22 Months - or maybe a more clever title

Jocelyn is getting far too old for me to still express her age in months.  But it makes for a good blog update goal. So there you have it :-P.

My little monkey becomes more and more of a person each day.  She has opinions, and she is not afraid to share them!  We recently had Samantha out to visit.  Now, normally Jocelyn is very open to being friends with our guests, especially the female ones.  The first night they both made an effort - Jocelyn expressed interest in Samantha's stuff, and wanted to see what was in her suitcase.  Samantha showed her some of it, and then it was bath / bed time so it was over.  The next morning Jocelyn tried to look through the suitcase again.  This time, her potential buddy Samantha said no.  And when Jocelyn cried, Samantha stood her ground and said, "you'll live."  Now, I don't care that she said no to Jocelyn - having a lesson in respecting people's stuff is good for her.  There are certainly things we don't let Jocelyn play with for a variety of reasons (value, danger, etc.).  But Jocelyn was not quite so forgiving.  From that point on, she expressed zero interest in being friends with Samantha.  I have never seen her turn on somebody so quickly.  And, out of a healthy level of self-awareness, I can't say I'm mystified as to where she gets this trait.

The repeating has grown tremendously.  Just today, I was talking with Donovan and said, "All Right Bugaboo!"  Jocelyn repeated the exact phrase with the same inflection.  The daycare teachers know to be very careful around her because she repeats everything.  The week we spent away was enough of a gap that they were able to see measurable growth in her skills and vocabulary.

In addition to repeating phrases, she is getting really good at learning and repeating her songs.  She quotes partial verses from "The wheels on the bus."  She will bust out things like: 'bus driver move on back,' 'daddy shh shh shh,' and 'mommy i love you.'  It's super cute.  Then Mike told her that the daddies on the bus say "burp burp burp' which she thought was funny.  So now she sings it that way to us.  She's also getting better at Old McDonald.  She says "EIEIO" and then usually also gives the name of an animal.  She usually starts with a typical farm animal (usually pig, cow or chicken), then she might do cat and dog, and eventually Mommy, Daddy and Donovan.  It's funny.  She also sings the 'Clean up' song and the corresponding 'pick up' song.  And some other songs that I don't know.  I guess that they also play Duck Duck Goose (or at least an under-two variation of it) because she often says 'Duck Duck Goose.'  Sidebar - when I made couscous for dinner the other night, and asked her to try it, she said 'duck duck couscous!'  I nearly died!

A few weekends ago Jocelyn was fighting bedtime.  She just refused to go to sleep.  She jumped up and down in her crib, and eventually let out a blood-curdling wail.  That was the sort of sound you don't ignore, so I ran in.  Lo and behold, she got her foot stuck between the crib slats.  So I went to help her.  To this day, she often retells the tale, "Jocelyn foot stuck.  Mommy help."  We tell her, yes, Mommy did help you when your foot was stuck.  It's cute how she loves to retell the story.

Jocelyn loves her new lawnmower.  I am pretty sure I have talked about that before, but now she can sort of say it.  And when I say 'sort of', I really mean sort of.  It takes Mike and I each a few times of hearing it before we understand it.  We usually think she is saying lamb.  Then we think she is saying grandma.  Tonight she wanted to push lamb on the lawnmower, so she said, "Lamb on lawnmower!"  Yeah... that took quite a bit of time before I figured it out.

She has a few other new 'toys'.  She has a table and chairs that she just loves.  Mostly she loves to climb on the chairs, but sometimes we will sit at her little table and color.  She also now has a step stool in her bathroom.  She can climb onto it and wash her hands.  She just loves to wash her hands.  She will often request to do it.  She understands that she is not supposed to climb the step stool without us.  And she also understands that she is not supposed to use the hot water ("no no hot").

So at the end of this month, Jocelyn 'might be able to use prepositions.'  I guess we are ahead of the curve on that one - Jocelyn has been using some prepositions for a while now.  She's been saying 'up' for a while, but that seems pretty common.  She also understands 'on', 'off', 'down', 'outside', 'inside', and a few others that I can't remember.  She also understands driver seat and car seats  

I am drawing a blank on all of the other little stories that I need to capture.  I need to do a better job with this whole blogging thing.  I am WAY behind on baby books, I haven't printed pictures in months, and obviously I don't blog as well as I need to.  I feel like I can't possibly forget these stories, but then when it comes time to type them out they are gone.

One last thing to capture... Jocelyn does great at daycare.  She knows all of her friends' names.  She has some girl friends who she gives hugs to.  She loves her teachers.  She makes crafts that she is super proud of.  But when she sees me at the end of the day, her whole face lights up in this huge smile.  She shakes her hands, as though she can't contain the excitement.  And she runs over to where I am and throws her arms around my neck and gives me a huge hug.  It is totally the highlight of my day.  I don't think that there has ever been anybody in the whole world so excited to see me.  Just thinking about it makes me so happy and warms me down to my belly.  It's pretty amazing.  This is what motherhood is all about.