlerhood. I always thought it would be when she started to "toddle" about as a new walker, but I have recently learned that this isn't the stuff a toddler makes. Opinions. That is the difference between a baby and toddler. Lubear has opinions. Many of them. And they are started to be accompanied by a myriad of feelings that she has absolutely no skills for controlling. Most of her opinions are reasonable and we make an attempt at saying yes as often as possible. Yes, you can wear three hats, mittens, a down coat and a down vest to play with your puzzle in the living room. Yes, you can brush your teeth at 2:00 in the afternoon. Yes, you can ride in the cart and not the front carrier. Sure, we can watch the birds flying over head for another moment or two.

Some requests and opinions are met with no or stop. No, you cannot touch my bike so that it won't fall over on your head. No, you cannot toothpaste from the tube so that you don't get a belly ache. Stop, slapping me in the face hurts and it is not a responsible way to use your hands. Absolutely not, no you can never crawl out into the parking lot. No. Never. So far, she is pretty easily redirected and hasn't had more than a couple of tantrums. When she is tired, our sensitive darling is even more so. And, while all of the refusals are given with sternness, we also use a gentle and loving voice and body language with validation of her request. Now that she is using so much sign language, we feel that it is important to acknowledge her communication and try to honor her request, but sometimes the answer is no. We want her to understand boundaries, to provide a framework for appropriately dealing with many and big emotions and to help her have flexibility in her decision making.

When it gets a little too quiet and
you find your daughter in her her room reading.

We won't know until it is too late, but it seems like Lulabee is feeling validated in her communication. Of course, only a mum mum can understand everything she is saying, like pointing to the pantry and knowing she wants a crispy snap pea and not dried mango. Jim is working on being attentive to her communication and Joanna teaches her to respond to every new sign in Spanish and English. Yesterday at the park Lucy was hungry and done playing, so she looked up at me, signed "eat" and we left right away to come home for lunch. Soooo much more pleasant than a tantrum and neither one of us being able to help the other. She wanted more blueberries for snack yesterday and actually used "more" and "please" in tandem. The kid asked for "more, please!" I have always known kids were sponges. It is a completely different journey to see the learning transpire right in my own kitchen.

It is obvious that she wants to communicate with us using verbal language, too. I have no idea what the parameters for counting actual words are, but she definitely has a few words outside of animals sounds and signs (by the way, we can add "wave your arms like a monkey" and "snap your hand like a crocodile" to the list of animals she recognizes and responds to :-). While our animal lover has been quacking for a while, she is now verbalizing "duck," as well. And even though I know they all of similar ending sounds, she is saying, "truck" and "sock," as well. I can't be sure of this one, but this morning during breakfast Lucy gave a little "cado" like sound when I showed her the avocado. Jim is so excited for her to articulate her wants, feelings and needs, whether it is by sign or by verbal articulation. He has even learned some basic signs, which he made a poster of to hang on the fridge for all who want to interact with our Louie Baby.

Our busy bee almost never wants a snuggle
nap any more, but I was lucky enough to
get one recently and I hated it :-). 

Jim was gone for the past week traveling and it always amazes me what he misses in one week's time. When he left, Lucy Lu could vaguely recognize some body parts, like her feet and her "ojitos" (eyes). By the time Daga came home, she was able to show him her head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, feet, hands and belly (in Spanish and English, of course :-). She has also become a walker-in-training machine. When put down on the floor, she now lands on her feet instead of going to her bottom. There is a little toy fire truck pusher thing at the park and she can push that truck around the entire park. The other day at the YMCA Kindergym she crawled over to a large, foam block (bigger than her) and pushed that thing all over the padded gym floor. Since just before her first birthday, Lucy has really shown interest in wanting to walk. We are so thankful that she is on the later side for walking. She has a MUCH better sense of "where the edge is" on the couch, the sidewalk, the playground, etc... Currently she understands very little about the cognitive consequences of falling and whacking her head, but she certainly gains a little more of the understanding every day. By the time she walks her self-awareness of her body in space will be more sophisticated and much less dangerous her noggin.