Monthly Updates

Dear Carolyn,

So much has changed in our lives this month, I don’t even know where to begin. You’ve gone from having a full-time stay-at-home-mom to having a small-business-owner mom. Instead of spending our mornings making pancakes in our pajamas, you now eat dry cereal in the car on our way to an all-day playdate at a friends’ house. OK, it’s not quite that bad, but it is stressful on both of us, and all I can say is…I think it will get better.

Despite the stresses of the past few weeks, you’re doing new things every day and being as cute as you can possibly be. The other day you actually started sounding out words! I wrote out several three letter words and you sounded each letter out and tried to squish the letter sounds into their words – you got about half of them right. But the neat thing is that you realize that those letters you love so much make words!

And it’s really, truly official: you are potty trained! You still wear diapers at night and for your very rare occasional nap, but during the day you wear your beloved Dora panties (you’ll deign to wear Blue’s Clues or Elmo if none of the Dora ones are clean.) It’s pretty funny – you’ve maybe watched Dora three times in your whole entire life, but since Dora is on the diapers you used to wear you just had to have Dora panties. And when I asked you what kind of birthday cake you wanted? Dora. (I’m drawing the line on that one. Shortly thereafter you decided you wanted a ladybug cake anyway.)

Your imagination is starting to run away with you. You can take an empty bin (well, first you empty it by dumping all the toys on the floor) and make it into a boat, a car, a house or a rocket – that one involves taking your doll-sized pack & play and putting it on top, because of course the rocket needs to have a top. Mimi is constantly playing with you, but sometimes she’s a baby, sometimes she’s your age, and other times she’s a dog. For that matter, sometimes you’re a dog, and you will only do what I ask you to do if I say, “Puppy dog, could you please _____?”

To celebrate my day off, you turning thirty-four months old, and your upcoming first day of school, we spent today at the outlet mall. Your favorite part? Driving the car with Elmo and Zoe that was outside the Carter’s store. My favorite part? Spending the day with my little girl. I may be a part-time working mom now, but I think that’s made me appreciate the time I am home with you even more.

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are two and three-quarters. You’re starting to ask if you’re three yet. I think you just want a birthday party, since a couple of your friends have just turned three and had their birthday parties!

You have nearly figured out the whole potty training thing at this point. We are all so excited! We’ve successfully run errands with big-kid underpants several times already, and every time we both get a bit more confident in this new diaper-free life. The only downside? You have nothing to hold your pants up anymore – we’re going to have to find an easy-to-open belt! (You did not get the tall-and-skinny genes from me!)

Your latest obsession is audio books. We probably eat at Wendy’s a little more often than we should (although that’s the only fast food we ever eat) and they’re currently giving out audio books on CD instead of toys in their kids’ meal. You will now fall asleep to “Junie B. Jones Has a Monster Under Her Bed” nearly every night. You love it! You’re just generally so interested in letters and books right now, it doesn’t surprise me that you love the concept of falling asleep listening to a story instead of music.

In just a few short weeks you’ll be starting preschool. I had a hard time deciding whether to send you this fall or not. I’m concerned that you will most likely be the youngest in your class – by far – since the trend has been to hold children back a whole year. You will be four in kindergarten when many of your classmates are already six. But you are so smart, so social, and so eager to learn, I think I would be doing you a disservice to keep you back just because you happened to be born in the fall instead of the spring. Hopefully you won’t hate me for it in a few years!

The other day you fell asleep sitting next to me in a chair and I snuggled you on my lap while you slept. It’s been more than two whole years since you napped while I held you, and I couldn’t believe how much bigger you’ve grown. And yet, when you woke up, you still did your little baby sleepy stretch. See? You’re still my baby. Even if you are two and three-quarters.

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

I tried to tell you that you’re two and two-thirds now, but you insist that you are two-and-a-half! I guess you’re not quite ready for fractions.

Quite by accident, I discovered the other day that you can repeat rhythms. I can clap pretty much anything and you can repeat it. I have no idea if this is normal or if you’re going to be the youngest lead snare in the marching band. Along those lines, you’re completely obsessed with The Little Einsteins right now, which is all about music and using different musical ideas to complete a task – like listening for a certain melody to find something or singing loudly (fortissimo!) to make something happen.

