Beyond her loving, caring, somewhat tired Mama, and delicious munchable snacks and treats, there are a few things that my 18-month old will remember, ask for, seek out, and squeal over. In no particular order, I present to you
1. Her toothbrush – She loves to “brush” those little teeth, while vehemently rejecting our consistent attempts to ensure proper oral hygiene by helping. The toothbrush, she seems to be certain, is far too valuable to share brushing duties with her parents. When we went to the dentist for her checkup, however, it seemed like we’re doing alright.
2. Balls – Any orb shape in view will send my little one bouncing her hand up and down (her own sign for “ball”) and saying “baaaa”. She has amassed a small funhouse pit of different coloured, textured and sized balls, and carts them all around. I’m quite happy she hasn’t quite figured out how to throw them with any power, yet, as we have a lot of glass panes around here.
3. Baby – We picked up this little crying, giggling, “mama”ing baby from the store on a recent trip off-island. As soon as I passed it to her from the box, she started feeding Baby the little bottle and holding and rocking her own little babe. Now baby comes everywhere with us, and does everything that Z does. Let’s just say that baby has a serious “loved” look about her now, and I’m constantly having to explain why a plastic doll doesn’t need to nurse.
4. Books – Ever since she was only a month or two old, we started showing and reading little Z picture books. Actually, I started reading them to her in the womb so she would hear my voice, so it’s safe to say they’ve been a part of her world for all of her life. She loves to bring us books to read together, and will even sit quietly by herself for a while, pulling books off her shelf and looking through them independently.
Parents – if you can get your little ones interested in books from the get-go, you’ll be pretty happy when you can leave them in the book corner while you cook, or when you can pull out one of Sandra Boynton’s finest during a fussy dinner out or a long car-ride.
5. The watering can – Another instant attraction was to the watering can. If our garden produces much this year (which is looking pretty promising), it will be because our toddler literally pulls us out to the garden every day and insists on watering the plants. It’s a very upsetting day when it’s recently rained and she can’t run back and forth from the tap, dribbling water on the celery and kale.
6. Sippy cups – Water is good. Milk is great. Milk with greens in it is pretty delicious, too. Whatever it is, if it’s in one of her prized sippy cups (or ever better, in someone else’s cup, she will need to be drinking it. Now.
7. The snack box – I picked up her little lunch box at a garage sale last year, thinking “This is silly, she won’t need a lunch box for a long time”. Now that she’s “eating” solid foods (my little bird has a little appetite) as the main part of her diet, and staying over at Grandma’s from time to time, having a little carrier dedicated to holding her meals and snacks has been essential. As soon as Z sees her little polka dotted horse bag, she wants to carry it around and open it up to see what delicious treats might be hiding inside.
8. Sushi – Now, this is not actually a tasty Japanese dish, but rather our crazy cat. Weird name, I know – I still can’t quite remember why we went with it, except for something about her mixed-up calico colours looking like the sushi we ate the night before and the fact that it sounded cute.
Z stops what she’s doing often to wonder where Sushi is with her little “where is she?” shrugging hand-gesture and noise. She gives kisses, pets and hugs to her kitty. Feeding Sushi cat is one of the tasks we get our little one to help with, and she gets very excited about it every evening.
9. Cheese – I know this list was supposed to be things besides her parental units and tasty munchies, but she really, seriously has a love for cheese. The older and stronger, the better. If I wasn’t so concerned about her getting all backed up from over-cheesing, I would probably cave and give her more than I already do. It’s just so hard to refuse when she looks at you with those big blues and says “Chzzzz” while squishing her little hands into the sign for cheese.
10. The potty – This is something that’s been a matter-of-fact part of Z’s life and routine for almost a year now (our method of potty training so far), but it’s just within the last couple weeks that she’s really started showing an eager interest in using it. She seems to enjoy getting on and off even when she doesn’t need to go, and will eagerly nod when I ask her if she needs to go to the potty when she has this “Imma poop myself” look about her, and will try to go #2 multiple times a day “for fun”. I’m going to hope this lasts and that diapers will soon be a thing of our past.
Looking back, this list is making me realize how awesome my little bean sprout is. I can’t wait to get to know her better as she grows. I wonder what the next big thing for her will be?
What are your toddler’s favourite things?