You’re 100% toddler these days, but we’re dancing dangerously close to
the terrible twos and “big girl” status.
Your personality develops more each day and I’m constantly amazed at how
quickly learn and grow. You’re also
looking more like a little (big) girl than a toddler. You got your first haircut this month (bye
bye mullet!), and although you didn't love the process initially, by the end
you were chatting it up with my stylist and impressing her with the knowledge
of all of your body parts. You not only
look more grown up with your “big girl” haircut, you’re acting more grown up,
too. From eating your food in almost
adult size pieces (no more baby bites for you!) to your expanding vocabulary,
to the fact that you’re grown out of most of your clothing sized in
months. You do so much in one month that
it’s hard for me to keep up and I’m challenged each time I sit down to write
your letter.
You’re not only developing a bigger vocabulary by the minute, but you
also understand the context of most of the new words you are learning. The flip side to this revelation is that you
are now able to very verbally and physically let us know when you’re displeased
or don’t agree by shouting out a “NO!” or running away in protest. The fun side is that a few recent favorites
include “uh oh!”, “whoa”, “yay” and “what’s that??” and it’s hilarious to hear
you use them in context. Just the other
day you were extremely concerned about the missing crayon as we cleaned up and
kept repeating “uh oh” in the sweetest ton ever as you looked under tables and
in between cushions. You've also started
to impress us with two syllable words like “purple” and “outside” and use them
regularly. We've also become a big fan
of “mine” this past month and you seem to think that it means “I want”, “I
need”, or “you’d better give me that before I lose it.” And, lost it you have. We've seen a few tantrums over animal cookies
... you’ll get upset and flail yourself to the floor, kicking your hands and
feet on the ground like a teeny tiny teenager.
The good news is that you can fairly easily be diverted at this stage,
either with a new activity or a song.
Just today I made up a song about getting dressed for school and it was
enough to make you slow down and actually let me put more than a diaper on you
before we headed out in 30 degree weather.
You’re only a few days away from moving into your “big girl” room and
less than two months away from becoming a big sister. You will occasionally refer to my belly as
“baby” or “sissy” depending on your mood, but we haven’t pushed it much as I’m
sure there’s no way you really grasp what’s going on. What I do know is that you’re a nurturer at
heart. Before receiving two baby dolls
at Christmas you loved to swaddle your other stuffed animals and “rock rock
rock” them. With the babies you are
still a great swaddler, love to rock them, but also pat their backs, and will
put them down to sleep. You’re going to
be one heck of an awesome big sister!
Will there be jealousy, of course.
Will you push your limits, absolutely.
But, I know that more than any of that, you’ll love this little girl
with all your heart and will be her number one protector.
You’re smart as a whip and I swear that I’m not saying that because I’m
biased. You love to learn and to listen,
to read, to work puzzles and know almost immediately when we’re trying to pull
a fast-one on you. You received slippers
from your cousin Leah at Gigi’s the day after Christmas and immediately needed
to try them on for size. Unfortunately
they were about 3 sizes too big and we were all worried you’d twist an
ankle. As quickly as we could get them
off of you, I hid them in a bag. You
stood there with your hands in front of you for a good 5 minutes trying to figure
out where they’d gone. You then
impressed us all by working a new puzzle (stating it is for ages 2 and up!)
within a matter of minutes, and completely it correctly. You know all of your body parts (although I’d
love if you could say “button” as a complete word; it’s going to be really
embarrassing when you raise up a strangers shirt and declare “butt” to
them...), the noises that pretty much any animal makes, know some colors, are a
few letters into your ABCs and can work most puzzles with your eyes closed (you
even love to test us by trying the wrong spot, but saying “nooooo” as you place
a piece there).
You had another wonderful Christmas with your family. We decided this year we’d start the tradition
of being in our own home Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. You loved the Christmas Eve church service,
but had a horrible time sleeping once we got home and felt a little warm
overnight. To top it off, I’d developed
a stomach bug in the meantime. Long
story short, you slept with us Christmas Eve, which really meant that no one
slept and we were all zombies the next day.
Our trip to Lexington to see your grandparents and other family was
delayed a day while we all recovered, but we were able to visit with your
Pittsburgh grandparents when we returned home.
A few days later we saw that you had all four cuspid teeth popping
through, which completely explained the four nights of fussies you had and the
mild fever. The good news is that you’re
done teething until those two year molars decided to break through; all 16 other
teeth are in and accounted for, woo hoo!
You love to dance. A lot. You’ll wiggle your groove thing to just about
anything. Right now your love a song on
the radio with the lyrics “don’t stop the party” and I can’t tell you how
fitting that is given that you truly believe your life is a party ... except
for those instances where we won’t allow you to eat frosted animal cookies as
your sole dinner entree. My hope for you
is that you keep this enthusiastic outlook on life, that every day you wake up
thinking it’s a party. You certainly
make us feel that way when we walk into your room and see your smile, when you
run over to give us a hug or when you put both of your little hands in the air
and say “wee”, demanding we do ring-around-the-rosie with you that second. Please keep your “glass half full” mentality
and that toothy smile on your face. And
when you’re down and out, call your Mom and I’ll remind you that life is just a
party waiting for you to arrive.
Love,
Mom
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