I haven't written a letter in a while, and I'm sorry. You're keeping me on my toes these days!! It's pretty amazing how much you have changed since you turned a year old! PawPaw Hume just visited (he hasn't seen you since your first birthday), and he couldn't believe how much you have changed. He commented that you aren't a baby anymore, and it's true. You really are a little toddler now. You've made huge strides in your physical development, your language expansion, and your personality changes.
You look so grown up now!
I look at these two pictures next to each other, and it's hard to believe there's only 5 months between them. Your face has gotten thinner, your neck has gotten longer, and you have no chunk left on your arms or legs (which is a little sad). Your hair is super-long--in fact, you've already had your first haircut! Everyone also comments on how blonde your hair is, which has only become more blonde the more time we have spent outside at the pool this summer! Your feet grew 4 sizes since your first birthday--you now wear a size 6 shoe! You won't let me put headbands in your hair anymore (*sniff*), but you are really good about letting me put your hair in ponytails and pigtails with bows.
Being SO good at your first haircut:
Your mental development always catches me by surprise. You can just do so many things that surprise me! A few stories from recently:
- I've been giving you a bath at the same time as I take a shower--it's so much easier that way! I stick your bathtub in the far end of the shower, then when I'm done I pick you up and soap you up and wash your hair. At the end of the bath, I dump out your tub, and turn your toys upside-down on the ledge for them to dry off. Last week, I didn't do that right away, and was doing something at the sink when I turned back to you and noticed that you were taking your toys and turning them over on the ledge!
- I sit you on the counter while I brush my teeth, and I give you a toothbrush to brush your teeth at the same time. Last week, I rinsed out my toothbrush and spit into the sink, and you leaned over and spit into the sink, too (or, at least, you tried to!). I giggled so much!
- You're an eating champ now. We eliminated breastfeeding a month ago, and you've been doing really well eating pretty much everything (except chickpeas). You especially love eating whatever Mommy and Daddy are eating. You'll walk up to one of us if we're eating something and say, "bite? bite? bite?" You also get really mad at Waldo (probably taking cues from Mommy) when he eats your food off your high chair tray or if you drop food and he eats it before you can pick it up. You get this really consternated look on your face and say, "No! No! No!"
- You love to identify sounds--a dog barks, and you say "raw raw raw", a truck drives by and you say "tuhk", a motorcycle goes by and you say "bike". You don't say anything, but you get a surprised look on your face whenever a siren drives by.
- You are already vying for my attention. When you want to tell me something, whether we're in the house, or the car, or out somewhere, you'll say, "Momma, Momma, Momma, Momma..." over and over until I say, "what?" Most of the time after that you'll say something that I can't comprehend, but you're definitely trying to get my attention to tell me! Often I just respond with an "oh, yeah?" and you're appeased until the next thing you want to tell me. Then it's "Momma, Momma, Momma" all over again.
Your vocabulary has just exploded over the last month. You said your first multi-syllable word "apple" (well, besides Mommy and Daddy), and have gone on to add many more to the list. I am trying to keep track of what you can say, but you've added them so fast I know I'm missing a few. So far you can say:
Momma
Daddy
PawPaw
ball
dog
boat
goal!
bubbu (bubbles)
uh-oh!
ow!
Boo
WaWa (waldo)
ice
eyes
nose
No!
up
soo (shoes)
sahk (socks)
toes
hat
truck
ot! (hot)
fly
baby
Anna
Elmo
Abby
apple
book
eeez (keys)
Bambi
MoNee (Nemo)
foo (food pouch)
peeta (pizza)
MaMee (Mary Poppins)
down
Attey (Aunt Ashley)
Bubby (Uncle Brandon)
bug
cheese
teeth
mouth
panda
sit
seat
feet
bike
bite
wahwah (water)
bee
toes
egg
light
ehp (help)
You love to point to pictures and tell us who is in them--you also love to sit around the table at mealtime and point to each of us in turn and say our names. You also love to say animal sounds. You don't really say the names of the animals themselves (other than dog), but every time you see a picture of an animal whose sound you know, or you hear someone talk about a dog or a cat, you'll pipe up with that animal noise. So far, you know dog, monkey, elephant, lion, bird, bear, cow, chicken, sheep, cat, owl, goat, horse, and bee. You also recognize a lot more animals, just ones that have no identifiable sounds (like giraffe, rhinocerous, and fish).
