Carolyn

Dear Carolyn,

You’ve grown up so much in this past month it’s hard to believe! When I put your hair up in pigtails I swear you look about three, and with your language skills you might pass for that! Honestly, your manners are generally better than most adults’ are – you say “please”, “thank you”, “sorry”, “bless you” and “excuse me”, generally unprompted, and are even starting to remember to cover your mouth when you sneeze.

You’re mostly talking in complete sentences now – granted, I’m still the only person who understands more than half of what you say. You can “read” to me the books we read most often nearly verbatim. Not only do you know your alphabet, but you say the “now I know my a b c’s” part too. My heart melted the other day when you were sitting on the piano bench and I started picking out the notes to “twinkle, twinkle little star” and you started singing along! And I was rather frightened to discover that your Sesame Street habit has apparently taught you that “milk” starts with the letter “m” which makes a “mmm” sound, that “p” says “puh” and is the first letter in “Poppy”, and that “d” starts words like “dog”, “Daddy” and “duck”.

Gradually over this month you’ve gotten over your bath phobia and you’re starting to be interested in the potty again, but you’ve picked up my spider phobia and a mean case of toddler OCD. I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or scream when, for the 27th time during lunch, the dog licks your chair and you beg for a “nakkin” so you can “clean up the chair!” The thing is, if you just didn’t tease the dogs with your food and yell at them to lie down when they already are, they wouldn’t be licking your chair.

We’ve started playing with playdough. You like to cut the dough with the little plastic knife it came with. When we color or draw you insist on having me draw babies and dogs. Every page in your sketchpad and the various dollar-store coloring books you have has several smiley-faced babies and floppy-eared dogs.

I think you may have a crush on one of your playgroup friends, Luke. You know all the kids’ names, and are always very excited to talk about them on the way to playgroup, but the name you say first and most often is Luke. We’re invited to his birthday party next month, and since you’ve started to “get” what birthdays are about I’m sure you’ll have a great time. Since Henry’s party last weekend, whenever you see a cake with a candle in a book you say “happy birthday”, blow out a pretend candle, and then clap your hands. I imagine you’ll be thrilled with your birthday this year, since I’m planning to make a Blue’s Clues cake – your other major TV habit. (It sounds like I let you watch TV all day, but really I try to limit you to 1 episode of Sesame Street OR a Blue’s Clues episode a day – your choice. Some days you have a really hard time deciding, and other days you still want to watch Signing Time.)

You have 15 teeth now. The bottom right canine still has to make an appearance, and your big back molars haven’t come in yet. I’ve been bad about keeping track of which teeth came in when, so your baby book may be full of guesses once I finally get around to filling it in!

Every month I see a little more “baby” melt away, and a little more “little girl” appears in her place. You’re becoming such a wonderful little girl, even if a tiny little part of me will always miss the baby!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

You’re 21! (Months, that is.) It’s been an eventful month, with your first trip on a plane, your first success on the potty, and your first time strawberry picking.

It’s so much fun listening to you talk now. A lot of what you say is incomprehensible to anyone but me (and often to me as well) but you sometimes come out with the clearest, funniest sentences. Like “I want coffee, too!” and “Cookie time please?” You’re starting to use the “-ing” ending now, saying “sleeping” where you used to say “sleep”, “eating” instead of “eat” and so on. You’ll also parrot things: I can ask you to say anything and you’ll give it your best shot.

With it being summer and all, we’ve been in the pool a lot. In fact, you would prefer to live in the pool, so if it’s not raining we go in pretty much every day. Your Uncle Michael comes over to swim with us, and you wake up every morning asking “un-co mie-yo swim? ta-ree swim?” (you seem to think your name starts with a ‘t’) and every morning I have to remind you that we don’t go swimming until after naptime. You’re very brave (in a scary way) around the water, and even go so far as to stand on the side of the pool, hold my hands and jump in. You blow bubbles in the water, kick your feet, and love to splash and be splashed. Unfortunately, you’ve become terrified of actual baths now, since the poo incident. Too bad we can’t wash your hair in the pool.

The big thing we did this month was go to Florida with Nana, Poppy and your aunts, uncles and cousins on that side of the family. You may not remember it when you’re older, but you had a wonderful time, meeting Winnie the Pooh and Minnie Mouse, playing in the sandbox at Sea World, and hanging with your cousins. You were also thrilled to be on an airplane, and still talk about airplanes a lot.

At this point you have 14 of your 20 baby teeth – your top two canines came in just this past week. You just need the bottom canines and your big back molars and you’ll be done with teeth until you’re in first grade or so. With all the teeth in that mouth of yours you’re getting really good at biting and chewing almost everything. I still cut grapes and other round things, but you can even eat (and like!) raw veggies. You’ve gotten a tad bit picky about your food, though, rejecting things that have flecks of spices on them and other little anomalies. Mostly you still like and eat almost everything, as long as you’re in the mood!

It’s been a fun, and challenging, month. There are days when I’ve wondered if we’re both going to survive until Daddy gets home. And I’m sure there are going to be many more of those days over the next few years…but I wouldn’t trade being a stay-at-home mom to you for anything in the world!

Love, Mommy