Punky Longstocking

The doctor's office... perhaps the only place that a toddler can get away with wearing white corduroys.

Scarlett had her 18 month check-up today (even though she's 19.5 months old) and she is doing great! My super tall girl, who remains in the 90th percentile for height, is now at 34" and quickly catching up to her mama! She's gained ten ounces since January, bringing her to 25.13oz, and is now in the 80th percentile for weight. That's the stats!

As far as skills, she's doing really well in most areas. I think we need to work on meal-time junk. I tend to hold her back a bit when it comes to drinking from a cup (without a straw or spout). She does great - as long as I'm holding onto the cup. I'm sort of afraid to let it go completely because I don't want to clean milk out of the curtains. BUT I am slowly letting go more and more. She's also a little lazy when it comes to using utensils. She CAN do it, but it's easier to hold the fork in her right hand and shovel food into her mouth with her left. She's shown improvement over the past couple of weeks and I'm trying to enforce it as much as possible. Along with her "please"s and "excuse me"s. She's coming around.

Scarlett can count to ten - sometimes perfectly, sometimes out of order. Today she counted my fingers by grabbing one hand and saying, "1,2,3,4,5" and then the other hand saying, "6,7,8,9,10". I was impressed by that.

She knows some shapes: circle, triangle, rectangle, square, diamond, heart, star and oval mostly.

She doesn't really know her colors - sometimes she picks the right ones out of her crayons but I think a lot of times it's coincidence.

She still loves music at meal times and in the car and her current favorite television show is Super Why. Recently she's been able to recognize the letters M, O, B, I and P. Off to a good start!

We went to the aquarium and zoo on Gregg's vacation and she wasn't impressed by the fish or animals. She had the most fun running around the playground getting soaked in the water-play area.

We bought her a sandbox this weekend (in which I liberally sprinkled cinnamon because I read that it keeps bugs away) and she loves dumping that sand everywhere.

I've been taking her to the beach in the mornings on nice, sunny days and she loves playing on the shore. Yesterday she bolted into the water, shocking the crap out of me. Thankfully I was right next to her - holding her hand until she briskly let go. She fell to her knees in the cold water almost immediately. She was a bit stunned but was ready to keep playing. I was kinda pissed because I thought I was prepared for anything yet didn't have a towel or change of clothes. Scarlett- 1, Mama- zip. We managed to dry her off with a sheet and salvaged the trip with a slide and swing at the playground.

She's a roughneck. For sure. She's bold. She's not shy. She falls down and gets up saying, "ok" over and over. Definitely not a delicate flower.

One thing that is pretty adorable: She gets behind my father's motorized wheelchair and thinks she is pushing him from room to room (while he uses the controls). She even makes the grunting noises like it's soooo hard!

Scarlett continues to be the light of my life. I post a tiring amount of her photos on Facebook but I want my friends and family to know that the little faces she makes, the sweet smiles and smirks - they are so accurate in depicting her personality. She's such a little maniac. She's a dash of Pippi Longstocking, a heap of Punky Brewster and a pinch of Dennis the Menace. She's our sweet Scarlett June... and she's growing up too fast!



 

A Paper Chatterbox

 I am linking up with The Lightning and the Lightning Bug for the

Flicker of Inspiration Prompt #46: The Way We Were

"Tell us about you. Write an old photograph in text form, where we can say,

"Oh! Gosh, it hardly looks like the person I know, and yet still so recognizable!" 

Tell us about the you that was and, in many ways, still is."

That's me. Little Sheri. Little Casual Sheri, circa 1980. Hands in the pockets of a favorite pair of jeans. Or maybe it was Mom's favorite pair of jeans for me. Hair playfully pulled back into what could be called horse-tails rather than pig or ponytails given the thickness of it. A big grin that was no doubt due to a special lunch of Ramen noodles and "red" Kool Aid followed by some Sesame Street on the television. It was the little things that made me happy. 

It still is. 

I am still very much this little girl. In my everyday jeans, with my notoriously thick hair and a playful spirit. Still finding it hard to take most things seriously. Still smiling when I have my favorite meal, though the menu has changed quite a bit. And still making you listen.

Little Sheri was a beloved and creative chatterbox. I say beloved in a semi-sarcastic tone. I am quite sure I annoyed more than a few souls with my endless tales including greats like, "Baby Beth Took the Chocolate Chip Cookie." I was always making up stories. My mind was a colorful dreamland of characters and scenarios. I was probably three or four years old in this picture, right around the time that I introduced my family to my imaginary friends, Noonie and Bernantha. Noonie lived behind the television and refused to put a coat on when he went out to get his mail from the mailbox. Bernantha had very long hair (probably due to my fascination with Crystal Gayle at the time) and that's all I remember about her. I didn't sit and have pretend tea with these characters - I was too busy creating a world for them to exist in. I loved my world. I loved rainbows and music and story time at the library. I lived without fear and I loved my home.

I remain a storyteller, though most of my material has changed. I'm no longer tugging at the hem of your shirt, bending your ear with tall tales about dolls until you ask me to kindly go take my nap. Instead, I pour my overflowing nonsense into my blog or facebook statuses or tweets. I may not be speaking about Noonie's afternoon stroll but most likely writing about some mundane trip to WalMart or why I intend to clothesline my neighbor's prick son. To keep my silly "Little Sheri" side fresh and satisfied I write children's books. Sure, they  haven't been published yet but it doesn't stop me from sending them out over and over again. I am a mental chatterbox to the core. Rhymes and sentences pop into my head and I just have to write them down until I know where they're supposed to go. And I always find a home for them. I only wish I could have written down the stories I harbored when I was three.

Thirty two years may have passed but I'm still Little Casual Sheri. Still a bit rough around the edges. Still a spitfire. Still a lover of rainbows and music and the home that I've now created for myself. A chatterbox on paper, making her presence known. Forever in blue jeans - whether the world likes it or not.