A couple weeks ago most Lorelei sentences were two words, and her favorite was “Lorelei self”. She wants to put on her clothes, get & eat her food, etc. She’s her boss. She also thinks she’s my boss. “Mama up” and “mama stop” are phrases she now employs regularly. I’m not a fan of being told I’m not allowed to sit, or make coffee, or whatever it is, but I am excited by her independence and not surprised she’s bossy. Unfortunately Moriarty also thinks he’s her boss, and there’s a lot of drama stemming from that. The most frequent phrase I’ve employed the past month is “you’re not in charge of her body” which often leads to Moriarty throwing a dramatic tantrum and throwing everyone’s plans/needs off. We’re working hard on helping him practice calming down, redirecting, etc but things aren’t really improving yet. The hardest for me is seeing his tantrum/control behaviors coming out in her. She makes the same faces, same motions, and I know it’s to be expected but it’s infuriating.
Lorelei has made some big strides in the last month. She is officially potty trained, and the only accidents are rare and outside. She gets distracted playing and even though we bring out a little potty she sometimes doesn’t make it. Otherwise, she’s doing amazingly well. We got her adorable little underwear including some boy shorts! (from a specialty online shop because as a small 21 month old nothing on Amazon fit). She’s also stringing more words together. Yesterday she told me to “come this way”. OMG. She’s also started using the balance board and learning to use Moriarty’s stilts. She gets the concept of raising her hand with her foot, but not how far or hard she has to raise the stilt. I’m blown away. She likes to twirl in circles in the kitchen until she’s dizzy like a whirling dervish. It’s a game of hers. She loves to play tea set but hasn’t figured out that she should stop before the cup is overflowing! Lastly, while we were playing with colored blocks from a board game and putting them away, she would intentionally put the blocks in the wrong color bin and watch my reaction. She’s trolling me. She’s got a lot of Pip in her!
Moriarty’s big changes are in building and hacking. He and Pip are playing Minecraft most days, and Moriarty can play alone, build things, explore, and be creative. He and Pip are also taking a class from a youtube maker we like. It’s based around 3 ‘builds’ where they brainstorm ideas, research ideas, narrow down, and prototype them. So far Moriarty has made a snack lanyard. You hang it around your neck and it keeps your snacks from falling on the ground while you’re outside or in the car. The adults taking this class are making more complicated things but our goal was for Moriarty to get a foundation in the process and be proud of creating his ideas. It’s incredible to watch. He’s reading more and getting more comfortable with self correction.
Aside from Moriarty’s frequent tantrums and refusing to give Lorelei space, he can also be incredibly sweet to her. He helps if she needs the potty and Pip and I are in other rooms and didn’t hear her. He invents games for them to play and can be so gentle and kind. It makes me confused, but also grateful that he clearly adores her and wants to help her.
And, to bury the lede, we have CHICKENS!!! We have 5, all different breeds. Some lay blue and green eggs. We’ve named 4 so far: Lady Godiva, EnderChick, Pot Pie, and Inara. You can tell we let the children participate! They’re growing up so fast, the chickens that is. We’ve been taking them in yard since it got sunny. Too much fun. The first week we had them I caught Lorelei running down the hall with a wet wipe in her hand shouting “CLEAN BIRD”.
Photos here, password “mal”