Scarlett 21 Month Update

I haven't updated you guys on Scarlett since she was 18 months old.  She turns 2 in less than 3 months, so I wanted to do another post about her before her birthday.

Scarlett's main love in life right now is Elmo.  No less than 45,021 Elmo's sleep with her in her crib at nap time and at night.  We have Elmo DVD's, clothing, toys, books, toothpaste, an Elmo mortgage, and an Elmo car payment.  Ok, those last two may be an exaggeration but you get the hint! She absolutely loves anything Elmo and gets very excited about it. We're going to Sesame Street Live on Sunday and I know she'll be thrilled!

We're still dealing with Scarlett's lack of speech.  I had a speech therapist come by last week for an evaluation.  To make a long story short, they told me I do way too much for her and she has no reason to talk because all of her needs her met.  For example, if she points to her water cup I'll just hand it to her.  Instead, they want me to say "Oh, you want your water cup?", or "what do you need?" and have her ultimately work at expressing what she wants. 

I need to try harder to do this but as a parent it's just easier to sometimes give your child what they want because you're used to doing that.  For right now, we're holding off on speech therapy until she's 2 and utilizing the tips they gave us.  If there's no improvement whatsoever by her birthday, then we'll start the service.  Three months is a long time for progression in a toddler's life and I hope she'll start talking on her own.

Scarlett's been in school for two weeks now.  She really loves it and has been doing great there.  I picked her up on Monday and she was hugging one of the teachers! I'm glad she's comfortable and happy there.  I'm hoping preschool will help her to further develop socially and flourish.  School pictures are being taken October 7th.  I need to pick out a cute outfit for her!

Food is still a big love in Scarlett's life.  She loves to eat everything from cheese and crackers to chicken, pasta, fruit, and turkey burgers.  There's not much she won't eat, and I'm still so lucky to have an easy eater.  Veggies are one of Scarlett's absolute favorites and I constantly have tomatoes and peas and carrots in my fridge! I could give her a bowl of pasta with peas, and she'll pick out the peas before eating the pasta.  Most toddlers do not love veggies as much as Scarlett does!

Scarlett used to sleep from 7:30 pm-7 AM, but lately she's sleeping till almost 8 am.  She must be growing and really need the sleep.  I checked on her at 7:45 this morning and she was still sleeping.  I'm happy that she isn't an early riser because I can't function before 7 am! 

I've enrolled Scarlett in gymnastics.  Her first class was last week, but she missed it because we were away.  She'll go to tomorrow's class and I can't wait! I'll be sure to update everyone on it and take a lot of pictures.  

We're working on having Scarlett identify the names of objects.  We have a cute set of fake food and I'll line up a couple pieces of fake veggies and ask her to show me where the carrot or tomato is.  She's gotten a lot better with being able to point to the correct answer.  Even though she cannot speak, she is very nonverbal.  

The pacifier is something that I'm still struggling with.  Her attachment to it is not lessening as time goes on, but staying consistently the same.  I'm hoping that the love affair ends soon because she's getting too old for it.  Scarlett will hand it to me throughout the day if I ask her to, or she'll sometimes give it to me on her own.  I can't seem to get rid of it, and I'm not sure if she's 100% ready, but hopefully she will be soon enough.  She uses it to sleep at night, but I like to limit the usage during the day.

Potty training has been on my agenda since 18 months old.  I bought a Fisher Price potty to put in her bathroom.  Scarlett does like it and wants to sit on it, but doesn't get the true connection of what it's for.  I bought her a themed book and have read it to her to have her try to get the association of the book and the potty, but we're not there yet.  I know she's still young, but I'd love to have her be out of diapers in the next coming months.  I'll try harder to work on getting her to understand what the potty is for.  In the meantime, it's a positive thing that she's seen it for awhile in her bathroom and has accepted it!

I'll update you all again in 3 months, when she's 24 months!