Fifteen Months
It's strange to be sitting here, thinking about my fifteen month old toddler. In a lot of ways, even though I wanted to be here, I never thought that I'd make it. Being that grateful for each day of my child's life is a blessing, but it may end up being my biggest downfall. Unrepentant little Monster, anyone? Ha.
Today was Nora's well kid check up. We took her by Adam's job, which is just down the street, first, so that we could take her around and hang out with the office people. She has a lot of fans there. Not that she cares. She spent the entire time clinging to Adam like a sullen monkey, giving everyone the stink-eye.
We arrived at the pediatrician's the required fifteen minutes early and things went rather well. At first. She sat on Adam's lap and munched on Cheerios. It was all sweet smiles and curious eyes until Nora noticed that the other kids were allowed to get down and play. Suddenly our usually shy child was a wild beast.
There was one of those wooden cubes with all of the wires and beads in the middle of the room. I forget what you're supposed to understand about the way kids play with it, but I know that Nora's approach was to (hilariously) march over to it, one arm swinging aggressively behind her to swat me and Adam away, and angrily yank on it. My sweet child was raging all over this thing like it stole her favorite toy.
So. Embarrassing.
Once she got bored because the cube refused to play her way, she started roaming around pointing and yelling at everything, and everyone, in the room. The waiting area was pretty full and Adam and I took turns directing her away from grabbing people and things. I tried to get her interested in reading new books, but she was having none of it. She expressed her disapproval by whacking me, repeatedly, with the books I was attempting to read. I was assaulted by Nora in public. I'm an abuse victim, dammit.
For the first time since Nora was born the doctor was running behind. The other doctors were doing fine; we watched a stream of children get ushered to the back to see their pediatrician. As it got later and Nora became harder to handle, I was getting antsy. It was just awkward for me. I usually don't have to parent in public and I have issues with people judging me based on one event.
Okay, so, the most awful, funny, thing Nora did was climb on top of a bigger child so that she could reach something she wanted. Adam swooped over and yanked her off the kid, but still.....so hilariously wrong.
Eventually we were called to the back and the doctor was astounded at the amount of teeth Nora has. He told us that she has every tooth she needs (or is about to have) until it's time for her two year molars. Whoo-hoo, our baby is an overachiever....at teething. Hrm.
Adam and I had a good laugh over the "How many words does your child say?" question because she says three, but barely. As soon as the nurse left Adam turned to me, "You just LIED. That baby doesn't say three words."
"Yes, she does. She says Mama, Dada and That."
"Those aren't words, they're commands she shouts to get what she wants."
Ah, good times.
Today was Nora's well kid check up. We took her by Adam's job, which is just down the street, first, so that we could take her around and hang out with the office people. She has a lot of fans there. Not that she cares. She spent the entire time clinging to Adam like a sullen monkey, giving everyone the stink-eye.
We arrived at the pediatrician's the required fifteen minutes early and things went rather well. At first. She sat on Adam's lap and munched on Cheerios. It was all sweet smiles and curious eyes until Nora noticed that the other kids were allowed to get down and play. Suddenly our usually shy child was a wild beast.
There was one of those wooden cubes with all of the wires and beads in the middle of the room. I forget what you're supposed to understand about the way kids play with it, but I know that Nora's approach was to (hilariously) march over to it, one arm swinging aggressively behind her to swat me and Adam away, and angrily yank on it. My sweet child was raging all over this thing like it stole her favorite toy.
So. Embarrassing.
Once she got bored because the cube refused to play her way, she started roaming around pointing and yelling at everything, and everyone, in the room. The waiting area was pretty full and Adam and I took turns directing her away from grabbing people and things. I tried to get her interested in reading new books, but she was having none of it. She expressed her disapproval by whacking me, repeatedly, with the books I was attempting to read. I was assaulted by Nora in public. I'm an abuse victim, dammit.
For the first time since Nora was born the doctor was running behind. The other doctors were doing fine; we watched a stream of children get ushered to the back to see their pediatrician. As it got later and Nora became harder to handle, I was getting antsy. It was just awkward for me. I usually don't have to parent in public and I have issues with people judging me based on one event.
Okay, so, the most awful, funny, thing Nora did was climb on top of a bigger child so that she could reach something she wanted. Adam swooped over and yanked her off the kid, but still.....so hilariously wrong.
Eventually we were called to the back and the doctor was astounded at the amount of teeth Nora has. He told us that she has every tooth she needs (or is about to have) until it's time for her two year molars. Whoo-hoo, our baby is an overachiever....at teething. Hrm.
Adam and I had a good laugh over the "How many words does your child say?" question because she says three, but barely. As soon as the nurse left Adam turned to me, "You just LIED. That baby doesn't say three words."
"Yes, she does. She says Mama, Dada and That."
"Those aren't words, they're commands she shouts to get what she wants."
Ah, good times.
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