Athena Updates

At almost 18 months, Athena's personality is in full bloom.  Like her big sister, she is a TALKER....  Her own narratives usually involve lists of the people who are near and dear to her, from her immediated (human and animal) family ("Mamie"/"Mimi", "Mommy," "Daddy," "Widey", "Bails"), to her extended family ("Mia, "Ma-ee" (Maggie), "Ah'chen" (Aunt Jen), "Nana," among others.)  My phone has photo icons for my frequent contacts, and when she glimpses my homescreen she calls out "Papa!" and "Ahya!"  Interestingly, we've only gotten her to say her own name ("Tina" or "Ah-tina") a few times.  She does seem to refer to herself as "me" occasionally, and has already started using "MY"/"Mine" a fair amount (along with "No"... terrible twos here we come!), but most of her naming exercises seem other-focused at the moment.

Athena's favorite response to any question is "Yeah!"  Her "Yeah" is quite versatile, actually, and conveys a wide range of emotions in different contexts:

Mom: "Athena, did you fall down?"
Athena (sadly): "Yeah."

Dad: "Athena, are you ready to go?"
Athena (running to the door): "Yeah!! Doe!"

The "Yeah" is also fairly indiscriminate, and Mazie was having fun in the car today: "Athena, do you see a hedgehog? Athena, do you see that car seat out there in the field?  Athena, do you see that lion?"  To each of which Athena confidently and enthusiastically affirmed, "Yeah!"

She also seems to listen well and surprises me with how well she gets what's going on around her.  Recently Mazie was doing the "Knock Knock!/ Who's there?/Banana/Banana who? (repeat several times) Knock knock!/Who's there?/ Orange!/ Orange who?/Orange you glad I didn't say banana?!" routine when Athena chimed in with her own fruit-themed joke: "Knock knock... Apple!!"  Tonight in bed I told her the Three Little Pigs story.  A few minutes later I heard her blowing out loudly and saying, "House!" over and over.

She has her own little ideas and an apparent sense of humor.  On walks these days she mostly wants to walk by herself rather than riding in the stroller or being carried.  On our way back from Main Street the other night she was walking along, and then suddenly stopped and said, "'Pin!" and did a little spin, laughing to herself before continuing to walk along and then repeating every 10 feet or so.

As she's transitioning from baby to kid, she and Mazie are having more and more fun playing together.  Mazie continues to be a super sweet and caring big sister... here she is recently guiding her little sister through a pretty intense indoor playground.  Watching this, I loved how bold Athena was, eagerly climbing right in and holding her own amongst the big kids, and also how helpful and protective Mazie was, pushing, pulling, and boosting her sister up each step and holding her down the slide.  They are quite the pair.



Another random tidbit: Every night when I nurse her before bed (yes, we're still nursing... more on that in a moment) I read blogs, check email, or read books on my phone.  She has gotten used to this routine, and now when it's time for bed and we're getting ready, she'll ask, "Wone?" and make sure I have my phone with me.  The other night when I got home from work this caused a bit of a problem.  My phone was dead, so I plugged it in to charge and then sat in a chair across the room from the phone.  Athena came over and asked for milk (an emphatic "MUH!"), but then was very troubled that I didn't have my phone with me and went over to get it for me.  It took a bit of convincing to get her to leave it where it was and agree to just come over and have her muh without the wone.

Overall, she continues to be a cheery, social, and dreamy baby in every way but one:  night sleeping.  She naps pretty well (not long -- 1 hr or so -- but fairly consistent and easy to put down), but she still wakes up all. night. long. to nurse.  I've tried to break her of this habit a few times, but inevitably the screaming fits make me break down and decide it's easy to just give her what she wants so we can all go back to sleep than to keep up the fight.  So I've been kicking the can down the road... but someone just put up a road block.  On March 1, I'll be going back to Africa (Ghana) for work for the first time since Mazie was born.  It's only a week long trip, and we'd been figuring that my absence would force the weaning issue.  But then a couple of weeks ago I went in to get up to date on my immunizations, and they told me they couldn't give me the few but essential shots I need while I'm still nursing.  So I made an appointment for Feb 15, just about as late as possible to still ensure that the shots will be effective by the time I travel.  So one way or another, the nursing and (hopefully, eventually...) the night wakings are on their final countdown.  Wish us luck!