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