In other news, you tried your first s’more this month. Ah, the joys of toasted marshmallows! The best part? You preferred the graham crackers alone. Well, with a side of chocolate, of course. And after all that work toasting you a perfect marshmallow!

When you were sick a couple of weeks ago, I let you watch Cinderella. It’s now your favorite movie – “Cinder-gerella!” I’ll probably regret this when you’re begging for every cheap plastic thing with princesses plastered all over it, but for now I think it’s adorable that you love my favorite childhood movie.

Oh! I almost forgot! You can put together a 24-piece puzzle! We have a Winnie the Pooh puzzle that your Aunt Jeannie gave you, and I had planned to put it away until you were at least three, since puzzles haven’t really been your strong suit. But you saw the box and begged to play with it, and you can put it together all on your own (with a little verbal coaching when you start trying to force a piece where it doesn’t quite belong).

Every month I’m even more amazed by all the things you’ve learned. You’re one pretty amazing kid!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

Guess what? You’re as old in months as I am in years. (Yes, that means I’m old.) Every day I realize that the toddler is disappearing a little and leaving a preschooler in her place. Some days you shock me with how big you’re getting, how helpful you are, what you can do by yourself, the words you know.

I didn’t mention it last month, but you stopped nursing 10 days before you turned 2 and a half. I’m really happy that you stopped when you were ready – to be honest, I was ready too! Now one of these days we’re going to have to work on that binky habit. (Just promise me you’ll give it up before kindergarten?)

Mimi is still a regular fixture in our lives. Sometimes she goes away for a couple of days, but then she’ll suddenly be in the car needing to be buckled in, or be the one who’s splashing all the water out of the tub. And when you’re not playing with Mimi, you play with your dolls. I bought you trucks, balls, blocks…and guess what? You love your dolls best of all!

Lately, you sing all the time. You make up songs about what you’re doing right at that moment, you sing songs from the Wiggles – if there isn’t music playing you make it up yourself. I think it’s funny now that I was (just slightly) worried that you’d be tone deaf since you only recited the words to songs. Not that you get the tunes quite right, but there’s plenty of time for you to learn that!

Next month’s big challenge will be potty training. We started this week, and you’ve had some successes, some accidents, and some surprisingly long dry stretches. (I’m starting to suspect you’re part camel.) As part of this process, we bought a package of Dora panties today. Oh, how it pained me to buy something character related to put on your body, but they were the ones you picked out for yourself. (Then again, the diapers you wear have characters all over them too, so I suppose it’s nothing your bottom hasn’t seen before.) You are so excited about having big girl panties to wear.

So, my silly, funny, musical girl…another month gone, and you’re closer to three than two. There are days when I’d swear you’re two going on thirteen, but most of the time you really are a fabulous kiddo. It really is true: time flies when you’re having fun!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are officially two and a half. We celebrated by going and getting our hair cut. Actually, I got my hair cut, and then you wanted a hair cut too, so we’re now sporting matching kicky summer styles. I’m a little sad, because your hair was finally getting long enough to braid, but now you actually look two and a half – strangers kept assuming you were much older between your hair and your height.

You are so excited that it’s spring. Every time anyone walks out of the house – to get the mail, take the dogs out, go to work, or anything else – you immediately drop what you’re doing, run to the foyer, start putting on your sandals and exclaim “I go out too because it’s spring!” I think you’re having a hard time understanding that sometimes when it’s spring you still need to wear a coat and socks! You’ve been having so much fun outside with your tricycle and your chalk that I can’t blame you for wanting to be out there as much as possible. We’ve also been planning what flowers to plant in our garden this spring – you’re sure you want purple – and I have a feeling gardening is going to be one of your new favorite activities. Maybe we’ll try planting a container garden of vegetables on the deck this year.

