Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Dear Everleigh (21 Months!)








Dear Everleigh,

This month you turned 21 months--that's one year and 9 months old! You just keep getting more amazing every month and I have to say--this month you spent most of the time sick off an on with a crummy cold and cough, yet through it all you made me fall more in love with you (I think it may have been the snuggliness you were putting out there).

Here's what you're up to:

Sleep-wah, wah, wah. You still wake approximately 2-4 times per night after falling asleep at 9PM. This continues to be super not fun for everyone. However, recently you have decided to let Daddy try and comfort you when you wake up sad. It's really sweet to hear you 2 in the monitor and know my favorite 2 people in the whole world are upstairs cuddling. Someday, you're going to sleep like a champ and I promise to be grateful for every full night's sleep I get. Someday.

Chatty-you are now what I would call a "supertalker". You say sentences like "I don't want it." or "I don't like it" (notice a trend here?) to communicate exactly what you do and don't want. And it's pretty great. Your memory amazes me! Sometimes you'll overhear something and bring it back up the next day or even week. Amazing. Brilliant ;) I mentioned something to you about maybe having a doggie-themed birthday party, and you said "yay!", then like 2 weeks later said "Dog party. I'm excited!". Sometimes it's still hard for Daddy and I to understand you and we'll ask you "say it again please? I couldn't understand you". You will usually repeat something about 2 times before rolling your eyes and sighing and giving up. This process is kind of hilarious. If we guess the wrong thing, you say "no. no. no. nnnnno" (with almost a rolling "n" that makes you sound vaguely foreign). You are not short on personality kid.

Happy-you have no idea how great it feels to know your kid is happy. Like, for real super extra happy. You smile a lot and love to laugh and play. It seems like lately you've been extra specially happy and you'll even say so sometimes out of the blue "I'm happy". It's awesome.

Meal-you've started asking for a "meal" when you are hungry, which is funny. Your new favorite place to eat is The Sweet Tomatoe--a yummy salad and soup buffet that is accepting of young kids but not kind of gross and packed with morbidly obese people like most buffets. So we try to go out there once or twice a month whenever we have a little extra money to splurge. You LOVE it there, because your favorite foods are black olives, soup (all kinds), raisens, green peppers, jello, frozen yogurt, pizza--all things they have there. When we go, you sit in the booth like a big girl, and are usually good (but very busy).

Binkie tosser-things are very black and white with you. You love your binkie for bed (we're working on getting you off it altogether), but when you decide you're done with it (even temporarily) you throw it accross the room, as if you are disgusted by the look of it and don't care if you ever see it again. Then, inevitiably later that night you will want it and can't find it and we will all have to search high and low for the binkie you couldn't wait to toss aside earlier. You're very hardcore.

Singer-you've really started singing more lately and I love it! What a great memory you have. You like to sing "Rain, rain go away" and after singing it with me a few times, you can basically sing the whole thing with all the words by yourself (in tune and everything). Wow. I keep wanting to record you, but so far you like doing your own thing and don't like to perform for the camera. Always keep 'em wanting more, Ev.

Potty Seat--this month Grandma got you your first potty seat, and although you love playing with it and sitting on it (and even pretending to wipe!?), so far you haven't been so interested in sitting on it bare-bottomed or actually going poo poo or pee pee in it. We're just glad you like it and think it's cool. We're waiting for some more cues from you (longer stretches with a dry diaper, the ability to indicate when you need to pee) before we really jump in headfirst with potty training. The fun awaits!

Park! You love going to the park now that the weather is beautiful (very strange for MO), and frequently ask to go the "big park" which has a pond with ducks, a huge playground, etc. If there are too many big kids running around on the playground, you will ask to go to the "baby park", which is a smaller park nearby that's usually more low-key. You almost always make a friend, which is SO sweet and cute to watch.

Time-I forget that kids your age don't have a good concept of time. For instance, if I tell you that  you're going to see your cousin, Edmond tomorrow, you will get super excited and say, "yay! See Edmond" and then proceed to not want to go to sleep because you think it's going to happen now. Daddy and I have to be careful to not tell you things that are happening in the future if we don't want you to ask us about it every 2 minutes until it actually takes place.

No, YES--lately you've taken to saying "no" to everything (sounds like somebody's creeping up on the terrible twos?) but then if you really meant yes, you'll quickly do a take-back and say "no, YES!". It can be a little confusing, but it's pretty cute.

All in all, this was a tough month for us (which is why I'm writing this like...2 weeks late!), but it also brought us closer. I just think you're something special and it's so fun getting to know you as your personality develops. You're going to be a real character, Ev! Stay cool.

Mommy





1 comment:

Rachel said...

I didn't realize Everleigh and Little Miss were so close in age. Little Miss turned 20 months yesterday. Everleigh is cuter than ever!