19 months and Change

Dear Annie,

The holidays buzzed by with barely an acknowledgement that you are another month older. How is it possible that you will be TWO in five months? You are becoming such a big girl and it makes my mom heart ache. You were an absolute joy over the holidays and everyone really seemed to enjoy spending time with you. And not just in that "hey, cute kid, now back to the party" kind of way.

You seem to change daily. You know so many words and will repeat just about anything we say to you now. You have become a bit more picky eater, but I think that is directly correlated to the volume of snacking going on. Yesterday you had no snack and were clearly hungry by the time dinner rolled around. Your efforts to climb into your high chair whilst screaming "EAT" and "BITES" were pretty subtle clues to your hunger, but I picked up on it. Needless to say, you scarfed down your meal like it was your job. So maybe we will ease up on the snacking a bit to see how that changes your appetite. I will do my best not to starve you...

Though I don't think starvations is a current concern. At the last doctor's visit, you were 34 inches tall and 28 pounds, which are the 96th and 95th percentiles, respectively. You have a perfect little toddler body, that is now sporting mostly 2T clothing. Your shoe size is around a 6.5, depending on the shoes.

And let's chat about your shoes. I think you have about 8 pairs in the rotation, currently. And you ONLY want to wear the ones that sparkle. Preferrably a sparkly flat. That's my girl. And God help us all when we want to put you in something sensible for winter like a boot. There are proclamations of "all done!" and "no no no" the whole time. I have recently taken to distraction during the shoe selection process. Once they are on, you are usually ok with it.

You love bath time where you and your Dad compromise the integrity of our floors with your splashing. You took swim lessons and were a dream. You have recently started spinning in place, which then leads to some precarious situations. You are still very tough and rarely cry from anything, much less a pesky bump. I will address our only major brush with injury in a separate post.

I see flashes of both your Dad and me in you. Your ability to work an iPhone and navigate our stereo receiver is 100% Dad. Your ability to memorize the words to songs is all me. Your constant motion and energy is all Rick. Your need for quiet time every once in a while is from your Mom.

You didn't have a lot of interest in books in the beginning, but we are all about the books now. It's a relationship that's 50% about removal/stacking from the bookshelves and the other 50% is actually reading them.

The other day I came in to get you from your nap. You still seemed tired and looked at me and said Book! Light!

So I handed you some books and your night light and you "read" to yourself for another 20 minutes or so. The night lights were used as you made it very clear you did not want the overhead lights on.

There is so much I want to remember from this stage. I want to remember how each night you direct me to "chair" and "sit" so you and I can snuggle and read a book. I want to remember the weight of your little self pressing into me, trying to get as close as possible and how if you are cold you tuck your fists under my neck. I want to remember how you put your hands on my shoulder and tap your index finger and how this is how I know when you are getting sleepy. I want to remember how Bunny/Whammy goes EVERYWHERE with us and how you rub the tag on your cheek when you get tired. I want to remember the sound of your voice saying "uppeesh" (up please) no fewer than 1,750 times a day, in your constant efforts to get us where you want us to go. I want to remember how you try to do my hair and the feel of your little hands patting strands into place (I will try to forget yesterday when things got a little aggressive and Dad had to physically pry you off of me and I might need hair plugs as a result). I want to remember how you point to things and say "Dis?" every time you want to know the name of something. I want to remember how you always want down from being held to "walk" but you very very rarely walk anywhere. I want to remember the sound of you "tokyo drifting" around the corners in our house as you race to play "where are you?" (or just "are YOOOOU?") with us. I want to remember that you don't really care much for sweets but would eat pretzels and goldfish 24/7 if we let you. I want to remember the feel of your sticky little hands on the side of my face as we work on being gentle with things. I want to remember how you love your choo-choos as much as your princesses and baby dolls.

I want to remember it all.

I love you, sweet girl,

Mom