An attempt at losing the paci...and more words

Esme lost her pacifier yesterday when I was at work. Mark had let her have it outside the bed for a little while because she's been cranky lately. He thinks she's getting in some new back teeth etc... But she lost it. We asked her where it was and she couldn't find it. I was prepared for a long drawn-out fight to go to sleep like last time. Mark offered to dig through the kitchen and find an old pacifier -- but surprise she complained a little -- Daddy kept saying 'I don't know where it is - you lost it. Do you know where it is?' and eventually she laid down and went to sleep without the screamfest it was last time.

I did find it.
It was tucked between the sheets on my side of the bed, about halfway down the length of the bed. Hmm... wonder what that was about? I hid it under a shirt on a high table for now to see if she can live without it. She's been asking for it more and more -- and even made a habit out of asking to go to bed just to chew on it.

In other words: haha. She says 'Dooh...(No)' to every yes/no question - even the things she does want / want to do. We have to work on that! I've heard 'I want that - I like that - Pick it up - This a *name of object* - 'Take a bath' - Don't hit - Don't eat (to a cat eating the edge of a box in a movie) and HELP' this week. She always wants help now with the K'nex and her playdough. She has been able to 'say' "fix it" and "hold this" for a while but not clearly enough for anyone but me to really get. I've heard both of those recognizably just within the past week, as well.

There were other things too - but she started picking those up not as repeats after I said it but as things she uses herself. I love (sarcasm) that she tells me 'don't hit' when I'm trying to keep her legs down to change a diaper as she is kicking me furiously. I tried to explain to her that kicking was just like hitting with your feet and she was going to tell me 'don't hit' (when I wasn't *growl*) I was going to tell her 'don't kick', because she obviously WAS kicking. She stopped.. but gave me the best 'oh really - tell me another one' look. Some days it's like I'm raising a teenager trapped in a toddler's body.