Katya's latest behavior

By measure of how many time outs Katya is getting these days, we are officially into what I would call "the terrible two's." She is hitting, which results in multiple time outs a day; one day had 7 in one hour. She mainly hits me (I am always there to take out her frustration on) but has hit her dad a few times. It started when she would get frustrated she would hit me. Then she was doing it over and over again, seemingly to see what I was going to do about it. At Grandma's house she was hitting me when she wanted my attention. It is hard because when she gets a time out she does get my attention, albeit negative. She is definitely not happy when I put her in her crib or pack and play for a minute but she likes that I have to take the time to carry her to her bed. It is a game for her even though I am very stern with my "no hitting" and consistent with her time outs. Now she comes up to me randomly through out the day and says "no" and hits me. She smiles when I say "no hitting mommy" and usually does it again. Sigh. The best I can do is be patient and consistent and wait for her to get over this stage. She also gets time outs for playing in the dog's water or food bowls and occasionally for hitting the dogs. Of course it is fact that kids this age do not have impulse control so you could say that she really can't help herself but that does not mean she should not be taught what is right and wrong.

Her two favorite words lately are "no" and "down." Her "down" is so cute in this funny little voice. She constantly wants down. Down from being held, from her changing table, car seat, crib, high chair and more. Just the last few days she has been saying "down mom." I love it! She "talks" all day long, some words and lots of babble. I think her language skills are quite good and she learns new things all the time. Even though she wants down a ton she is asking to be held more than she use to. She climbs into my lap when I read to her but rarely stays longer than 60 seconds. She also runs up to me and grabs my legs.

A few days ago Katya started doing what we call "the Katya jig." She stays in basically one place and moves her feet quickly. We think it is so cute and laugh at her which of course encourages it. She thinks it is fun to put on her or my beanie and walk around. She also like our headlamps, turned on, in a dark room. She likes to pull her shirt over her face and walk around, often running into things and sometimes crying. She is ALWAYS wanting to be outside and goes up to the front door and whines.

She is consistently telling me when she needs her diaper changed. She signs change diaper and 9 out of 10 times she has pooped. We think she is really becoming aware of her elimination because sometimes she signs it when we assume she is peeing. She signed change diaper in the bath tub yesterday and grabbed at her girl parts so I am sure she was peeing. She will also sign it while she is pooping with a funny look on her face. This is really exciting because they say it is the first step toward potty training. She is still so little so we will wait a while to start trying to take her to a potty but we encourage her telling us about it. I learned the sign for "potty" so I can tell her that she is going potty.

Her sleep is still great. 12+ hours at night and one 1-2hr nap during the day. She is slowly getting use to sleeping with a blanket which is good because some nights are cold. She moves around SO much in her sleep that it is hard to keep the blanket on her but she does not immediately try to kick it off when I put it around her anymore.

I guess that is all the news with our sweet girl!