R 30-31 months

Dear R,

Whew. These last few months have been wild. You're changing in all kinds of new ways.

New on the horizon: increasing levels of manipulativeness. We saw some of this in action while at Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas. You like to watch movies, and we let you see maybe 15-20 minutes of a movie in the evenings if you've been good. But at Grandma and Grandpa's the rules got relaxed a little bit and you got to see Christmas videos several times. One evening you wanted to watch more videos, so you asked Uncle Surf.

He, rightly, told you you had to ask your mom. You ran up to me and said, "Mommy, can I watch Santa Claus is Coming To Town?"

I said, "Not right now, sweetie, it's not video time." The tantrum I expected didn't materialize, though, and I was kind of patting myself on the back thinking, "she's being so good and listening to me!"

But that feeling was short-lived, as I saw you run back over to Uncle Surf and say, "I asked my mommy" and looking at him expectantly, as if you thought he would put the movie on for you. You oh-so-conveniently left off the fact that I'd said no!

Mind, he had heard the entire exchange between you and me, so he knew exactly what I had told you. And when he went on to ask you, "Well, what did your mommy say?" you turned around and asked Aunt Cali if she would put on "Santa Claus is Coming To Town" for you.

You are reaching new heights of sneakiness!

But you are also so much more expressive and communicative than ever before. Your facial expressions are wild. You can say so much with just a simple glance or pouty lip. You still love to read books and we read several every day: we read on the potty, we read in the bathtub, we read before bed, we read in the mornings before day care, we read in the afternoons when you get home from day care.

Your favorite games of imagination still center around your babies (they nap frequently!) and making cakes, cookies, and miscellaneous food items in your play kitchen. Grampie bought you some stacking blocks that you have been having a lot of fun with, too.

You are turning into a very sweet big sister although every time RUS sits in his bouncy chair, you insist on taking away his toys and replacing them with his "baby" (whatever doll or stuffed animal you've deemed "his") and insisting that he "hold" his baby.

Oh, but you'll always be my baby. I love you.

Mama