Jazzy Stones XVIII

WARNING:

Don't even think about reading this entire entry. It is way too long. Even for a grandparent. Browse the photos and move on. It's what any sane person would do. And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

_______________________________

18 Months ago, we had a baby girl. And just like that, she's walking, talking and... well... smacking us all around. As for what she's been up to lately...

Look Who's Talking
When Justin was about two years old, I clearly remember not being able to visualize the jump from where he was with his speech development to him having the ability to talk in full sentences. In listening to kids that were just months older than him, it seemed like going from point a to b in speech development would be a quantum leap. Well, of course he eventually made that leap and now we can't get him to be quiet. But Jasmine... well, she's 1.5 years old... and I already can't remember her NOT being able to talk. The other thing is that with Justin, I remember needing one of those decoder rings that come in a cereal box to understand what he was trying to say: "Eye wung eee"... oh... you want to eat?... (isn't it funny how every parent knows their own kid's crazy babble talk?)... but with Jasmine it's as if she won't utter a given word until she has rehearsed it in her head and can say it perfectly. Where is your baby talk, little momma?! So grown.

Here's Jasmine last week, handing something to her mommy...
Jasmine: Mommy, (it's) broken.
Mommy: Yes, baby, it's broken. It doesn't work anymore.
Jasmine... after a short pause... "FIX IT!"

Incredible. Just listening to that exchange over the phone, I almost fell over in my chair laughing. Yesterday in the car, Jasmine completed a sentence of 5 or 6 words. I can't remember for the life of me what it was... but I do remember that she repeated it several times, and neither V nor I knew how to respond... so we just sat there in silent denial like, "this isn't happening". So now, my friend, you see one of the many reasons I have thrown the milestone blog entries out the window with this here child. It's hard to mark off every 3 feet of progress when you're going 30 miles per hour. At this rate, she'll be reading bedtime stories to Justin in no time.

Home Court Advantage
A second child just has so many advantages over the first. There's the obvious advantage of having a sibling and hence a 3rd teacher in the house: someone closer to her in age, stature, and mentality to interact with on a constant basis. That makes learning via imitation a lot easier (I think she learned the word "mine!" about a year earlier than Justin... for obvious reasons I guess). I remember it being forever before Justin could jump (salta!) off of two feet properly... Jasmine? Forget about it. She has mastered that and the entire playground already, and would probably jump off of any piece of furniture headfirst if you let her. You'd think she's been doing it for years. But then, what choice does she have when her only goal is to keep up with everything her brother can do.

She also has way more toys around the house; most of which are Justin's and are not age appropriate. That by itself pushes her to be more advanced than he was at this age. Justin spent endless hours playing with the magnetic letters on the refrigerator even before he was two years old... but why would you want to play with some stinking plastic letters when you've got a full drum set. Hit it!

ABC's and 123's

Speaking of plastic letters... while she's got him beat in street smarts, it's my suspicion that Justin was a good ways ahead of her by now with respect to knowing his ABC's, 123's, and all of the other typical toddler milestones. And that's totally not a problem, but it is interesting to see how different their skill sets are as a product of how different our lives are now with 2 kids versus just one. I felt guilty about it for a while, but Justin definitely got read to more, sang to more, etc... you know, all of that textbook stuff that you can do with your toddler when you don't have to worry about entertaining their older sibling (or simply maintaining your sanity) at the same time. As it stands, by the end of the day, we're not exactly anxious to curl up with the two of them and read a few books together. It's more like... EVERYBODY... GOOOO TOOOO BED!!!!!!!! And then we all pass out. So she's got the short end of that stick... but then she will answer a string of yes / no questions correctly with what is obviously full comprehension... and also takes her plate and cup to the kitchen and puts it in the sink after dinner all by herself (which speaks to both her wit and her height and long reach)... clearing the table? um, yeah... Justin wasn't doing that until... well... until Jasmine was. Just two different kids. Certainly clever in their own different ways. What are you gonna do but love 'em both.

POTTY TIME

Before the fam left for South Carolina, it had officially been put on the to do list to buy Jasmine some (drum roll please...) panties. Yep, the gurl dun been potty trained. Wait...wait... wait... don't get it twisted, she's not 100% yet. But she is definitely ready for the next step. More often than not, she'll let us know when she's gotta go, and will hold it 'til you get there. And more than anything, the girl is ready to don some underwear. Leave her alone in their bedroom, and she'll snatch a pair of Justin's drawers and come out wearing them in 20 seconds or less. It's like a Houdini trick or something. And she's so excited about it, that we just figured, what the heck. Now, granted, we may have taken a step or two backwards with the 2 week hiatus to SC... so we'll see how things progress. But she's definitely on her way... which by the way, is not anything to be too excited about... all it really does is double the probability of us having to stop to use the bathroom at every store on every trip out the house. It's also one more person that we have to pitstop to the bathroom on the way out the door (as if it didn't take us long enough to get anywhere we're going). At the end of the day, it's a nice reminder that diapers are not forever... but they sure have their advantages. (Gotta go? Go ahead... I'll clean it up later).

And Finally...

The regular stuff: She has FINALLY graduated to not wearing a bib 24 hours (You would've thought it was part of every outfit. I have never seen so much drool in my life... gotta be a record). Still 8 teeth. Still napping an hour-plus. Two naps on a good day (with daddy home). Still giving mommy endless grief, but then screaming for her like a mad woman when she leaves the room. Still throwing sn0w angel floor tantrums at the mere thought of the word no. And still the apple of daddy's eye regardless of it all. That's our Jasmine Olivia.