My Darling Little Love ~
Has is really been a year and a half since we welcomed you into our little family? I cannot believe how quickly time goes by. It's a bittersweet thing to realize that my snuggly, dependent baby is becoming such a strong, bold, independent little girl. It seems like you are finding new ways to both amaze and frustrate me every single day. I'll take the amazing with the frustrating, though, because all in all, it's so so much fun to be your momma.
Eating and mealtimes fall on the frustrating side of the balance here lately. You want to do everything yourself and get so upset when your daddy and I try to help you. We've learned that you'll eat almost anything if we put it on the spoon and set it down within your reach. We've tried teaching you to spoon things out of a bowl yourself, but that's still a work in progress. As always, your favorite foods are fruits and vegetables, and you love your milk. As the weather gets warmer, we'll need to figure out how to get you to drink water. I just know you're not going to like it.
Also on the frustrating end of the spectrum is your little temper. We're seeing more and more little mini-tantrums all the time. These happen when you can't do what you want to do...either because you're not quite able to do something, or we won't let you do something. We try to give you space to try new things, but sometimes we have to stop you from doing something unsafe. There's just no way around it. I wish there was a good way of helping you understand. For now, though, we just wait out the pouting and the whining and the crying and move on. It's just part of life with a toddler...
Now for the amazing...you are just growing and learning in so many ways! Your little brain has just been working overtime. Right now, you can name about 13-14 different letters of the alphabet, point out most basic colors and even name a few, and pick out almost all of the shapes in your shape sorter...including ellipse and trapezoid! You can even name a few shapes...circle, star and ellipse. What a smart cookie!!! As always, you love your books. You're starting to pick out more little details in the pictures, and reading with you is so much fun.
You can be the sweetest little girl I know...when you want to be. You get so excited to see your friends every day and have started giving hugs before we leave to go home each day. You never get tired of looking at the pictures we have of our family members. I just love hearing how excited you get to see some of the pictures...especially those of your cousin Dylan and Auntie Mir. The other day, you gave me an extra long, snuggly hug when The Beatles "I Will" came on your iPod. Do you really know that that's your special song? It just meant so much to me.
We love you so so much!
Your Momma
