The "aaaaaAAAAAHHHHHhhhhh" Heard 'Round The World, a Terrible Toddler Tale and Potential Delays...

Well it has happened... Everly has become a toddler in almost all senses that I can think of. She kicks, and screams, and throws herself halfway out of carts or highchairs when in public. Last night at a restaurant she broke a plate and threw all her food on the floor and ate her crayons. Needless to say it wasn't a good day. She has been slowly building on this for a couple of months but it appears the toddler has come to stay. Its really hard because our church time is her nap time so she is ready for a nap but she won't give up. However, we can't just let her flail, and scream and kick around when they are conducting services so we do our best to take her out into the foyer and attempt to get her to sleep but she has also become more resilient to sleep as well lately. She just won't give up until she is ready to crash or until she just starts sulking around the house crying. At that point, if we are home, she is going to her crib no questions asked but what do you do out in public??? At the restaurant where she broke the plate, Dave took her out to the car while I paid the bill and got our leftovers. The waitress was EXTREMELY slow and I swear she took her break just as Dave left. About 15-20 minutes later I get out to the car to find an exasperated Dave and an extremely mad Everly. Apparently she sat that entire time in her car seat throwing the world's largest conniption fit. Apparently it wasn't pretty and Dave was a bit stressed to say the least. As soon as the car was in motion she was out like a light in all of about 2 minutes - figures.

It's kind of sad because especially when she was tired, she used to be the best happiest baby and now we have this dramatic child. Sometimes I think it would be better if she could talk more. I have read around that she might be behind speech wise. She is really smart and picks up things really quickly (as in she can figure things out fast and she is not dumb) but she can only really say "buh-bye" and "uh-oh" and she is already 17 months. She says them in the right context though so I know she knows what they mean. She can also kind of say "gooed gur" (good girl) and "wha tha" (what's that?) and she seems to say those in the right context too but she doesn't say Mama or Mommy or Daddy or Dada or anything else. She doesn't say anything for bottle, or for her pacifier or sippy cup or for food or when she is tired and its hard to know what she needs sometimes and it begins to stress all of us out. I also read she should be able to do simple commands or follow simple questions like "where is the ball?". I told her to go get her pacifier and pointed to it the day before I read that about commands online and she went and got it and came back over to be rocked. That really shocked me because I just never really thought to command her or ask her to do anything. I just told her because I didn't want to get out of the chair when she was really close to it and it just surprisingly worked. Now that I read about the simple commands, I asked her to "go put those away" to the packing peanuts she found tonight which she was trying to show me and she actually put them right back so maybe she knows more than I give her credit for. I don't really "worry" about her being behind because I think she will catch right up but I really don't want to mess with Early Intervention for speech delays if I don't have to. I guess we have at least until the 18 month well baby visit to work on things. I will try to be better and to get her to talk but usually when I repeat a word over and over to help her learn, she just looks at me and smiles and watches my lips but she doesn't say a word or try to repeat after me.

And lastly... our funny story. Today at church Everly (during two quiet times in the congregation, of COURSE) took two giants swigs or hits of juice off her sippy cup and after each time she lets out this "aaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHhhhhhhh" like one might do after they have had the world's most refreshing drink ever that hit the spot. Dave and I both looked at each other each time she did it like "did she just do what I think she did" and we both smiled and laughed. I don't recall ever really noticing her doing that or teaching her that. I told my parents that tonight on the phone and each one I told (because I told them at different points in the conversation) said "that's what Dave does" and laughed. So I guess she does pick up on some things we do! Kind of our laugh for the day.

Oh and Everly was extremely active during my bath tonight so I have a new list of things that ended up in the tub with me if you look to the right of this post. If you wonder where she finds this stuff, well she raids the garbage cans, cupboards, school bags, purses and toy boxes. She seems to find ANYTHING and EVERYTHING she shouldn't be getting into.