18 months

It's been a sleep deprived summer. Not exactly as I had planned but probably better now than when I'm actually trying to be productive....
I feel like the little girl who called teeth. The teeth are coming! The teeth are coming!
Dag, with all that drool and sass, I'm sure something was happening but now......
drumroll....
HER MOLARS BROKE THROUGH!!
Thank you Jesus, Mary, Buddha, Krishna, Allah, Mohamed, the Goddess in her many forms......
and Thank you , Easter Bunny!!!
This has been a long time coming. I will be so damn happy when all of her teeth are in.
What will I have to blame her fussiness on then?
Will everything just be sweetness and bliss???
Oh, I can't wait till all those pearly whites are all in a row.
And to think that they all just fall out in a few years after all that hard work.
It AMAZES me that all mothers everywhere go through this teething business.
I hear for some kids that it's no big deal, but as you know, that is not our story.

There is much to report besides teeth, though.
Uma is talking up a storm- babble babble all day long.
She has a play phone conversation down-
"Hi! (giggle giggle fake laugh) babble babble bye bye!"
Very sweet.
She has some less charming phrases down too.
When she wants you to leave her alone so that she can do it herself or whatever,
she'll say "No! Bye!!"
She is a Mockingbird- today she kept saying "purple shoe" even through I don't think she knew what it meant.

Her favorite activities these days are - pushing her baby stroller and playing little mama to her dolls, playing with cars, reading books, drawing, trying to pedal her Big Wheel (very close), dancing, playing her pianos, eating berries, sliding, swinging (on the big swing), and doing everything HERSELF!!

On her 18month checkup, she is at 100 percentile for height and 89 for weight. I was so excited for her to grow for such a long time but now I want her to just be small forever. She looks like a 2 and a half year old. All the other mom's in the park are shocked to find her age.
I know I sound like one of thoooose moms, but she really is quite coordinated and socially aware for her age.
blah blah blah

So, she's advanced and crap but she is also BRUTE!!!!!!
It seriously frightens me to watch her sometimes. She is such a force to be reckoned with.

I'm starting to think God thinks that I'm very capable to handle a child with the spirit of Uma .
She is a tsunami.

At this age too, it's always hard to know whether to step in and help tots solve their problems
or to let them figure out stuff themselves.
She is great playing with kids of all ages- gentle with babies, running around with older kids,
but if she wants something and can't have it......
it's not pretty.
OR if she loves something and then it's gone.....

It seems that kids are such little Buddhas- displaying so clearly the suffering that occurs when we attach to something either positive that causes pleasure or negative that causes discomfort. Both bring the same outcome- suffering!

My little Buddha has gone 3 nights now with no nursing in the night. It has not been exactly easy but it has been very necessary.
This mama here is ready to stop the suffering of sleep deprivation. I really felt like I was on a very thin thread there for a while, going on 2-3 hours of sleep for days on end. This whole last month is a blur of sleepless nights. I understand how it could be used as a form of torture.
The end is in sight thought......
With no nursing at night and a full mouth of teeth (soooooon)),
we should be dreaming some pretty big dreams real soon here.