Toddler Behavior

Well, it's official. Savannah is a toddler!! I still call her Baby Savannah, though, and probably will until she's married with babies of her own. Actually, I'll probably still call her my baby even then! There's no denying we've moved into toddlerhood, though. Savannah has been exhibiting LOTS of toddler behavior. Unfortunately, while some of that behavior is good, so much of it is naughty!! I find myself praying for patience a lot more these days! (No joke!) Here are some of the new behaviors we are experiencing:

- Never, ever, ever sitting still. Like never. She's always on the go! Sometimes she just walks from one end of the house to the other over and over again!

- Starting to becoming a picky eater. This one breaks my heart, as she's been such a good, healthy eater up until recently. She still does pretty well with her vegetables and fruits, so I guess it's not too bad. But she has recently been throwing fish and eggs on the floor, doesn't want beef, and resists anything that requires me to spoon feed her. Also, if there is any type of carb on her tray (pasta, toast, crackers) she will gobble that up first, refusing to eat anything else until she's certain she's not getting any more of the yummy carbs!

- Throwing her sippy cup. All the time. My floor constantly has sticky milk spots on it.

- Flinging herself backwards in the bathtub just for the fun of it. This one is dangerous, and I'm not sure what to do about it!

- Starting to resist naps. I thought maybe she was napping too much and needed to cut down to one nap a day, so we tried it for a few days and it did not go well at all! I think most of the time she still needs two naps.

- Starting to whine/throw tantrums when she's taken away from something, redirected, or made to do something she doesn't want to do. She doesn't seem to really get it if we try to explain to her why that is naughty, so we mostly say something simple like, "No, we don't do that" and then just ignore the negative behavior.

- She'll let us know if she wants us to play with her by taking our hands and leading us over to a toy. Then she puts our hand on the toy she wants us to play with and looks at us like "Okay, let's play." It's pretty cute.

- She's getting more words and is also imitating more sounds. Her language has really exploded in the past month. The words she has been using are: Mama, Mommy, Dada, Nana, No, Yeah, Hi, Yuck, Duck, Yum, Hug, Up, All Done. She also loves to say "Hot" and "Hop" but doesn't use them correctly. Matt also claims that she said Banana (which I actually did hear myself once afer that) and one time I could've sworn she said "Thanks a lot!"

- When she eats something tasty she will rub her tummy and say "Mmm!"

- She'll wag her finger at me while saying, "No, no, no!"

- She now signs milk, more, and all done.

- She's growing some hair! It's just the scantest amount of fuzz, but it's more than she used to have!

- I've saved the cutest thing for last: She's taken to holding her baby doll close and rocking back and forth while saying "Awwwww." Then she'll pat the baby on the back. She also does this with some other random objects: stuffed animals, her lovies, her sippy cup, and, my personal favorite, her paci!

In summary, she's keeping me on my toes! I thought the sleep deprived newborn days were hard, but these days are almost harder in a different kind of way. I am feeling the weighty responsibility of being the one who needs to teach Savannah right and wrong and do the best I can to bring her up to be a Godly young lady. It's a tough calling! Thank goodness I don't have to do it on my own! I'm constantly being brought to prayer again and again as I seek to model the character qualities I want to instill in her, like patience, peace, humility, and so many others!