Meg Update

Our 16-month old girl is growing up fast. We're seeing so many changes in her right now that it's hard to keep track of them all. But here's an attempt at recapping some:

Communication: Wow, Meg is understanding so much of what Dave and I say now! Each day, it seems, we're able to give her increasingly detailed instructions and see her respond appropriately. For example: if she is looking for a specific toy, we might say, "Turn around, Meg. The ball is behind you." And sure enough, around she turns and heads straight for that ball! She's also "talking" a good bit more now, although she's really not trying to articulate specific words yet. She does have one baby sign that she has latched on to--a little clapping motion that she uses to mean "Yes," "More please," "Let's do it again," "I want that," and sometimes just, "I want something and I'm not really sure what." In the grocery store the other day, she used this sign to tell me what I should buy: when we stopped in the Pepperidge Farm snack section and Meg's eyes landed on the Goldfish crackers, whew, you should have seen her clapping! As soon as I picked up a bag of them and plunked it in the cart, the clapping ceased.

From two naps to one. Meg's transition from two naps to one has been long and somewhat perplexing to her novice parents. For the past two months or so, she still seemed to need to go down for a morning nap no later than 10:30 a.m. Then by 3:00, when she used to take an afternoon nap, she would once again seem exhausted. Except, for some reason, she often wouldn't sleep. But neither would she allow us to push her morning nap back to later in the day--her little body alarm clock would go off right at 10:00 every day, and if we didn't start the wind-down nap-time routine, it was whine city! Anyway, as of two weeks ago, it all changed. Suddenly, she was completely ready to wait until noon for her nap. So now she gets 2 hours or so, right in the middle of the day, and it seems to be working out well.

Weaned! At one year old, Meg was down to nursing only three times a day. For the other daily feedings she had already gradually weaned herself. In the last four months, three feedings a day became just one, first thing in the morning. For a long time, she didn't seem willing to let this one go, and at times, I was reluctant as well. I really have enjoyed nursing my girl. But starting last week, it seemed we were both ready! One morning, Dave went in to get Meg from her crib in the morning, and Meg didn't cry for Mommy! The next day--same thing! And on the third day, when I went to in get her, she seemed to have forgotten that she used to want milk as soon as Mommy came in sight! We have now gone seven days straight with no nursing and no sign that Meg misses it.

Little climber: It's official. Meg has conquered her first piece of living room furniture. Next to our couch we have this cool barrel-backed chair that, until recently, resided in my Margie and Cubby's house. The seat sits low to the ground--low enough that Miss Meg has figured out how to wiggle and squirm and climb her way into it. Sometimes I will walk into the living room to find her proudly sitting (or standing, though I discourage this) in that chair, grinning like she just mastered Mt. Everest. Watch out world--nothing is safe now.

Hair. Meg's hair is getting long. In the front, it's long enough to graze her eyelashes, and in the back, when it's wet, it hangs down well over her collar. (If it's not wet, it's generally curly in the back and seems a bit shorter.) So what do you do with your little girl's hair when it's getting long, but not long enough to cut, and not thick enough to use a pony-tailer (or at least not any that I have found). We have some teeny clips that work to hold her hair back on the sides--at least occasionally, but I have to be on my guard lest Meg discover that they're there and pull them out and ingest them. (They're really small.) To be honest, a lot of days Meg's hair just looks, well... a bit awkward and messy. Fortunately, I think she'll grow out of it.

The proud owner of... Recently we discovered that Meg enjoys playing with bouncy balls, and, since balls are both active and cheap fun, she is now in possession of two of them. One is that kind of heavy-duty rubber that kick-balls are made of: blue, with pictures of some cute characters (whom we had never heard of till we bought the ball) called "The Backyardigans". The other, purchased for Meg by our friend Jenn Dabbondanza, is one of those soft rubber balls that you find in big wire bins at Kmart and Giant and such. It is all colored in swirly pinks and purples. Meg loves both of these balls, and in the week or so that we have owned them I feel sure that the Wilcox family has devoted at least a full 24 hours to playing with them. (To wit, last night, as we were discussing highly important, adultish-type issues, Dave and I found ourselves mindlessly tossing one of the balls back and forth, even though our daughter had been in bed for hours.)

So there you have it--all you ever wanted to know (and more) about our growing girl. Of course, there is much more that her loving parents would be happy to share, but since this blog entry is already pushing epic proportions, we'll leave it here for now.