You are officially a toddler. You love to walk, run, climb, and slide around on the furniture. I can tell we're going to have daily fights about not dancing on the coffee table (yep--you read that right). You are super independent--you no longer want me to hold on to your hand while you climb up or down steps, you want to put on your own shoes (and yell "No!" at me when I try to help--I'm repeating "No thank you" to try to influence your rudeness!), and you want to buckle your own car seat (thanks to Daddy for starting that one). You frequently take off without Mommy or Daddy--we're going to have to work on obedience in public. I thought I had lost you last week when we went to Kohl's. We're really working on staying right by the car while I get things out of the front seat. I want you to be good at this so that when your baby brother or sister comes along, I don't have to worry about you running out into the street and getting hurt! But you definitely don't want help and you want to do your own thing. This includes at the park, where we have gone to the splash pad, and you will frequently just walk away from the splash pad and go to the swing area. I have had to sit you in "time out" a few times because you were not listening and going your own way, Fleetwood Mac.
You LOVE music. Whenever we take a shower, you point to the radio and say, "myoo? myoo?" Your favorite Pandora station is one of Daddy's that plays rock music (like Blink 182) and one of Mommy's that plays dance music (like LMFAO). When you get a song you like, you'll stomp and tap your feet, bop up and down, and turn in circles. It's pretty darn cute.
You don't like listening to the Disney Pandora station, mostly because you would much rather watch the actual videos. If you see a picture of Ariel or Rapunzel on TV and they're not moving, you get really cranky and stomp your feet. Every day for the last couple of months you have asked for "Fly?" multiple times a day, which is a Disney Sing-Along video of several Disney songs with the lyrics on the bottom of the screen. It was actually a VHS a long time ago that Ashley and I had, and Mommy found it on DVD--but now you're obsessed! After watching "Fly" everyday for a month, Mommy ordered another one that has Mary Poppins, and so we alternate between the two.
"Fly" has been so influential that whenever you see Tinkerbell at a store, you'll just start yelling, "Fly! Fly! Fly!" You love it when I start to sing "You Can Fly" or "I've Got No Strings" (both songs from the video).
We've been going to a Mommy and Me class on Thursdays at the local Adult Center. You like having the time to dance and play instruments, spend time with other kids your age, play on the playground, and do art. You recently discovered painting, which is both exciting and brain-bending for you, and stressful for Mommy. We are also going to be going to a local MOPS group on Tuesdays. I don't see you at all for 2.5 hours on MOPS days, but I am confident you are going to have a good time because it seems like the teachers are really great and caring. It's good for you to spend time away from Mommy and Daddy, and with other adults. You've always been really good about going to the nursery at church, and you didn't have any trouble going to Moppets (the MOPS childcare). I'm so glad you don't have crazy separation problems!
You're getting better about having things on your hands--before, if you had any dirt or sand or something sticky on your hands, you would hold your hands out and make a whining noise until you could rub your hands together and get it off yourself, or have someone wipe them off for you. I was actually concerned about it a couple of weeks ago when we went to the beach for the day, since you have NEVER liked to play in dirt or sand. You were not excited about it at the start of the day, but after you fell in the water and decided you didn't like it, you got used to the sand and had fun digging in it.
It has been so nice recently to have you weaned off of breastfeeding. Thankfully, the transition was pretty smooth. I didn't have any engorging at all (thank God) and you didn't really cry too much about it. It shows that you were pretty much done by the time we ended up doing it. You now have a good solid bedtime routine, and you go down to bed really well. We change clothes, wash your face and hands, brush your teeth, read a story, say a prayer, and kiss goodnight. I love our little routine, and I also love that I can hand it off to Daddy or a babysitter, too! You're going to bed between 7 and 8pm every night, and sleeping right through until 7:30am! If you wake up at night, I know it's because you have a cold, or you're getting a tooth, because you are a good (if still a bit of a light) sleeper.
We have a lot of fun together. I love snuggling with you and reading stories together. I love going to explore new places ad try new things with you. I love to watch you learn about the world and about the people in it. I am so glad I get to share my days with you, and I am excited to see you change and grow as you become a big sister in the next few months.
I love you with all my heart,
Mommy
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