28 Months

Dear Annie,

You are 28 months old now. Or six, which is your answer when people ask your age. Thankfully, you don't act six just yet. You love playing with princesses and puzzles are your latest obsession. You seem to know that I am incapable of leaving an unfinished puzzle on the ground, so dumping out your alphabet puzzle right before lights out has become your most effective nighttime stalling routine.

 

Going to bed has gotten much easier. At nap time I usually sit in the room with you until you fall asleep, which takes about 10 minutes. At night, we read a few books (or we read your book of pictures of your "friends" from school 5x) and then one of us sits with you until you ask for something (feet covered, water, a wipe for your face, kiss a boo boo) and we comply with one request and then we leave the room. This has been fairly successful. There is sometimes a return trip required but it's fairly quick.

 

You have endless energy. You love to be outside and play "ball game", which essentially involves throwing the ball up in the air and avoiding it on the way down. Now that the weather has cooled, I love being out there with you. We stockpile pine cones and look for worms and pretend we are getting blown away by the wind and you always come to my rescue.

 

You are currently existing on a diet of peanut butter (eaten off a spoon, because who wants to waste time with bread?), yogurt, fruit, goldfish/pretzels, and sometimes pasta. At dinner time I always give you what we are eating plus some yogurt. You eat the yogurt and say "all done!" and want to get down. I have essentially just let this item go for now. You are growing and I know you will come around eventually. We do practice waiting until we are all finished eating to leave the table, which makes you crazy but you get over it.

 

You had still been sleeping with your binkie, though there wasn't much left to it other than a handle and a plastic nub. But you would still ask for it and I figured it wasn't causing any dental harm any more, so why not? You would sleep with it clutched in your hand and as you would fall asleep, it would inevitably drop and if you were sleeping on your stomach, it would drop behind your bed. You would then wake up at 2:00 in the morning, frantically searching for binkie and we would end up turning on flashlights, moving the bed, and it was all very disruptive. Not to mention the fact that bending over right now is on my list of "Most Hated Things to Do". I could just hear me chatting with a labor and delivery nurse, asking why I am going into early labor and starting off with "well, you see my daughter has this binkie that she holds..." So on Sunday, the binkie got "lost". And while you didn't nap that day, I don't really blame the binkie absence for the lack of sleep. That night, there was no mention of the binkie and yesterday you asked "Where Annie binkie go?" and that was pretty much it. It was such a non-issue that I am both relieved and a little disappointed. I mean, where's the loyalty here? Thankfully we still have whammy (which you now call mimi, which used to be the name for binkie-how quickly things are replaced) and I don't think either of us are ready for you to ditch that one any time soon.

 

We are making minor headway on the potty, but nothing major to report. You are primarily using it as a bargaining tool to obtain gummy bears at this point. I might be in the market for a professional potty trainer, if anyone knows a guy who knows a guy with that special set of skills.

 

Rain briefly collects in this one spot in the driveway, and it's your favorite. Then you always ask "where water go?" and give me a sideways glance when I say "evaporation and absorption". Sometimes Mom isn't so great at explaining things.

 

You are big on lining up and organizing things these days. Drawers must be shut and doors must be closed. You are also very observant and noticed when I switched my wedding ring and when I was wearing a t-shirt that you felt was Daddy's property.

Bath time with Dad is one of your favorites. He always leaves the room soaked from the splashing games you play.

Buzz Lightyear hands...and a lesson learned by Mom and Dad to always make sure that toys that make noise and are motion activated have an on/off switch.

Brentwood carnival and more fun with Dad. I love watching you two together.

 

The sweetest face ever.

 

Last weekend we were at a local jazz festival and you were dancing and holding court and a lady leaned down to you and said "You're adorable." You looked at me then you looked at her and said, with the most serious of faces, "No! I strong!"

 

Adorable and strong. And brave and smart and kind and funny. Everything I could have ever hoped for and a heap on top of that.

 

I love you, sweet girl.

Mom