Julie's Boggle

While I am forced more and more to put Jess in the rank of “toddler” lately, I do rather like to think of her as a baby still. This is aided by her lack of vocabulary and her petite stature (she only weighs a little more than 10kg) which generally has people thinking of her as younger than she is.

On the other hand, Jessica is becoming an ever more complicated little person, developing an understanding of all sorts of things.  This now begins to include a knowledge of our habits and daily rituals and also a firm belief that things should be done in the way she has come to expect.  This is not a new trait, but the level of detail is definitely increasing.

Jess has always been one for strong opinions, but some of her dislikes have been growing incrementally with her.  These include any sort of splashing in her face, long periods in her car-seat and – regrettably, because they occur most frequently – nappy changes.  So while she will chuckle heartily as she “runs” away from the would-be changer as fast as her little legs will carry her, once caught, the laughter quickly turns to howls of protest, real tears, and thrashing about on the change table like a cornered cat.

Jess has about 6 words at the moment, “Bye” being a fairly reliable one, with the occasional “Hello”, “Uppa” for anything relating to lifting her, and a good strong “Ah-men” at the end of grace when the mood suits her.  She’s quite familiar with the Dear Zoo story (a new favourite) and will say the appropriate “Woof-woof” when she gets to the final page.  The rest of her requirements are filled in with a language of her own devising.

Not being able to communicate better with us is definitely a cause for frustration, and the eloquently babbled request quickly develops an undertone of vexation if she perceives we’re not doing what she would like us to do.

The crosser sounds are then accompanied by the expressive lower lip, which protrudes further and further as irritation heightens (along with corresponding frown), and if one is not quick enough to figure it all out, little feet will be stamped in frustration.  The next step is to lay herself down on the floor (rather more carefully than she used to do – she’s not trying to hurt herself after all), and the full blown wail of anger will commence thenceforth.

Jess is definitely sturdier while walking now although this is very much relative.  She does like to use some sort of support, like her little pink stroller, which seems to help curb the rebellious traits of her legs.

Her love of climbing is undiminished (perhaps to make up for her lack of height?) and she’ll have a go at pulling herself up onto just about anything.  The less stable it appears, the more likely we are to find her doing some sort of little victory bounce on it!

Jessica has always been keen on having company when she’s playing and lately this has taken on the new aspect of wanting their participation in her games.  The current favourite is playing with little plastic pots that I used to use for freezing baby meals, and in this case she can put the lids on but not take them off.  So she’ll put something into one (or more) of them, put the lid(s) on and then bring it over to request that its lid be removed.   Have a guess who gets tired of this one more quickly.

She is very partial to her dinky size 3 shoes now that we’ve got some for her, and will loudly insist that they be put on for her if she sees them lying around.  She also has rather a fondness for other accessories like hats.  Together with the little handbag that she’s very fond of carrying (generally filled with all of the round sticklebrick pieces), our little miss looks as cute as they come.

Ever since Jess took her first few little steps back in August, I’ve been poised to write this article; just waiting for the day to arrive when I could say conclusively that she’s a toddler.

Jessica however, in fairly typical fashion, is refusing to be pigeon-holed on this one, and reserves the right to be a fully-crawling baby whenever she pleases.

When we left for South Africa at the end of July, we thought that proper walking was imminent, and were expecting some displays of it daily.  Jess was not to be rushed though, and aside from the occasional lurch across a small gap, she definitely preferred her “all-fours” approach.

Indications of Jess’s balance improving were shown more and more frequently over this period.  These were the times when she’d absent-mindedly let go of her support, and stand alone for several seconds before realisation, and gravity, brought her down!

Finally on our very last day in SA, Jessica decided that it was time to stand up and have a go at the walking thing.  She didn’t manage more than a step or two, but there was plenty of determination to get herself up from the floor on her wobbly little pins, and she tried over and over, beaming in delight at all the attention she was getting.

Jess was 16½ months then, and now at almost 18 months, she’s just about convinced herself that walking really is the best option.  We love to watch her little figure tottering all over the place, generally taking her minor crash-landings bravely and persevering with getting herself back onto her feet and going again.  There is still a great deal of wobbliness – the uneven or sloping surface is not her friend – but on the whole we can definitely say that Jess is mostly walking now!