Okay, so we’re 2 days late this month. We’ve done worse.

Speaking of doing worse… I haven’t kept up with updates on Grammy’s milestones. They happen so quickly these days, I forget to note them. So here’s the list, and forgive me if I’ve already posted some of them (I will forever be amazed by her accomplishments. That and I have mom-brain damage.)

• Graem can point to her ear, her belly, and her feet. She momentarily used to know other parts of her face, but now only points to her ear. So that’s all we ask her to point to!

• We recently taught Grammy a sign (not the official ASL one) for “help”–tapping both palms to her chest–in an attempt to reduce some of her whining. It seems to have helped, but apparently Grammy has been abusing it: At Tot Spot the other day, she decided that one of the padded mats (about 2″ thick) was a step, and figured that she needed Shawna’s help to get down!

• Graem has learned to sing her own praises: We clap every time she has an achievement, whether it be saying a new word, sitting on the potty, or pointing to a body part. So now she claps before we do, and smiles a huge grin! Then we clap, and she starts clapping again. We spent the better part of a Saturday night repeating this clap-fest.

• Graem learned how to throw her big purple ball. She also seems to be emulating Monica Seles with her squealing and grunting whenever she comes near the ball.

• In our attempts to prepare Grammy for potty training, we’ve been encouraging her to join us in the bathroom at opportune moments (gross, I know–who ever thought that potty time would be such an event). We then explain to her what’s in there, tell her to say “Bye bye,” and let her flush the toilet. She seems intrigued, which could be a good sign.

• Somewhat related to the above is Graem’s love for her potty. She will carry it around the house, and then try to sit in it. She basically drops it on the floor, and then backs her little booty up to it, looking back and trying to aim the entire way. Sometimes she misses and sits on it sideways.

• Graem is also figuring out how to climb down the stairs. She insists in going down facing forward, rather than the convential crawl-backwards method. She basically sits on a step, then scoots her butt down to the lower step. Enough to make me a nervous wreck! She squeals every time her butt hits the step, and giggles. Occasionally she’ll just sign for ‘help’ and decide she doesn’t want to go down by herself
• Furniture base-jumping! I’ve only seen this once, but it was hilarious. There was a pile of pillows and blankets on the floor, which was fortuitous as Graem decided it would be fun to jump off one of the chairs. She worked so hard to repeatedly climb up on the chair, and then slowly ease off the edge and fall forward into the pile of blankets. Naturally the time she decided to take on this new sport was right before bedtime, which made for an interesting transition into the crib.