Dear Lil' Bit,
You have GOT to be kidding me that you are only three short months away from turning two!!! I am completely in shock that it's getting so close. I couldn't believe that this year would go even faster than your first year, but it's so true. Your sweet little life is just flying by! Your daddy and I lay in bed at night talking about all the fun things you are doing and saying right now...you crack us up! It's way fun to get to see your personality develop a little more each day and we just love you SO much. There are so many things I want to remember about you right now that it was hard to cut it down to just 21, but here are some of the things we love about you at 21 months:
1. Well, the big news from this month was that we started potty training!!! I had decided that we would at least give it a try before baby sister gets here and you are doing really well! I wasn't sure that you were quite old enough, but I definitely think you "get it". Now, does that mean we always have 100% success? Nope. But when we are home, you are very good at letting me know when you need to go. We usually use real panties at home, but we use "princess panties" AKA pullups when we go out. They have little flowers printed on the front that will disappear if you have an accident and you are always quick to tell me that the "flowers still there." So cute! Now we just have to tackle actually thinking about asking to use the potty when we are out and about. We are VERY proud of your hard work and are praying that we will continue to find succes :o).
2. I've always thought you had a pretty good vocabulary, but this month is has completely exploded!!! And it dosen't hurt that you are a total parrott! I've never been so aware of the things that come out of my mouth since you repeat it ALL! You typically use 2- to 3- word phrases, but sometimes you come up with whole sentences. It is a riot! Some of my favorite things you are saying right now are: i love you mommy/daddy, what you doing?, i want it (oh, boy!), seatbelt on mommy :o), mommy do it, baby sisters things, happy birthday to you, Uncle Ross (you said this one a TON after we saw Uncle Ross), puppy (or whatever else) in the baf?, call daddy phone, help me wif theeeee straps (daddy's favorite) and a few phrases from TV: swiper no swiping (Dora), yay wonderpets (Wonderpets). That last part is crazy to me because we really don't watch that much TV, maybe once or twice a week? Anyway, I LOVE your little voice and all the things you say :o).
3. We've had to redefine our forms of discipline lately because time out isn't always cutting it right now. You are typically a sweet little kiddo, but definitely have some spunk as well. If we ask you to do something or tell you to and you chose to disobey, we USUALLY just have to say, "Emerson, you need to obey mommy" and you will comply. I am SO thankful that God is giving you a desire to be obedient and I will continue to pray for that! Also, we are finding how important it is to give you choices. This gives you the control you are craving right now and you don't even realize that we're only giving you choices we would choose anyway :o). Now, if you still chose to disobey, we do have consequences (either time-out or a spanking) and remind you to be obedient next time. You are doing a great job!
4. Though we really don't work on it as much as we should, you are really starting to develop some good little pre-academic skills! You can count to 10 (though you sometimes still skip over six or nine), you know several colors: yellow, blue and purple, you know several shapes: circle, square, triangle, heart, star, and you are starting to recognize some words in print: emmy, mommy, daddy. We're working on identifying letters, but I'm obviously not a very good teacher with that!
5. You've always been very interested in books, but you're really "reading" lately. Of course, we've had a TON of practice while sitting on the potty this month! I notice that you always ask "mommy read it" first, and then you will mimic several words per page as you go through it by yourself. With some of the books that we've read forever, you really know most of the words, especially Goodnight Moon and Panda Bear, Panda Bear! And it's SO funny to hear you mimic my intonation and facial expressions :o)!
6. You've always been pretty vocal, but lately you are just plain-out yelling! And while it's fine when we are home or outside, it's becoming a little bit of a problem at restaurants and when we are out shopping. I really do think you just get so excited that you can't contain yourself, but we've really got to work on having an "inside voice" :o).
7. Daddy was just telling me the other night how much he loves your "spunkiness" and I totally agree! You are just plain fun! I love your personality and still think you have your daddy's sense of humor. You love to make us laugh and will pretty much do whatever it takes to get us too...silly girl!
8. I keep saying I'm going to do this, but I have GOT to get some kind of tape recorder for the car. While you are always a chatter-box, I notice that you REALLY get to talking in the car. I don't want to forget all the wonderful, sweet, funny, crazy things you say. Sometimes I think, where did she come up with that? You must see so many more things out the windows than I do. Some of my favorite things you've said lately were, "air on mommy" (yeah, I know it's hot outside) and "music off mommy" (yep, sometimes it up way too loud!).
