Mali at 21 Months: Well Documented

Mali at 21 Months: Well Documented




Originally uploaded by Squid Rosenberg.

I love her, but this is a funny-looking kid.

Our 21-month old girl is darling during the day, and maddening after 9 PM. If she has any kind of nap during the day, then she stays up until midnight. Skipping the nap works, and makes her go right to sleep at 8:30 PM, but that also means she can't be in the car after 11 AM, because she will drop off and even 10 minutes of napping will flip her reset switch, and then everyone's going to be attending a Mali Party until the wee hours.

Thankfully, she is still a delight. Her language has hit an explosion period not done justice by my haphazard recording skills. Here's a selection:

• Thank You, Mama!
• Good Morning, Marianne. (Or whomever. She remembers everyone).
• Mali eat! Mali up! Mali All done!
• Nurse more? Nurse again? Nursing all done! (Yes, I agree. Need to figure out a transition strategy.)
• Mali want!
• Want to watch Maisy, Mama.
• Where's Izzy? There's Izzy!
• Kiss? Kiss goodnight! Kiss goodnight, Izzy. Kiss goodnight, Leelo.

She also snuggles up into the hollow of my neck and then declares, "I love you, Mama!"

She enjoys declaring to the air around her that "M-A-L-I spells Mali!" Especially if she sees her name.

I've overheard a number of very long conversations with herself that I'm sure would be fascinating if I could interpret them.

We are also having lots of gleeful chases with much joyful squealing and squawking (on her part).

Last Monday I took all three kids to the zoo as Therapist L does Leelo's afternoons and she was on vacation for a month. Mali was totally gobsmacked upon finding out that giraffes and zebras are real. The entire afternoon was peppered with variations on "Hi Giraffe! Hi Zebra! How's it going?"

A very fun kid. But she doesn't need much sleep and we need to strategize how to prevent her energy from totally depleting ours.

Interesting to consider that she is two weeks younger than Izzy was when Leelo was born. I remember having so much fun with Iz, and also desperately wishing she would go to sleep early and on her own, at this stage.

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If nothing else, this blog has proved useful for the MYND Institute folks. They asked me to list Mali's milestones for their Infant Siblings of Autistics study, and by going through my archives (yawn) I was able to pinpoint most of her deeds. As far as I can tell, she is Totally Normal. But I'm sure they'll let me know if I'm deluding myself:

1) Smiled - 5 weeks
2) Laughed - 3 months*
3) Said Da Da - 7 months*
4) Said Ma Ma - 6 months
5) Waved bye-bye - 8 months
6) Said her first word - 6 months
7) Grasped objects - 11 weeks
8) Rolled over - 5 months
9) Sat by self - 5 months
10) Crawled - 9 months
11) Pulled self up - 8 months
12) Stood by self - 9 months
13) Took a step - 13 months
14) Walked by self - 14 months
15) Held own bottle - n/a
16) Held own cup - 7 months*
17) Drank from cup - 5 months
18) Fed self - 5 months
19) Slept through the night - Birth!!!
20) 1st tooth - 6 months
21) Points - 9 months
22) Claps - 7 months (playing patty cake)
23) responds to name - 7.5 months, possibly earlier (at 7.5 months she stopped what she was doing and looked around when her name was called.)
24) Understands "no" - Did not record. Said "no" at 13 months.

*Don't remember, didn't record, had to ask Seymour

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