Twenty-Nine Months Old!

Dear Carolyn,

Next month we can officially call you 2-and-a-half. Your Daddy and I were just discussing how different you are now from when you turned 2, how you change so much faster than we do, we can barely keep up.

I’d like to tell you what your favorite things to do this month are, but the word “everything” doesn’t come close to summing it up. Color with crayons and markers? Great! Ride your tricycle? Sure! Read library books over and over? Wonderful idea! Play with dolls and blocks and puzzles and cars and play-doh? All at the same time? Bring it on! About the only things you don’t like to do are getting ready for bed, getting ready to eat, getting ready to leave the house…do you see the trend here?

You are a very helpful child. You love to help me load and unload the dishwasher (it definitely goes faster when you help, since I have to put away all the breakables as fast as I can!), vacuum (the floor gets extra clean since I have to go really slowly so I don’t run over your toes), fold laundry (or unfold, as the case may be) and dust (actually, that is really helpful – though not very thorough). You’re also very, very polite when we’re out, saying pleases and thank yous unprompted. The other night we were at Grandma’s house for dinner, and you had eaten a late lunch. When she encouraged you to eat more dinner, you said “No thanks, I’ll finish it later. Can I have some apples please?”

You’re back to sleeping in your bed, although you take forever to fall asleep at night. And sometimes you have nightmares. The other night you woke up crying, and when I went in to ask you what was wrong you tearfully replied, “my play-doh!” When I asked what happened to your play-doh you sniffled and said in a really small voice, “it fell off the little green table.” And as funny as that sounds now, I wanted to cry with you that night hearing how sad you were. I’m honored to be the person who can make it all better when you have a nightmare.

Love, Mommy