Dear sugar bear,
I can't believe you are getting so close to being a year and a half!!! This month has just flown by! I know I say it every month, but you are at SUCH a fun age right now! We just play and read and sing and play some more. Though I sometimes joke that my vocabulary has drastically diminished into "1-year-old speak", I can't imagine spending my days any other way than with you! Thank you for being the best gift I've ever been given! Here are 17 things about you at 17 months that daddy and I don't want to forget:
1. We discovered this month that you LOVE using a fork! We'd only tried spoons up until now, but found that you are much more accurate when you can stab at your food with a fork. And you are much more motivated to finish you meal as well. If we notice you are slowing down and give you a fork, you will quickly gobble the rest right up! I know sometimes you must wish we'd think of these things a little sooner, it's just always a challenge for me to let you be all grown up :o).
2. You continue to talk up a storm and have even started using a few simple sentences! Usually it's "more juice (or whatever you want to eat) please"! Food is such a motivator!
3. You learned what a "mess" is this month. One day, daddy had accidentally drug some mud in from the backyard and it got all over the carpet. Once you heard mommy say, "daddy made a mess", you walked around saying "daddy mess" and pointing to it all day. Later that week, you and I made a mess upstairs and when I said "uh-oh", you responded "daddy mess"! I cracked me up, but daddy isn't so sure he likes getting blamed for all the messes around here :o)
4. I think one word that would accurately describe this month was DRAMA! Now, mommy really isn't one for drama, and I kept flashing forward to your teenage years in a little bit of fear! I really didn't think the girly drama moments would come out so soon, but they arrived! It seemed that if you weren't able to do exactly what you wanted (and right then), we got to experience that drama up close and personal :o) You and I both prayed a LOT during these little fits of drama and sang our "patience song" too. Heaven bless you for keeping me on my knees little girl!
5. You absolutely LOVE to write and draw! I really think you'd be perfectly happy if I'd let you carry around a pencil and paper all day long. Any time I'm making a list (which happens to be a lot) you always want your own. When we go grocery shopping, you have to be the one to mark things off our list. And luckily, daddy made you a great chalkboard for your playroom this month and you have gotten quite good at practicing your lettters up there too! It's cute to just watch and listen and I can tell that you are listening when we spell your name...as you make marks on your chalkboard or paper, you say "e" ,"e" ,"y" :o). I am really SO excited about this part of you because I'm hoping you'll be up for lots of art projects with mommy!
6. This month we tried a new hairdo...pigtails! You look absolutely precious with pigtails and also more grown-up to me. I just LOVE it! And you love them too. All I know is that we must tell you that you are pretty a lot, because when we look in the mirror at your hair everyday, you always say, "pretty"!
7. I don't know if people are just being nice or what, but we've heard a lot this month that you are starting to look more like mama! I couldn't be more excited! Although you still look just like your daddy to me, I do think you've started to copy a lot of my facial expressions and mannerisms (which is pretty scary)!
8. We spend a TON of time singing songs throughout our day...while we're in the car, just playing around the house, and in the kitchen with your fridge d.j. But my favorite is when you sit facing me in my lap and we just sing. Every time you request "Bible" (The B-I-B-L-E) first, and usually "Baby" (Rock a Bye Baby) after that. We also sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Pharoh Pharoh, Bell Horses, If You're Happy and You Know It, Old McDonald, Jesus Loves Me, Row Row Row Your Boat, some we've learned at the library and Tiny Tots, and your new favorite (one of mommy's old favorites) Little Bunny Foo Foo.
9. You LOVE to play chase! This is one of your favorites to play with daddy (I'm not as fun apparently)! You like to chase him too and always seem to catch him :o).
10. You've stared being able to identify when you have a "pee pee diaper". We're hoping that now you'll start telling us BEFORE you make a "pee pee diaper" so we can talk about using the big girl potty before too long :o)!
11. When we are getting ready every morning, you love to remind me that you need a bow before we go! I'm trying to teach you about picking a matching one, but you don't really seem to care if it matches or not :o).
12. You are a girl who LOVES lotion! You're usually in my bathroom when I'm getting ready in the morning and always want to put on lotion after I do. I finally gave you an old bottle of moisturizer and you carry it around, pretending to put it on your hands and face, and offering us some, of course. You also think hand sanitizer is lotion and love to put it on too.
13. You LOVE to talk on the phone. Every time my cell rings, you say, "hello daddy" and you're always good at say "bye" too :o).
14. Every single morning and after every single nap you like to tell us about every thing in your bed. It usually goes like this...we open the door, you say "hi", then tell us, "baby", "dae" (your puppy), "oink" (pig), "puppy" (other puppy), "book". It's like you need us to know what you've been playing with until we got there. It's super cute :o).
15. You have SERIOUS puppy love! You love ALL puppies...your own Tatum, dogs at the park, dogs on t.v., the neighbor dogs that bark, the dogs in your books. It's pretty serious. You just squeal every time you see a puppy and clap. I wonder if you'll be a vet someday?
16. You are a real creature of habit when it comes to breakfast. You request the same three things every morning...a "nana", an egg and pancakes/or waffles. I've tried giving you oatmeal, but you weren't crazy about it. Oh, but you do ask for bites of my cereal every morning too :o)
17. You have been such a big helper to mommy this month! We've had a lot of rough days around here (sitting with mommy near the toilet since she's been so sick) and you have always been SO sweet to mommy. I'm so thankful for your kind heart and sweet self :o).
