Dear Carolyn,
Spring is right around the corner, and you’re becoming so much more aware of the world outside our house that I can’t wait to share the new leaves on the trees and the bugs in the garden with you! Cars, trucks, buses and airplanes go by and you hear them and scream (and sign) “car!” or “train!” You hear the birds outside your window every morning and wake up earlier just to listen to them. It’s thrilling to go out on a cloudy day because then you can look up and shout (and sign) “cloud” over and over again. It’s like you want to be sure I don’t miss a moment of all the extraordinary things that happen on a perfectly ordinary day.
Speaking of your screaming and shouting, I can only think of 17 new signs you’ve learned this month (it must be time to buy a new set of Signing Time DVDs!) but you now at least attempt to say almost every one of the 117 words you know how to sign, and even some you don’t. The new signs this month are “stuck”, “colors”, “rainbow”, “alligator”, “friend”, “monkey”, “aunt”, “uncle”, “cousin”, “me”, “grandma”, “grandpa”, “no”, “cloud”, “my turn”, “excuse me”, and the letter “b”. I’m really even more glad you sign at this point, because most of your words sound like at least one other word (is “bah!” ball, block, bear, book, baby, bunny, bread, box or bye?!?) so the visual clue is pretty important. Speaking of clues, you can now ask for Blue’s Clues by name, by signing “blue” and saying “clues” at the same time. Also, you’ve learned some manners this month, generally signing “please” when you really want something without being prompted, and signing “excuse me” when you burp. We’re still working on “thank you” – you’ll sign it when we tell you to, but I don’t think you quite get when you’re supposed to say it yet.
Your absolute favorite activities at this point are coloring and playing with your set of Duplos. We got you a building plate for them, and you can put the blocks together pretty easily at this point. You can also take things apart pretty easily, and that seems to be your preferred method of playing with Legos: Mommy builds a tower, Carrie pulls it apart, giggling with glee. You also adore dolls. In fact, you now go to bed with three pink rag dolls (I call them the triplets) and you have two baby dolls that are your daytime “babies”. I’m pretty glad you don’t have a younger sibling yet, because you like to stuff your “babies” into a plastic bucket that doubles as a drum and put the lid on…although to be fair, I haven’t sewn the doll bassinet I’ve been planning to make for the last two months, so you don’t really have a bed for your dolls.
We’ve read the same book, Goodnight, Sweet Butterflies, before every nap and bedtime and every morning when you wake up for at least the past month. You love to point out everything on each page for me to label, and there are a lot of things on each page! And you’re convinced that the earthworms on the pink butterfly page are snakes. Either that, or you think that earthworms hiss. Luckily, when we’re not in your room you bring me a variety of other books to read. I’m pretty sure I’ve had dreams about that butterfly book lately, I’ve read it so often!
I’m fairly certain that you’re starting your “terrible two’s” a bit early. We’ve had some struggles just this past week with an overnight change to where you absolutely want to do everything yourself. This includes climbing into your highchair by yourself, washing your own face, and putting on your own pants. Most of the time this isn’t a problem, except the pants – you haven’t figured out how to do that just yet, and I can only allow you so much time in the mornings to try because we usually have something fun to go out and do, and you get really, really, angry when I finally do it for you. I’ve seen the glimmers of all-out tantrums, too, where you sort of melt into a puddle or start banging your head on the floor. I can understand how frustrating it must be, so you’ll get nothing but sympathy from me, although I can’t promise that I won’t laugh sometimes – it might sound mean, but laughing is better than getting frustrated myself, right?
I’m looking forward to seeing spring through your eyes this year. I’m glad I have you reminding me about all the fantastic things I never stop to see anymore!
Love, Mommy