Your imagination has really taken off this month. You have an imaginary friend, Mimi, and you have tea parties with your baby dolls. You love to pretend to be things, like an octopus or a puppy. The other day you wanted me to be Carolyn while you were Mommy. For some reason you didn’t want to fix me a snack, though…

This has also been a month of fine motor skills. You’re starting to hold crayons and pencils the “right” way – and you favor your right hand when you do, so it looks like you’re not going to be a lefty like me. You want to know how to write letters. I think you may learn how to write before you learn how to read! You’ve also discovered that you can form your fingers into the ASL numbers and letters – including the “ILY” sign for “I Love You”. It’s amazingly cute (and wonderful) to flash you the ILY sign and have you sign and say back “I love you too Mommy!”

I figured out today that you’ve been here for more than 900 days. Even if I’ve only given you 11 kisses every day (and that’s a pretty low estimate, because you’re awfully kissable) I’ve already given you 10,000 kisses. Mwah!

Love, Mommy

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

Dear Carolyn,

Another month, another bunch of new things you’ve been doing. You’re considering whether or not you really need to nap – which means I’m considering whether or not to go back to work. Just kidding! It’s just that days when you declare “I awake and ready to start my day!” and don’t nap? Those are really long days, full of meltdowns (yours and mine) and long whiny afternoons (again, you can’t be blamed for all of the whining…) It didn’t help that this past week was winter break and all of our activities were on hiatus.

You’re starting to learn how to bargain. Unfortunately, you say the word “after” even when you mean “before”, so when you plead to watch Blue’s Clues after breakfast, I have to catch myself before I agree, since you’re sure you mean you’re asking to watch TV before we eat breakfast. You’re also starting to use the phrase “that’s a good plan, OK?” when you come up with a sequence of events you want to have happen. I think you’ve even been trying to make jokes. The other day you said “blueberries are green, and peas are blue, and bananas are black!” and then laughed hysterically. I’m trying to teach you how to do knock-knock jokes, but you really don’t get it yet. We do have a little shtick though – you say “I’m so happy you are here”, and I say “no, I’m so happy you are here”, and you say “no, Mommy, I’m so happy you are here”…and so on. (Yes, that’s a line from a song off the Blue’s Clues CD. And yes, you’re currently obsessed – and that’s putting it mildly – with Blue’s Clues.)

Lately, it’s been a bit of a problem getting you to sleep in your bed. More nights than not, when we go upstairs to bed, we find that you’ve fallen asleep in the middle of your floor and we have to tuck you back into bed. We’ve been leaving the baby gate on your door open on weekend nights, so when you wake up before us on Saturday or Sunday you can pitter-patter your way down the hall to our room and climb into bed with us. I wish we could start every morning that way! You climb on in with your baby, your binky (or three), and sometimes even your pillow, and squirm in between us until you’re taking up at least three quarters of the bed. It’s nice to know that some things never change.

Everyone warns new parents about the terrible twos. I really don’t think two is terrible so far – and we are four months into it, so I think if it were going to be so terrible we’d know by now – but it is challenging. The biggest challenge is that your moods are as changeable as the weather here. We can be laughing hysterically about something, and then all of a sudden you’re in the middle of a meltdown. The good news is, the tantrums blow over just as quickly – most of the time! I really think they should be called the talkative twos – with all the silly conversations, the mixed-up song lyrics, and the “I love you too, Mommy”s, the house is never quiet!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

I can’t believe how much you’ve changed this month. You’ve started actually singing – maybe not recognizable tunes, but you’re no longer simply reciting the words to songs. You’re sleeping in your toddler bed all the time now, in fact we took your crib down a couple of weeks ago. You can draw people and carrots (don’t ask me why you like to draw carrots, I have no idea), and circles, triangles, and sometimes even squares. I gave you an open cup to drink from the other day, expecting to have to mop up a puddle of water, and you drank the whole thing without spilling a drop. And you’re starting to insist on wearing panties around the house instead of diapers – granted, you’re not quite making it to the potty most of the time, but you’re really trying to get the hang of it all.

You’ve also become…willful is the wrong word, but it’s the best I can come up with. We play chase every day while I try to wrestle you into whatever clothes you’ve picked out. You run away after every meal before I can wash your sticky hands. You’ve discovered that if you wedge yourself into a small enough space, I can’t actually get you out against your will. We’ve been discussing cooperation. Often. And how only little girls who cooperate get to watch Elmo’s Potty Time DVD. I never thought I’d resort to bribery, but I think you’d do almost anything if it meant watching your beloved furry red monster sing about using the potty.

