Dear Anna,
Today you are 22 months old. Two more months before you turn two – and the time is just flying by. I think I’d better start planning your birthday party soon!
This month I’ve been astounded by the things you’ve started doing. All of a sudden you’re counting…all the way up to eleven. (Well, sometimes to twelve, but you seem to prefer stopping at eleven. And you say that word with such satisfaction, like it feels good rolling off your tongue!) I should probably be ashamed to admit that we discovered you could count while I was counting to three to get your sister to do something. I said “one” and you immediately shouted “two!” and went on from there…I will admit, it diffused whatever tense moment your sister and I were having, when we looked at each other and laughed at your newly discovered talent!
You also are trying your hardest to tell us knock-knock jokes. You get all the way to the punch line, and then don’t quite make it, but you have the format down – both telling the joke and being the “who’s there” part. The not-so-cute bit is when both you and your sister are trying to shout each other out to get your own knock-knock in first. I bet our next long car ride will be…interesting.
You sing, too. Oh, how you sing. You break out in songs I didn’t even know you’d ever heard, or if you have it was months ago. You love to sit at the piano and sing the alphabet song – just a month ago, it was “a, b, c, d, broccolis are me”, but now you’ve got it nearly right except right around the “l, m, n, o, p” bit and at the end when you sing “w, v, x and y” – and you plunk notes out one by one. I’m half convinced you’re going to figure out the right notes to play all on your own one of these days.
And even though I understand that second children do things earlier than the first…you have hit the three-year-old “why” phase at the tender age of not-quite-two. You ask me a question, I give you an answer, and then you ask “why?” And then I answer the why bit. And then a minute later, you ask me the same question, I give you the same answer, and, once again, you ask “why?” We have these conversations several times a day now.
You finally have 16 teeth, so I think we might get a break from teething for a bit until you have to cut those big back molars. Now, though, I’m beginning to suspect you’re having nightmares. Not every night, but sometimes you wake up and start sobbing my name as though you are terrified. Luckily, it’s not every night!
Just like your sister at this same age, you are becoming an amazing little girl – it’s so much fun to watch you grow and change!
Love, Mommy
