Thursday, April 20, 2006

16 Months

This month, we have entered The Tantrum Zone. Yup, it's starting already. It wasn't too bad at first. Her tantrums were few and far between, and they'd only last a minute. Abby's now graduated to full-blown, throw herself on the floor, tantrums. We're never going to survive this phase. I'm ready to pull my hair out by the time Damon comes home from work most days, and this is only the beginning!

Much of her frustration has to do with the fact that she suddenly understands so much of what we're saying, but she can't tell us what's going on yet. Seemingly overnight, something clicked for her and she understands our words even though she can't repeat them. She knows where her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair, knees and feet are. She can also point out Mommy's and Daddy's. She's made the distinction between feet, shoes, and socks. She knows what a light is. She knows that her milk and cheese are in the fridge. This is a big source of her tantrums because she gets frustrated that she can't open the fridge. When we open it for her to get her cup of milk, she throws a tantrum because we won't let her play in there. After a week-ish of this, she's learning and isn't getting so upset when we close it. When I ask her if she wants to eat, she'll walk to the highchair and point to her mouth (which is the sign for food/eat. She learned that on her own because we were to lazy to teach her sign language). The one we're the most proud of is the remote. If we ask her for the remote, she'll look for it and give it to us!

While she hasn't had a "word explosion" yet, she is starting to say more words. She can say shoes, cheese ("teese"), hot ("ha"), and thank you (tantu). She doesn't use them very often, but it's progress. Whenever she hands us something, we always thank her, so now she sometimes says thank you at the same time. She hasn't learned to thank us for something yet. Everything is still "da" when she points at it. When she babbles, it's clear that she's trying to have a conversation with you. She is so animated when she "talks." Her hands are flying trying to get her point across, and she'll nod her head like she's seen me do when I talk to someone. One thing she's still not saying? MAMA!





She wasn't throwing a tantrum in this picture. She just likes to lay on the ground and look up sometimes.












4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We're in the middle of tantrums too. Thankfully his aren't overly full of thrashing or screaming yet (he basically just throws himself down on the floor and does this crazy-annoying whine/moan/cry until my eyes bleed) but I'm sure that will come. I've heard that the terrible twos actually start around 15 or 18 months. Welcome to Crazyville, eh?

Same with the fridge too. He freaks when I drag him out of it. I'm getting quite adept and how fast I can open it, get what I need, and close it again. It helps to visualize where the item is before I even open the door. ;)

Hugs and good luck!!

Anonymous said...

Oh, Connor loves the fridge too. We don't let him play in it, but one set of his grandparents do. That makes it even harder. Connor started in with the mini-tantrums around Abby's age, but I have to say that they have gotten better now that his vocabulary has increased. I remember wondering what happened to my sweet little baby (sometimes I still do). Looks like Abby is starting to like the grass a little more? She looks so cute in her sandals!

Anonymous said...

It's nice to know it's not just my kid! I'm hoping things will get better once she can communicate better.

Abby doesn't mind the grass anymore, although she still hesitates a bit when she first steps on it. The first few times we went to the park recently, she stayed completely away. I'm in love with her sandals too!

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, soon enough you will be numb to the tantrums LOL. Gavin throws about 30 a day.
Abby sounds like she is in the same stage that Gavin is. He isn't big into using words. But the things he understands are so crazy. He loves the fridge too. But unlike Abby he knows how to open it so we have a lock on it now.