If anyone had tried to tell me 2 years ago that my second child would be so absolutely different from my first child, I would have laughed. Really, they are just kids. Babies. How different can an infant/toddler/young child be? Sure, when they get older, when they are teenagers, there will be differences, but when they are young? No different. That's just crazy talk!
Then Kyra joined our family. And I learned just how different 2 kids can be.
Blaine was a difficult baby. Not colicky difficult. More like "oh my God why won't he sleep and why does he eat all the time" difficult. He wasn't unhappy - he was a happy, happy baby. He was just always hungry and never sleepy (or so it seemed). Kyra was the exact opposite. From the moment she was born she was a good sleeper. By the time she was 3 or 4 months old, she would only get up once a night. By 6 or 7 months, she slept through the night (unless she was teething). She had her own feeding schedule and she stuck to it. So easy. I felt like I had paid my dues with Blaine and was rewarded for my sacrifices with Kyra.
Blaine walked at 10 months - never crawled. He fell quite often and usually was sporting road rash on his face or knees. But, he never got into stuff. Well, not much anyway - and usually only if it was completely accessible - right in front of him begging him to mess with it. He didn't climb nor did he open every cabinet, closet or door he could. I never needed baby gates with him. Kyra is the exact opposite. She didn't walk until she was 1, but from the moment she could move, she has climbed. And climbed. But she's so careful that she rarely falls. Oh, and does she ever get into things. Childproofing has reached a whole new level in our home since Kyra has been able to move.
But man, I would not trade her for the world. She is awesome. I am so lucky to be her mom. She's sweet and funny and she laughs and laughs and loves and just makes my world a better place every single day. She loves to say hello to everyone she sees - waving furiously and repeating "hewooo" until the person she is waving at waves back. She loves to say "buhbuh" and wave again before moving on to the next person she wants to say "hewooo" too.
She doesn't talk much. We had a preliminary speech evaluation done with her, since she is 19 months old and likes to scream and point as her primary means of communication. Her hearing is fine. Her receptive language is top-notch. Her expressive language? Not so great. She babbles a lot but she doesn't have many words. We have gone back to basics and we are teaching her sign language. She's picking it up quickly - please, eat, more - and man it's making our life so much easier. The screaming is less because, without words, she can tell us what she wants. Hopefully in the next few months her language will improve, but if not, we will have a full speech evaluation done and start therapy.
The most important person in her life is her brother. Her dad and I are in the top 5, but I don't know that we will ever replace Blaine - "Ba" - as the center of her universe. She does what he does, loves what he loves, and wants to be with him all the time. The first day he rode the bus to school she cried and cried because she wanted to go too. But when he got home, she looked like this:
She's perfected the Blaine Cheese Face. And I love it. And I love her.
3 comments:
Your children are so beautiful. How perfect that you are "representing" the US with total poster children! LOL
My daughter didn't talk much at that age either, and it got to the point when she was 2 that "speech delay" was mentioned. She was about to start full time daycare, so I told the doc I wanted to wait and see what happened once she interacted with a whole mess of kids her age.
It seemed to work. She's still not what I'd call advanced, but she's totally talking up a storm.
She is gorgeous and so is your post. I feel the same way. I wouldn't trade my hyperactice, stubborn, daredevil, babbling blonde haired angel for anything in the world.
I might be in a different boat because my son is being raised trilingual, but I don't think it is by any means odd that your 19 month old is not really talking yet. My son is 17 months old and says Mama, Baba and nonononono, and the doctor thinks that is fine. He told me that he might take his time til he is 3 and then just start with sentences. He points a lot and rambles on and on in his own language. But he is too busy climbing and doing a lot of the things your daughter seems to be doing to worry about identifying animals in books or body parts.
Sign language is a great idea, though. A friend of mine has twins and told me that this worked great for them and that, even now that they are over 3 years old and good talkers, she is able to give them friendly sign reminders when they are in public and forget things like please and thank you.
-Sally
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