One and twenty months

My big little girl,

Where do I begin to tell the story of my big little girl who is now one and twenty months? As Winnie the Pooh would say, I should start at the beginning and go until I've reached the end. I am quoting Pooh, of course, because I just read to you from The House At Pooh Corner. As I read aloud those last few sentences in the first chapter, you rolled over on your side with your back towards me and fell asleep. No binky, no baby eye-sty, just peacefully, blissfully asleep.

Binky, binky, binky! We hear that a lot these days, so much that we're cutting back to naptime and bedtime for the binky. We want to hear what you have to say! You do have a lot to say these days, you've begun to put two words together into not quite sentences but at least ardent commands. "Bye-bye kitty-cat" is still around, with lots of Mommys and Daddys to follow. You love saying zebra and owl and ball. You love balls of all shapes and sizes.

You are such a pleasure to be around. Tonight before reading and night-night time we played with legos (gegos). You've taught me to enjoy building tall lego structures even if they don't have proper rooms and doorways. I built the base and then hastily filled in the blanks so your additions were stable. Then we tore down the structure and put it all back in the lego box.

We played a bunch of rounds of our favorite game: Boom! To play Boom! we take your nine animal blocks and 26 alphabet blocks and stack them as high as we can. Then I say, "Make it go Boom!" You touch the middle and all the blocks go tumbling down. We both laugh becuase this is quite hysterical and then we pile them up to do it again.

You love to take baths and especially love bubbles. We start bathtime with the plummet of the ducks and frog and our ritual naked baby dance. When you're in the bathtub you love to drink bathwater out of little cups. I don't quite get this, but I have no complaints. You also love to pour water from one little cup into another.

You sing row, row, row and merrily, merrily, merrily for Row, Row, Row Your Boat song. You sing e-i-e-i-o at the appropriate places in Old MacDonald Had a Farm. You just started to sing round and round for the Wheels on the Bus song.

The best of all though is that you sing e-f-g-h-i-j-k of the Alphabet Song, and have been even heard to sing lmnop or therebouts. You sing this either when someone starts with a-b-c-d or when you walk up to the refrigerator and point at the magnetic alphabet letters. Daddy and I think you're brilliant.

After we took down the Christmas tree and put the green chair in its place you started a new entertaining habit of saying Bye! Bye! and then hiding behind the transparent curtain (partially hidden behind the green chair) until someone says either "Bye Bye" or "Come back, we miss you!" Then you reveal yourself from behind the curtain giggling and then walk back around to do it again.

You still get upset whenever Daddy sits next to me or is within three feet of me. We try to explain that it's a good thing. You want happy parents as divorced parents are not fun in the slightest, but alas, you're not buying that yet. Someday, we hope, to cuddle on the couch without you whining in the corner or trying to pull us apart. Your Daddy swears he will remember this and do the same to you when you bring a boyfriend home.

While I'm on the subject, I have to note that on New Year's Eve you were spotted on your couch leaning over to your friend Jack, lips puckered so he could kiss you. I saw it, Jack's mom saw it, and I only wish we had a camera.

Happy twenty-one month birthday, my big little girl. You are a joy and every day I think how lucky I am to be your Mommy.