Lucy at 20 Months

Lucy is 20 months old! She has grown so much in the last few weeks.

Physically
She finally had her 18-month well baby appointment on a couple weeks ago. She is growing and healthy and hitting all her developmental milestones on time. She is 33.25 inches tall (78th percentile) and weighs 24 lbs., 12 oz, (70th percentile). She cried through most of the visit, She started when they closed the door to the exam room. She doesn't like enclosed spaces like dressing rooms and elevators, so being shut in the exam room freaked her out. Being poked and prodded by strangers didn't make her feel better, and she ended the visit with her last Hep A shot. She was fine after we left. And we don't go back until September.

Her physical skills are still ahead of what development charts say is normal for her age. She can walk up and down steps without assistance. We still assist her because she gets careless and clumsy sometimes, but she's capable of handling stairs. She can jump and get both feet off the ground at the same time. She can walk backwards. She can alternate hands when drumming and has been practicing crossing her fingers. She throws and kicks a ball like a much older child. And we discovered last week that she can catch, too. People are often surprised to learn she's not yet two years old.

Intellectually
Lucy's language skills are steadily improving. Two weeks, she requested a second bun-length hotdog for lunch by saying "hotdog." And later that week, she started doing sign language as well as saying new words she had never attempted before. I tried to teach her to sign last summer and fall, but she didn't take to it, so I gave up. Apparently, something stuck. When Matt came home from work, she did the sign for "dad" when she said dada. And later that day she signed and said "more" when she wanted more candy. She had never tried to say "more" before. It has become one of her favorite words. She said "bowl" a couple of days ago to insist that I put her snack in a bowl (as I normally do) instead of being lazy and eating it out of the package. Today she combined bowl and more to request more cereal. And she is repeating what we say and attempting more words than ever before. For a long time, I wondered how we'd ever get her to talk if she wouldn't attempt to repeat what we said. Her words aren't always clear because she still has trouble with k's and r's. So cookie sounds more like goo-gee when she repeats it. But her progress has been swift.

She has learned more body parts. In addition to the basics of eyes, nose, arm, leg, etc., she now knows nostril, eyebrows, shoulder, knees, and elbows. And she attempts to say some of them. Eyes, nose, knee, and elbow are her favorites to say.

She has finally taken an interest in animals and their sounds. Two weeks ago, she brought me her stuffed duck and announced, "DUCK!" She has been pointing out ducks ever since. One day she heard a bee on our back porch and said "zzzz". When she saw the bee, she pointed at it and said "bee." She is learning other animal sounds. She says "woof woof," "moo," "meow," a nasally "wack" for duck, "oo-oo" for a monkey, and she blows through her lips to imitate a trumpeting elephant.

She is still interested in numbers and letters. She always recognizes O, and sometimes recognizes other letters. She is also showing interest in colors. Today she picked up a blue crayon and said blue (or boo). She is good at matching pictures. We played Memory with the cards facing up, and she did great.

Her imagination is really developing, too. We got her a kitchen set and a little table and chairs. She loves to make meals and serve them to her stuffed animals. A week or so ago, I heard her babbling while playing and then heard her "oo-oo" monkey sound followed by more babbling. I looked in on her and saw that she was sitting across the table from her stuffed monkey. She was supplying both sides of their conversation.

Socially
Lucy still gets really excited when she sees other kids. She gets so excited that we've given up going to library events. When there are so many kids and so many toys to play with, she just can't sit still and listen to stories. We're working on setting up playdates with some friends so that she gets more interaction with kids. Maybe if seeing kids isn't so unusual it won't over-excite her.

She is delightful most of the time, and she becomes more amazing every day.