Pumpkin at Two and a Half

It seems hard to believe but our little Pumpkin will turn 21/2 in mere hours. The past few weeks to a month have shown us such development in her that we continue to be amazed each day.

Around mid-January we entered into what we (thankfully) call our first bad period as Parents. Pumpkin decided, out of the blue between a nap and bedtime, that she no longer needed to sleep at night. More to the point, the crib was not something for her, and putting her in it each night would set off many hours of crying, screaming, door kicking or door banging. So, at day three of trying to let her wail her way into submission (which we've never fully attempted), Pumpkin began to climb out of her crib, which we knew about from the "thud" we would hear as she hit the floor. This led us to dismantle the crib and convert it into a day bed. This took a few days of adjustment and some ongoing sleepless nights and lost tempers, but amazingly she finally slept. I am still in awe of how much she developed in literally a few weeks. She gave up her crib, no longer needs rocked to sleep or a sippy cup full of warm milk and she is sleeping at least nine hours a night without interruption. We've even rearranged her room and that had no impact at all.

For the past 16 months, Mamma and Daddy Pumpkin spent each night tip-toeing through the house while Pumpkin's door was closed and rarely (we can count on one hand) went one night without at least one event where Pumpkin awoke. Now, she sleeps with her door open and the television, phone calls, me working in the next room on the computer....nothing wakes her up! About the only new thing with her at bedtime is that she now (for the first time) loves blankets and her "pullwo" (pillow). She'll sometimes sleep on the sofa at nap time and always drags her pillow and blanket out like a little vagabond, sucking her thumb with the other hand.

Because of the new routine, as soon as the sun goes down and the skies turn darker, Pumpkin will say "no Sun out" which I will then ask, "what does that mean?" Pumpkin responds with, "nite-nite time." (She knows that when the sun is up, the moon is sleeping and so forth). I'm either raising a farmer or lse she may just get used to a solar schedule. She'll still get up and out of bed a few times, but she is generally asleep within 15 minutes and we don't hear a sound until the next morning when she toddles into our room with sleepy eyes and announces: "suns up, time to wake up." If she's had a BM, she also rubs her belly and says, "good for tummy, good for tummy." (I've tried to impress upon her that BM's are normal and necessary...kind of like yelling at the Congress.)

On the subject of communication, Pumpkin is at warp speed. She talks in complete sentences, several at a time, and I'm enjoying immensely the ability to have conversations with her, even if they are silly. Some examples?

Mamma Pumpkin: Daddy is fixing that; you can't help.
Pumpkin: (Pointing to her chest) Baby help? I fix it, too?"
Mamma Pumpkin: How are you going to fix it?
Pumpkin: I get tape (at which point she pretends to unroll tape on an imaginary object.
Mamma Pumpkin: Did you fix it, Pumpkin?
Pumpkin: Yes. All fixed.
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Mamma Pumpkin: Where's the "big smoke?" (Any kind of smoke stack, chimney, fire...these are "big smoke" to Pumpkin.)
Pumpkin: There it is, I see it big smoke. I catch it?
Mamma Pumpkin: No, Pumpkin, it's too high.
Pumpkin: Climb ladder? Catch big smoke?
Mamma PUmpkin: I guess you could climb a ladder and catch big smoke!
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Mamma Pumpkin: No, TT (t.v.), Pumpkin because (whatever her infraction for the day was).
Pumpkin: Pwease....Watch DoraPets (Dora the Explorer or Wonder Pets), Boose Cuse (Blues Clues) or Bahnie (Barney)?
Mamma Pumpkin: No. Go into the living room and play with your toys.
Pumpkin: (After five minutes or so....)Can Daddy watch T.V.?

Today in fact, when she came home from school I asked her if she had a party at school and she exclaimed in all her youthful exuberance, "yes! We had candy, cookies and cake!" She has so many sayings that just floor us it's hard now for me to remember them all! The other day her father was blowing his nose (imagine an elephant running through the jungle in full-on fright mode). Pumpkin cups her fingers to her ears (this is how she "listens") and says, "what's that animal?" When I stopped laughing I told her that was not an animal, that was her Daddy!

Pumpkin has only asked "why" once, but for the past few months everything has been "what's that, what's that one?" She loves it when she does something herself and exclaims, "I did it by self" or "good job." She's doing a lot on her own now. Pumpkin can put on her own pants, shirt, socks and shoes. She feeds herself breakfast and dinner and is mastering drinking out of a non-sippy-cup. (She would do it more if Mamma wasn't so concerned about more stains on the carpet.) This past week, Pumpkin began brushing her own teeth before school and at bedtime. We check to make sure she done an adequate job, but we're also stressing her independence and responsibility.

Our baby girl is virtually potty trained, accept for BM's. For whatever reason, going poop on the pot just isn't something she subscribes to. She goes pee-pee on our toilets, opting not to use the baby potty about two weeks after we got it out. She will go to the bathroom on her own, and wash her hands when done.

Miss Pumpkin knows 1-10 and about 90% of 10-20 and can even count to five in Spanish (along with Gracious, or as she says "Gra-sus"). She can identify 10 colors and is beginning to recognize the lower case alphabet. She even knows words like volcano, sink, float, faster, coming, this or that way, fast or slow, crocodile, beetle, Macaw, junkle (juggle), open and close, big and small....am I boring you other parents, yet?

We still have a burgeoning basketball star in our midst, or so we think. Pumpkin still weighs 36 pounds, but she is now 39 inches tall. She has all but her 3 year molars and finally we've got enough length in her hair to pull it into a pony tail. (She calls them piggy tails.)

Pumpkin can freely sing (and often does) Old McDonald, Twinkle-Twinkle, Do Your Ears Hang Low, The Wonder Pets Theme, Patty-Cake, Patty-Cake, the chorus of I'll Miss You by the Beatles, and Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone. She knows how to play Red Rover, Red Rover and often enlists Mamma and Daddy in that one!

In short, our Pumpkin is clearly the most special child we or any one else could have wished for. She is funny, musical, precocious, strong-willed, meticulous, silly, curious, affectionate, fearless and most importantly, ours. Even though there are days when it seems like all I want to do is swat her padded behind for flat-out ignoring me, more often than not, I find myself laughing with her and at her. Her expressions, facial and verbal, are hysterical.

I am so very blessed to have this little child as my own and I try every night to pray that God watches over her and lets her have this miracle for all the days of our lives. She brings such joy to our home that the life we had before is growing more and more of an un-missed memory. Each new day brings a new level of growth that just amazes and astounds me.

Happy 2 1/2 birthday, Pumpkin! Mamma and Daddy sure do love you!