Monaloca

I haven’t done an overall Melina update since her birthday in June. We’ve been busy, and monthly updates started to seem like overkill. But our little girl’s as active and full of personality as ever – and still changing quite a bit – so here goes.

Since mid-June….

When we ask Melina to do something she doesn’t want to, instead of screaming or even stating a firm “no,” she politely says “No thank you (mama/dada).” “Melina, please clean up your toys.” “No thank you, Mama.”

Her favorite phrase is “What doing?” or “What doing (mama, dada)?” She’s also started asking “why?” fairly consistently. Kai never went through this phase, though with him I distinctly remember a “then what?” phase around age three.

She’s developed a minor princess leaning. She sometimes insists on wearing “big dress,” a birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa Weiss, and loves the book “Pinkalicious,” a birthday gift from Auntie Cyndie and Uncle Rich. Daddy bought her “Goldilicious,” which isn’t nearly as good in our minds but features a unicorn, so Meli loves it.

Since mid-July….

She’s learned how to whisper and loves to practice, with the added flair of hand gestures a la Kai, whenever the mood strikes. She also loves walking backwards. Not quite sure when she picked this up (maybe it’s been months?) but recently she’s been having fun with it.

Melina made her first preschool friend! Juliette, a three-year-old little blond girl. She also talks about Sophia and “Banana” who I finally figured out is Hannah. She seems to like hanging out with the “big kid” three-year-olds at school, and also loves playing with three-year-old Kendall down the street and four-year-old Zoe Zarling (whose little sister Melina dubbed “Other Zoe.” Poor little sis!) She asks to play with cousins Noah and Lucas frequently. Luckily, we’ll see them in Capitola next weekend.

More recently…

Melina can take off her own clothes and diaper but sometimes gets stuck on her shirt. She can also get her pants back on mostly by herself, but often asks for help getting her legs in two separate holes. Of course half the time they end up backwards. She still likes to do absolutely everything herself, including grabbing onto monkey bars that are two feet out of reach. She’ll usually ask for help on her own when she realizes she needs it, but will throw a fit if we offer before she asks.

For the past two months, she’s been asking to use the potty at home and about town at least three times a day. Until recently she refused to use the pint-sized potty at school (ironic – it’s just her size!) but was inspired when some fellow two-year-olds took to it. She now wears her beloved Elmo panties to school and last week came home dry four out of five days. Not quite sure what led to multiple “uh ohs” on Thursday. She’s also been doing pretty well at home and around town, though is most definitely still “in training.” I’m thrilled and slightly surprised. Kai was 3 1/4 by the time he made it this far, not 2 1/4. Yay Jelly Bean!

No Comments »