What happened to my baby?

While we were gone LO changed.  I can't believe that in not seeing her for 10 nights there were so many changes!

For one, she completely switched over from signing "please" to saying it.*  She also started to say "thank you" instead of the "ta" I had worked so hard to get from her.  A whole bunch of other words are now bursting from her mouth.  Words like juice, and go and kick and ... so many I can't even keep track any more.

She started to verbalize jabber in sentence or even paragraph lengths, and if you sing a song she's familiar with she'll fill in the missing words.  (Marriage from "Daisy, Daisy" currently rhymes with baggage.)

Physically she kicks the balls and runs and jumps.  She's even working on potty training, but I'm not making too much of an effort; in other words, I'm letting her take the lead.  If she says she has to go wee-wee or poo-poo then I'll get her to the potty as quickly as possible, but I'm not asking on a regular interval if she needs to go.  If I did, she'd be sitting on the pot for hours a day producing nothing but toots while I stewed nearby about other things I could be doing.

She's really turning into a "big girl" even more than a toddler, and I don't always like it.  Certainly I could do without the tantrums and the defiance (laughing and continuing to do something when I say 'no' really pushes my buttons and she knows it) and they sure make me miss the sweetness of the early toddler she was.  At the same time though, I'm so proud of her for being on track or even advanced in so many ways after her early arrival.  Watching her figure out the world - the alphabet and numbers and colors and animals and so many other classifications is amazing.  And when she says "I .... you" in response to "I love you," I just melt.

What I'm trying to remind myself is that between our departure and return her changes were made on a subtle continuum.  If I'd been here for those days and nights, it still would have changed, I just would have been a participant in the change so it wouldn't seem so shocking.  I guess in a way this is what people who don't see her on a regular basis get - a snapshot they hold until the next time they see her when bam! she's changed in ways that I don't see from being with her day in and day out.

I'm still not sure what happened to turn the 18.5" 4 pound 6 ouncer who started out below the charts into a 95+% height (~35") and 90+% weight (~30 pounds) super girl.  No wonder she's wearing anywhere from 24 months to 3T in clothing (I'm really hoping her summer wardrobe won't be too small by mid-summer)!

Anyway, that's what almost 22 months old looks like around these parts.

*This kinda breaks my heart.  I loved that it was the one thing she picked up from the limited exposure she had to signing.