Happy June!! The Phoenix summer is bare-able so far and we're spending a lot of time in the pool. Thankfully, Aaron has been doing a lot of maintenance on it this year and it looks amazing!
Elayna is growing and learning like crazy! I've enrolled her in a toddler's gym class on Wednesdays and we are having a BLAST! For 45-minutes, she explores and plays with other kids her same age on gym mats and bouncy equipment. It's a parent's class too so I help her learn to jump and roll and play with bubbles -- we're having such a good time together. It's amazing me how much she can do and also how she's learning to take direction. She's a smart little-girl.
One of her favorite things right now are spoons! She wants to feed herself (heaven forbid mom does it!) and sometimes actually does a good job. Mostly there's a lot of 'flinging' and messes -- good thing Clancy's around. To help with her practicing, we've started giving her an empty bowl and spoon to play with. She'll wander the house with her utensils and pretend to eat or feed Clancy -- its very CUTE!
At the same time, she's also learning to communicate with us more and more too!! She says a few words -- 'Ma-Ma' mostly -- and sometimes does it at the right time. She also is getting better at her baby-signs and knows how to say More, All-Done, and Milk. The signs usually take some prompting (I'll do the sign for Milk, ask her if she wants Milk, and she'll follow it up with a sign) but she's building confidence that she can talk with us.
However, her communication skills aren't advancing at the same rate as her DESIRE or CURIOUSITY! She's starting to have a little temper and we're struggling with how to handle her frustrations. For example, last night she became very upset when I wouldn't let her have my drink and it built to a full-out melt-down. She doesn't understand reasoning yet but she also can't communicate her emotions yet. Out of desperation, we tried our first ever time-out but I still believe she's a little young. She didn't understand she was being disciplined and henceforth didn't understand that her tantrum was wrong.
Sigh -- parenting is hard!
There are times I wish she was 4-months old again ... that magical time when she rarely cried. But she is growing into such a sweet and intelligent girl and I'm very hopeful that this is just a difficult phase. As her communication skills grow, I'm hoping we'll be able to intervene before the tantrum and help her to understand her emotions. At least let's continue to hope....
