Sweet Margaret

Margaret turns 21 months old next week and I have been enjoying this age so much! I don't know how much is the age and how much is her personality: I do recall that Mary by 15 months was purposefully a naughty little sprite, so we had to start discipline (beyond simply redirection) early with her. She was (is) a handful! Margaret remains fairly docile and wants to please me, so I haven't started any discipline with her other than telling her 'no' and sometimes setting her down on her bottom instead of holding her (which causes her to wail).

I enjoy so much the many new developments at this age. Margaret is now "one of the gang" with her siblings. She runs around with them playing instead of remaining at my ankles. Lately I've watched her playing imagination games with them, like playing kitchen in which she "makes hot tea" and "cooks eggs," then serves them to the other children, "eating" the food with appropriate sound effects.

Maybe it is a typical third-child thing, but Margaret does not want to be a baby. She has recently stopped agreeing to using sippy cups, only using a sports bottle if we're out-and-about because the older children are using them too. At home, she insists on the dignity of using a regular, open cup and eschews even delicious drinks if there is a babyish lid on the cup. Increasingly she will not use her booster seat tray either, even though the table is a bit too high for her to eat off of properly. But no one else is using a tray, so why should she? Harumph!

She feeds herself unless the food is something desperately coveted, like ice cream. Also, if you want to see indignation in action, place her food directly on her tray. She will demand, "Bowl! Bowl!" She sees everyone else eat out of bowls like civilized human beings, and she counts herself among us. No longer does Margaret let me wipe her down after eating, but she says, "I sticky! Wash!" She wipes her own face well, but when I have to do a second-swipe of her fingers, she lets me know her protest of the whole affair.

After a quieter start than her siblings, Margaret's language has exploded. I estimate she says about 50 words, and she is speaking in three-word sentences, even up to five words on rare occasion. Margaret has started recognizing some colors (blue, pink, green), which at first I thought was random and incorrect, but now I think is her really figuring out colors. In the above video, she chats only in single words and signs. I find this type of toddler conversation so charming!

She tells toddler jokes, so to speak, you know the kind they find so delightfully hilarious (like that the elephant says 'meow'). I taught her a little trick the other day: she really likes mixed nuts, so each time she asks for "more nut," I have her kiss my cheek as payment, and then she gets one nut. She and I laugh and laugh at the silliness of it (you probably have to be there).

It is interesting for me to experience having a 20-month-old who is a third child instead of a first or even a second. She does so much more independently and I let her do so much more because there are more sets of older eyes around the house keeping an eye on her for several minutes at a time. For example, Margaret likes to draw, so she just goes and gets the paper and markers herself, and I'll find her sitting at the kitchen table coloring happily. Believe me, that wouldn't have happened (nor would I have let it) with #1 or #2 at this age. She wants her book 'Spot'? She just goes upstairs to find it herself and brings it back. She wants a cup of water? She gets a cup from the drawer and fills it herself at the refrigerator.

I know that, God willing, soon enough I should be remembering anew the struggles of having a two-year-old stretching her independent wings and a newborn beside, so lately I've been so much enjoying the ages I have right now. Such sweetness!

Mary (4), Margaret (19 months), John (6), 

and Mama with new baby (32 weeks)--my cup runneth over!