Letter to Anna: Month Nineteen

Dear Anna,

You are literally growing by leaps and bounds as we move into 2013. At your 18-month check-up you checked in at 23 pounds (25th percentile) and 33 inches (80th percentile), our long and lean girl. After reviewing your growth chart, your paediatrician even looked at me and asked what height your Dad and I are and made a note in your file since you seem to be shooting up dramatically. Regardless of what your percentiles say, we know you’re healthy because you’re one of the happiest girls around, not to mention that we’d love you at any size. What this does mean is that you are very quickly growing out of the wardrobe I thought would last through the winter and until spring. Your pant legs are rising up and your shirts are flirting with your belly button, so we’ll be moving into 2T gear pretty soon.

You’re learning and growing so much each day, it’s simply amazing to watch. You are more interactive by the day and your vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. You understand pretty much all of what we say, can communicate mostly what you want (clearly to us, maybe not as much to others), and are great at now recognizing when you want something or not with a clear “yes” and “no.” Of course you will also use “yes” or “no” to persuade us to do what you want in any given situation. My favorite instance was over Thanksgiving when your Uncle Sean took you and your larger-than-life puppy that lives at Grandma’s house on an impromptu ride in the family room. Little did he know you’d love it as much as you did and would insist the rides continue until his back was probably about to give out. The next day you mounted your puppy and looked at Uncle Sean with a huge smile and said “yeeeesss, yesssss, yesssss” before he could counter with “no, not right now” as had happened the day before.

You started in a new room at school this past month and we saw some stranger anxiety for a few weeks, but overall you adjusted well. All of your close buddies have now moved up as well and that seemed to help. A little diversion with a snack / leftover breakfast with your friends did the trick eventually and now you hardly bat an eye when Dad leaves. You are taking one nap a day and do great at school sleeping from 12:45pm – 3:00pm on your cot and will sleep for just about that long at home. You’re learning a lot with your new teachers; I as blown away when I picked you up last week and pulled out your daily paper that showed a large-print letter A and you ran over and said “A, A, A, ...” over and over, and then a few days later it was the letter of the day on Sesame Street and you identified it before they said a thing. You love to sing along to the ABC song and we’re working our way through the entire song, it’s only a matter of time before you can sing it on your own.

You love to sing and dance and it’s are just a happy girl in general. You’re fairly vocal about which songs you want to sing and are loving the Christmas music on the radio ... but also not afraid to tell us when we need to stop singing along. You love to twirl around the family room when a favorite song comes on, or just when the mood strikes and love to also dance with us. On the flip side, as much as you love to be interactive, you also love to sit with a good book and read. Your paediatrician was very impressed when he heard that you will sit and “read” by yourself for almost as long as you’ll cycle books to us to be read to you. I love it when you come over with a book and instinctively turn around to sit in my lap or have me pull you onto my lap; although space is getting short, we’ll continue to find a way to make it work.

You’re a fairly good eater for a toddler, but aren’t going to win any contests for variety. You love fruit, pretty much any fruit, but especially raisins and bananas as of late. You love cheese and pasta and are still mostly rejecting most meat, so we get our protein elsewhere. You’re hit or miss on veggies, but do love frozen peas and those often serve as your dinnertime appetizer while I’m finishing up preparation ... I’ll take your veggies where I can get them these days. I’ve started giving you a gummy vitamin each day and you love it, always asking for “more,” so at least you’re getting some stream of regular vitamins. We still give you whole milk at home, but you get a small amount of fruit juice at school with your afternoon snack each day. You love your milk and immediately want your cup and a snack when we get home from school each day, I joke routinely that your hollow leg must have a leak because it never fills up.

The special bond you have with your Dad continues and I love to see it growing each day. I know that when your sister arrives you and Dad will spend a lot of time together and it warms my heart to think that you’re already so close. Almost nightly you guys are running around the house in a game of chase, Dad’s taken over primary bathtime duty, and you guys have special games you play on the way to school. You love to help both of us out with any given task and have taken to throwing your own diapers away and putting your wipes back in the basket after a change. You had a blast helping your Dad with the leaves a few weeks ago and loved helping with the Christmas tree and decorations.

This past month we taught you “ring-around-the-rosie” one evening right before bed. You were so excited as we went through the motions together that that you could hardly move your feet fast enough to keep up. In fact, I’m pretty sure we should have timed it so that learning this “dance” was your Christmas present. It’s a combo of your favorite things: dancing, singing, and Mom and/or Dad; anytime the three of us are together you’ll grab our hands to form a circle and off we go. The 15 minutes we spent doing ring-around-the-rosie that first evening will go down as one of my top moments in life. Ever.

I can’t tell you how amazing it’s been this past year and a half to see the world through the eyes of a child. You make every day brighter and even when you’re testing our patience; you’re still the sweetest and most loving child around. You’ve taught me what unconditional love really means and I’m learning as much as you are on a daily basis. Thank you for putting the big and little things in life into perspective, I never thought I’d learn so much from someone so little.

Love,
Mom