The Only Constant Is Change

Change...she changes every day. Every day, she's a little less baby and little more grown up.


It's funny to me that just a week ago I started wondering if she was falling behind verbally. I even asked the woman who heads up the Family Consumer Science department at my school. She is in charge of the daycare and spends time with the children every day. She told me that Sera was fine and that I shouldn't expect her to become really verbal until closer to two or older. I know that my asking made her pay even closer attention because when I saw her later she commented more. She told me that Sera is actually very verbal for her age. She doesn't have a lot of words, but the ones she has she says very clearly. I even checked the What To Expect: The Toddler Years book. She's way ahead of age according to that book. It says by the end of her 18th month, she should be able to say three words and point to one body part. She was about 20 words last week and can point to her head, eyes, nose, mouth, hands, belly, and feet. We're working on ears now.


In the week since she's decided to show me why I shouldn't worry. She has become a parrot this week. She is repeating words we say constantly now and is adding about a word a day to her vocabulary. Just this morning, she added diaper and shower. Her favorite new word of the week was bye-bye, which sounds just like her baby. You definitely need to watch the non-verbal cues and get the context to know which one she's saying. On Wednesday, she was practicing. Jim was at parent conferences, and we were on our own. I was sitting on the couch in the living room. She'd come to me, say bye-bye, and wave. She would keep doing this while blowing me an occasional kiss as she left the room. She'd then go in the hallway for a few seconds. Then she'd run back in to me and yell, "HI!" Then she'd start all over again. At daycare, there are a few paraprofessionals who work in the daycare all day. They really run the place and help oversee the student helpers. The one in charge of Sera's room brings her son every day as he's not quite two yet. His favorite way of saying bye is to wave and say, "See ya!" They warned me on Friday that all the kids, including Sera, had picked it up last week. All weekend long, she's been alternating between bye-bye and see ya. It's too cute.


Since this is summer's last hurrah (I hope) with temps in the high 80's/low 90's, Jim and I took Sera to the Japanese Gardens for a photo shoot. I brought three outfits and we let her run around. We're going to go for a professional sitting soon, but the gardens are so beautiful that I really wanted one there. We had put all of our things in a gazebo towards the back and that is where I was changing Sera's outfits. We went into the gazebo to sit down out of the sun for a minute. I asked Sera if she wanted me to change her dress. She doesn't like things around her neck (another odd little trait we share). She tugged at her neck and told me yeah. Jim was still holding the camera taking shots as she ran around the gazebo. That's how he got this shot. It's the best photo yet of Sera. Isn't it breathtaking?


And, yes, we're working on changing that yeah into yes ma'am or yes sir. I didn't realize how much we said yeah instead of yes until she picked it up first. Oh, and I had her hair cut. Her hair was starting to look like a mullet as it grew out. I had the back bobbed as the sides are now that long. Her bangs haven't needed a trim yet. They're still filling in from being shaved off before she got her.