Month: August 2006

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