Adventures in Toddlerhood

It's amazing to see all of the new things Judith is starting to do, and I'm watching her grow up so fast right before my eyes.  It's hard to believe that last year at this time we were working on getting her to sit unsupported, and now we're chasing her all over the place.  And let me tell you, this kid is fast!

Judith's still working on those molars, and based on how crabby she's been (and how many things she's been chewing on), there are more that are working their way up to the surface. She doesn't mind having her teeth brushed as long as we do it quickly.  I need to build up some courage to get my fingers in there to feel around her gums again since the little stinker often moves her tongue over her teeth and won't let me see them.

Judith loves to imitate us, the dogs, her grandparents, practically anyone she's comfortable with!  Baby sign language is not going well - the most we can get out of her is a sign for "more", otherwise she looks at us like we're nuts and refuses to mimic the sign.  Her speech therapist isn't concerned though, especially since Judith's starting to have a language and sound explosion!  This weekend we added duck, doggie, and boogie to our list.  Most things are either "Dee" (for Lady) or "baby," but I'm hoping she'll start repeating the proper names soon.

We experienced another first today.  Now that she's almost 19 months old, Judith thought it would be appropriate to initiate us into the world of toddler tantrums - as in, full-out, screaming, stomping, throw yourself down tantrums.  She got mad when she had to give up one of her rings before speech therapy.  She got mad during speech therapy when we wouldn't allow her to chew on every single toy.  She got mad at the grocery store because we wanted to wipe down different parts of her new snail balloon (mostly the clip anchor part, because we knew it would go straight into the mouth), and to accomplish that we had to move her hands.  She got mad when we had to take the balloon from her temporarily to put her in her car seat.  And she got mad over the meal menus for the day.  Her speech therapist and I are thinking she's starting to get frustrated by not being able to communicate things, but at the same time we're hoping she'll start picking up some more words so she can communicate better.

Life is definitely interesting right now!