9. Well, this isn't a really "girly" thing, but you are REALLY into motorcycles and trucks right now. You can see (and hear) them from a mile away and love to watch them go by. If we pass a motorcycle or "big truck" on the road, you are always quick to ask for "more truck?". This provides a good little opportunity to learn about patience since I can't really make more appear :o). You can't quite figure out the difference between a motorcycle and bicycle yet, so anytime we see a bicycle, you call it a motorcycle too. But the funniest thing you did was at Hobby Lobby the other day...we saw an older woman on one of those Rascal riding carts and you pointed to her and LOUDLY said, "motorcycle!!!". You were SO excited to see it, but she didn't seem all that thrilled that you thought it was one.
10. Your biggest obsession right now are straps...straps on car seats, strollers, your high chair, just wherever you can find them. And it really is quite obsessive. You HAVE to do your own straps on your high chair and car seat by yourself. If we would stand there and undo them for you, you would put them together over and over and OVER. I guess it could be worse :o).
11. Oh, your sweet little singing voice! How I LOVE to hear you sing. I have been waiting for the day that you would actually remember and sing the words yourself and you did it this month! You love to sing Happy Birthday to you, Ring around the roseys, ABC (a-b-c-d-e-f-g-l-m-n-o-p-t-u-v-w-x-z), The B-I-B-L-E and just yesterday you sang Jesus Loves Me in the car...melted my heart! You'd been holding out on us, we didn't even know you knew all these songs! There really isn't a sweeter sound in the world!
12. You've never been too much of a climber (at least in comparison to what I've heard about other kiddos) but this month you started climbing all over our furniture. You can get up on the couch by yourself now and the other day, I turned around to find you standing on the coffee table! Yikes! Luckily, this new little skill hasn't caused any accidents yet, but I'm sure watching you :o).
13. We've been having a little more trouble at restaurants this month! You are not as content to sit in your chair as you used to be, so we have to be really creative. We always try to pick somewhere that serves chips or bread immediately just to get you busy eating. Of course, then we have to chow down fast so that we can be done before you lose it...never a dull moment!
14. We're so proud of your mad swimming skills! It cracks me up to see you really move your arms and kick your feet as if you are doing it all by yourself. The only thing that scares me is how fearless you are in the water! We are going to have to be super careful with you, little lady!
15. It's so funny to daddy and I that you associate our cell phones with different people. You will hand me my cell phone and ask to "Call Gigi or Gebo or Uncle Ross" and you will take daddy's phnoe to him and ask to "Call Karo or Papa Rowe". And when our phones ring, you know who it will be. How do you know? So crazy!
16. We finally gave in and got your first haircut! I was so nervous, but it ended up SO cute! I love that it's finally evened up, even though it's a tad bit shorter. I doubt we will take you to such a swanky place every time, but it was a great girly memory to share!
17. You are very interested in helping get yourself dressed lately. You are good at pulling up the front of your pants, but I still have to help with the back. You've been trying really hard to get your shirts over your head, but you're just not quite there. And the other day, you even got one of your shoes on AND strapped in your carseat...it was awesome! Especially considering that you love to take your shoes off every time we get in the car :o).
18. You've found a new hiding place this month! You like to hide in between mommy's clothes in her closet and will stay there FOREVER until we find you. Of course, you don't really realize we can see you the whole time since you peek rather obviously, but we sure do have fun :o).
19. One of my favorite things that you do is that you want to know about everyone we come in contact with. And you certainly aren't too shy to ask about them either :o). Usually, you will point to someone and ask, "who that?", to which I reply, "that's a man, woman, boy or girl". Then, you proceed to say, "hi boy" or "hi girl"...whatever fits. It really tickles people how friendly you are :o).
20. We FINALLY fixed the "yeah" thing! I am happy to report that you now answer, "yes" instead of "yeah" to the questions we ask. We even get a "yes, ma'am" pretty often. Of course, that's when you aren't answering "no way", which we are still working on :o).
21. Oh, I almost forgot...it seems that your eyes MAY be changing colors? We aren't sure, but they don't always look quite as blue as they once were. When you wear blue clothes, they still look very blue, but somedays they are starting to look kind of green. We shall see?!?
