Miranda is 16 Months 2015

Oooh boy, we're having full-blown toddler meltdowns here this month. Every. single. day. She's probably teething. She already has 4 molars, and 7 front teeth (8th in the works) but I think she's getting her canines too. She's probably also having crazy growth spurts because she's outgrowing a lot of stuff. She's size 2T and nothing smaller. She's sleeping poorly at night, and napping even worse during the day.

She adjusted well to the new house for the first week or so, and she seems to love all the space to explore inside and outside, but she just can't handle disappointments of any kind. She rules everything. But we're starting to burn out on tantrums-ville. I just lie her down gently when she's having one now and walk away. I call it parenting.

Going up and down steps= fun

Singing and clapping together

Sprinkler run!

Just going on a little indoor picnic

Walking with Dada in Port Jeff

She LOVES books. James did too, but this seems more somehow? She brings us a never-ending stream of books all day and we feel compelled to read them to her, especially if she brings us different ones. Her favorites are Potty, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Dora and the Rainy Day, the Belly Button Book, and ¿Dónde está el ombliguito? But this list isn't exhaustive.

Pretending to read out loud.

She's kind of the boss of James. She's kind of the boss of all of us. She's so deeply uninterested in the word "no" that she hasn't even bothered to learn to say it. She says yes, but just shakes her head no when she doesn't want something. Mostly she communicates in other ways. She understands a lot of what we say and makes herself very understood too. 

Going for a drive.


They are buddies still.

Oh hi.

One new thing, is that James will start preschool after Labor Day. In an effort to make him feel more comfortable we enrolled him in his school's summer "camp" program for three weeks before school starts. James is psyched. Miranda, however, hates seeing James and Dada go off somewhere without her. She sits at the door like she does when we put her shoes on to go out. James thinks she should be able to go because there are kids her age at his school in the daycare rooms. He pretends to be at school at home and tells her to go back to her "center" when she's bothering him.

Girls' time on James's first day at "camp"

Miranda doing "the Draper"

• Miranda is 15 Months 2015
• James at 16 Months 2012

James's Vocabulary at 16 Months 2012

James is 16 months old today! In lieu of a full update on James's personal growth and development this month, let's stick to the one thing that has been changing. James is starting to say words on his own more and not just repeating sounds we make. He understands a lot of stuff we say to him. Sometimes he even responds to stuff Kevin and I are saying to each other and not to him. As far as actually speaking though, we expect his language will be delayed and confused for a while because I'm teaching him Spanish as well as English.

One complication is that little kids don't pronounce things correctly when they're learning to speak, but their parents can usually guess at the words based on context, and reward the language by giving them what they request.  It makes it harder to guess what he's saying when it might be a mispronounced English word, Spanish word, or nonsense noise.

Collage of James's Spanish books

Another unusual thing is that I did a little reading on raising bilingual children. It was my understanding that, at first, James would learn one word for each item without regard for language, but that he would only learn the one word. Well, this is not turning out to be the case. Like many little boys, James is obsessed with light fixtures, and he says both light and "luz," the word for light in Spanish. I'm not sure what to expect going forward. I exclusively spoke Spanish for 4 years before I started learning English so my experience was different than James's will be.

Here's his current list of words/ word-like-babble in order of frequency:

1. "ight" = light
2. "loosh" = luz (Spanish for light)
3. "go go"= Diego (sometimes he actually says Diego, but rarely)
4. Boos Coos = Blues Clues
5. "ow" = used to convey painless injuries (he actually cries when he's hurt)
6. Mama
7. Dada
8. agua/aba = Spanish for water
9. tete = Spanish for pacifier, but I suspect he might also be referring to "leche" or milk 
10. "ba pa"  = back pack (from Diego)
11. Click = the camera on Dora and Diego
12. arbol = Spanish for tree

As you can see, "Mama" and "Dada" don't rate very high on his list of importance.

James and "Mama" at home

"Dada" and James at the park