Walking with Makiya

It’s been awhile since I wrote about baby girl. Makiya is now 20 months, and I can’t even believe it! She is just an amazing little creature, and it makes my heart swell as I watch her grow. She is so very smart, sweet and funny!

While of course I know EACH and EVERY parent at some point has the opinion that THEIR child is of course the next Albert Einstein, or whomever, I am not alone in this view of my own daughter! We are constantly hearing voices of surprise at the things she has learned. Makiya surprises US sometimes, showing us something that seems to have come out of thin air! She has somehow associated ear wax with bees, so if I mention that she has some wax in her ear, she will start to buzz like a bee!

She has the most tender of hearts. While it has (and still can be!) been a bit of a process with teaching her to show compassion instead of laughing when someone cries, we witnessed her run to her crying cousin to give her a hug! If she thinks I am upset or angry, she looks at me with those big eyes, and asks “appee?”

A sense of humour. This child absolutely has one! She KNOWS funny. She shows us a funny face, she knows what IS funny. She understands lines in her books, “he drives me crazy” (part of a line from I’ll Love You Forever-Robert Munsch) makes her give a little laugh! She plays these little games with us that reduce her to that absolutely adorable belly laugh. Makiya loves to squeeze her eyes shut as tight as she can, and she will perform; be it “jumping”, walking backwards, pretending to not listen to instructions, etc. You can see, she honestly thinks she is hilarious!

It was like she heard me speak as she slept a few nights ago. Dad and I were talking about how, still, she just has no real interest in any of her 5 baby dolls. Makiya is certainly more of a book, puzzle, animal and nature, outdoorsy, getting dirty playing kind of girl. The very next day, she took to one of her “bee-bees” (she CAN say baby, she just doesn’t!)!! It is very rapidly growing into a new favorite. She keeps a big plastic cup, a spoon, 2 bowls and her green, plastic grapes on hand (in addition to her tea set with cake), and is constantly stirring and feeding her little “beebee”. She picks that doll up, puts it on her shoulder and pats its back, she holds it in her arms and caresses its little baby face. We emptied one of her little toy baskets so she could use it for a crib for the baby. She so carefully covers up the baby, pats her and says “bu-aye”!

I could be wrong, but I am convinced that we missed our golden opportunity for potty training with Makiya. She was telling us when she was going “tinkle” and we could always tell when that morning “poo poo” was coming! Between Summertime fun and company, I knew it was time to get on it, but time got away from me. A while back we got the potty, intending to get on with the plan, but we didn’t get the rest of the supplies. She would move her new potty around, sit on it, say “tinko, tinko” and even insists on having the wipes to wipe her still clothed bottom! Last Monday was the BIG day. Training pants, big girl panties, bare bum and a potty she liked… Well, let me say that she peed on our floor more times that day than I regularly change her diapers! It was unbelievable! I was on top of it, asking her if it was time, telling her it was time to sit on the potty, and all I got was SCREAMS, running and 5 minutes later when my back was turned, no warning, no telling, PEE ON THE FLOOR!! (I was lucky enough that morning to have it timed right, and she was in training pants for Number 2!!) After 2 days of that, we switched, temporarily, to training pants only. She just has no interest anymore!

A couple of other tidbits for this week:

-I realize NOW, that this one came from me, but, she will now answer to instructions with “Uh…No.”

-eating vegetable soup on her own like a BIG girl…oh so very adorable…she takes a bite, “aaahhh”!!

- we were going through her Flash Cards, she started mimicking the one with a boy on it pointing right! She uses her right hand, gets into her silly walk and points her way through the house!

- I had turned Oprah’s Season Opener on Monday, it only took a few minutes and Makiya is now saying “Opah”!

-She is beginning to want to sit in the dining chairs instead of her high chair! It was only a short time ago she began to show us that she can now climb into her own high chair!

She shows us so many new little things each and every day. If all of that wasn’t enough; the precious look of pride and joy on her face when she gets something new, she beams, claps her hands and says “I di-ih”!

What an incredible journey that I get to walk everyday!