Dear Leap 10,
Thank you for coming, and thank you for leaving! During your presence my daughter experienced real tantrums.
Screaming, flailing, biting, fists tight and arms shaking tantrums. And they are lengthy, too! For “no” reason. Obviously not to her…. her world was ending in the moment.
These tantrums were due to two things:
- – Communication issues, or
- – Mama said “no”
I thought we’d seen tantrums prior to this leap, but those were mini previews of the full blown tantrums to come. These tantrums have settled down slightly since leap 10 has finished.
The developmental leaps during leap 10 were simply amazing, however. My daughter woke up one morning and knew how to put puzzles together.
Just in the last week she is really starting to experiment with her sounds and feel comfortable enough to say things out loud.
She woke up this morning and said “Bobby”- the name of one of her favorite stuffed animals.
With fairly minimal work, she’s been able to learn and identify 15 uppercase letters! She has made great strides with potty training, and I now consider her to be poop trained. We will be doing pee training soon! She has become a pro at communicating through body language.
See our realistic potty training method that worked so well here: Potty Training in 10 Easy Steps
She turns her hand to signal “on” and “off”. She motions to come. She’s learning to “come” when called.
She now goes down the stairs correctly (on her belly) when asked. She is close to being able to climb out of her crib and, if she was 1 inch taller, she’d be opening doors.
Thank goodness she isn’t actually doing either yet! She is also super close to getting air under those feet when she “jumps”, and has done two full somersaults on her own!
“Words” she uses:
Get this wonderful Melissa and Doug alphabet puzzle at this link.
- Mama
- Dada
- Nana
- Meeeeh for “moose” (our dog)
- Duh Duh for down
- Ma for more
- Ni Ni for “night night”
- Ha for “hot”
- Nana for “banana”
- Guh for “gone”
- Ga Ga for “got it”
- Uck for “duck” and “stuck”
- Xxx for “excuse me”
- Moo for “moo”
- She also barks, says neigh, hisses for a sneak, and tries to quack for
- duck!
- Bobby
- Bpuh for “up” I swear she makes a b and p sound all together haha
- whispers “backpack”
- Ma for “map”
- Memo for “elmo”
Obviously, these aren’t all official words. I’m also sure I’m forgetting some things she says that I’ll need to go back and add to the ever growing list.
She is sticking with saying the first parts of words for now. Just this morning she said Bobby in full, however! She had never even tried to say Bobby before! She is starting to feel more comfortable, so I have a feeling the endings are coming soon!
Signs she uses
- All done (specifically taught to her)
- Come (followed mamas hand signals)- puts arm out and pulls it in towards her
- On and off (made up her own) – twists her hand/wrist in an on/off
- motion
- Thirsty/hungry (made up her own) – puts her hand to/in her mouth
She understands the concept of “ow”. She gets hurt, and we can say “Ow!”, “Where does it hurt?”, or “Where’s your owie?”.
She’ll point to the part of her body that hurts. She even points to her mouth to tell me if her teeth/gums hurt. I also swear she understands that if she’s hurting, she should take Tylenol!
I ask her if she wants Tylenol and she says yes when I know she’s having bad teething pain. She also says no and refuses it on occasion, though- so I know she’s not just excited for a treat! haha
Caroline is really becoming such an awesome person. This leap brought many changes. While there are “no more registered leaps” according to the Wonder Weeks app, she obviously has many more developmental leaps to come.
I can’t believe she’s finished all 10 already, however. I remember when she was in her first leaps, I thought the day would never come that we got all the way through this chart! I am excited to see the developments that are still to come.
Caroline is such an intelligent young girl, and is already so thoughtful and sweet. I know her intelligence and kindness will only blossom from here.