You adore playing in the snow that we’ve finally gotten – although I think you were pretty happy to be using the slide just a week or two ago. You spend hours playing with lacing beads and your kitchen. And just today you spent the entire morning playing with a box big enough for you to lay down in and close the top – first it was a boat, then a car, and at some point you dragged your Elmo chair in there and had a tea party with your babies. I thought you liked your playsilks before, but this month you’ve started using them to be a superhero, a baby bird, and a teacher (you put it on like a cape, only in front of you, and say you’re a teacher). You’ve got a wonderful imagination. Thank you for sharing it with me.

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are 26 months old. It’s also Grandma’s birthday and Christmas Eve, so it’s been a very exciting day.

This has been the month of songs. You still can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but you know the words to so many new songs. A lot of them are the songs we tossed in a playlist to listen to on our way to visit Nana and Poppy, but others are holiday songs like “Jingle Bells” and “Christmas Bells Are Ringing”. One of your favorite songs to sing is “Where Is Thumbkin?”, but you sing “where is pumpkin” instead.

We’ve started the switch to having you sleep in a toddler bed. It began in a desperate attempt to have a place for you to sleep on our trip – we recently discovered that you are too tall for the pack & play and didn’t want to find out whether you could actually climb out. You loved your inflatable Winnie the Pooh bed so much that when we got home you insisted on sleeping in it still. Luckily, we got our hands on a gently used toddler bed pretty quickly, so you’re switching back and forth between the bed and the crib.

This has been such a fun month of holiday preparations as well – we’ve baked so many cookies, and decorated the house. You’ve really enjoyed all of that, and keep asking to decorate more things. In fact, tomorrow we’ll put the last ornament on your advent tree, and I think you’re going to miss it.

And, the biggest news of all? While we were at our Christmas Eve party this evening, you did your first somersault! You were very, very excited about that. I’m sure skipping, tricycles, and monkey bars aren’t too far behind. In fact, I’m willing to bet that the day you start driving I’m going to wonder how time went so very fast!

Love, Mommy

Dear Carolyn,

I couldn’t decide whether to continue writing these monthly letters – it seems like an odd thing to count months once you’re two years old. But on the other hand, I really enjoy looking back at all the things you’ve done on a monthly basis over the past two years. So, I’ll keep writing as long as you keep doing fun and interesting stuff, OK?

If we had any doubt that you turned two last month…well, there’s no doubt at all – you tell everyone you see “I be two!” if they even glance in your direction for half a second. You’ve also started suffering from the “if it wasn’t my idea I refuse to do it” syndrome, the “if it’s on my plate and isn’t at least 97% carbohydrates I won’t eat it” virus, and the “I want to do it myself and if I can’t I will go completely limp/stiffen all my limbs/have a complete and utter meltdown” disease. In other words, you’re two years old!

Right now your most very favorite show to watch is Sesame Street. Practically before we even finish breakfast you start pleading to watch it. Obviously you know I’m at my weakest in the morning before my coffee kicks in, and as long as we don’t have to be anywhere at a particular time that morning I usually let you watch it. Hey, it’s more time for me to drink coffee and clean up breakfast! (Although I do have to admit…I really love Sesame Street too and I watch it with you more often than not.) You love to try the things they show, so when the Count introduced the number of they day by showing a little girl hopping on one foot 11 times you decided you would hop on one foot. You stand in a doorway, hold on to the frame, pick up one foot and swing it back and forth while you count. It’s really quite charming.

Speaking of counting, it’s really funny how you count now: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20! It’s actually pretty impressive that you know there are numbers past 20, even if you don’t know what they are. You also love to use my retractable tape measure to measure things, and everything is “two-four-nine” long, whether it’s my nose or the dogs’ tails.

You desperately want to be all grown up. You beg me for coffee in the morning (no, I don’t give it to you – the last thing you need is caffeine!) and tote a purse around when we shop. If I ask you if you’re my baby, you say “No, Mommy! I a little girl!” I know how badly you want to be grown up, but baby, stay little as long as you can. There’s so much time to be a grown up and so little time to be a baby!

Love, Mommy