R 39-40-41 months

Dear R,

It has been three months since my last newsletter for you, and there is much to share!

You love naming and identifying words that rhyme. You'll randomly shout out words and then make up a rhyming word and declare, "That rhymes!" Sometimes the words are actual words. Sometimes they actually do rhyme. We have fun with this, especially when reading poetry at night before bed. It is really exciting having you play with word sounds. You love to identify sounds that words begin with, and when I write things for you, I often ask you to tell me what the first letter should be.
We've instituted a reward chart which is working fairly well. Grammie made your first one (the red one on the fridge in the picture above) but we've had a few others since then (the current one is on the left of the red one). Usually you get a Dora sticker for setting the napkins around the dinner table, and we sometimes surprise you with a sticker for being good or doing something wonderful or showing kindness towards others. You love picking out your surprises (they are all little things, some from Grammie and others that we've found or gotten while out and about).
You still enjoy playing with Pocha. The last few weeks we haven't heard much about him, but he was around a lot the last few months. But as your interest in playing with Pocha has waned, you've gotten a lot more involved with your dolls lately-- specifically your princess dolls (Cinderella, Ariel, and Cinderella) that you got for your birthday this year.

In fact, lately our house feels like it is overflowing with talk about Princesses, Princesses, Princesses! To give an example, we have six different Cinderella books in the house, plus a seventh one that I checked out of the library last week. Having all these versions of the book are my fault, as I loved Cinderella as a girl and so whenever I see one on sale or super-cheap, I snag it. We've also received some for free from various family members. Three of the versions we have are Disney books but each one is somehow different.

In one of the Disney Cinderella books we have, the first page starts off with a brief description of Ella and her father, including the mention that Ella's eyes were as blue as forget-me-nots. You have asked someone to read this particular version of Cinderella to you at least 100 times in the last month, so I'm sure you about have it memorized by now. Today, as we were reading Fancy Nancy, Explorer Extraordinaire, when I got to the wildflowers page (which includes a picture of a forget-me-not), you exclaimed, "Ella's eyes were as blue as forget-me-nots!"

I'm embarrassed to admit I had no idea what you were talking about for a minute there, but it's just another sign of how sharp your memory is for all kinds of little details. Nothing gets past you these days.
You've also seen some changes at your day care. The school just hired a new teacher for your classroom, ending a search for a new teacher that actually started way back in May. This meant that the classroom assistant that you had for three months also moved on, and we were sad to see her go! She super-generously gave you a $5 gift card to a local toy store and we took you there to let you pick out anything you wanted. You picked out this blue princess doll, who you have variously called Cinderella or Mary (of Mary Had a Little Lamb fame), and you've carried this doll everywhere ever since you got it.
I asked you if I could take some pictures of you with the doll so that we could send them as a thank you to Ms. A, and you were SO happy to cooperate! Do you know how happy this made me? You were even brave enough to sit in our tree and let me take pictures. They came out so gorgeous. Daddy and I are going to frame one of them for our living room.

We love you so much, baby girl!!!

Love,
Mama

Re: R's Monthly Letters

Believe it or not I am actually working on one for R. It's going to be her 39-40-41-month letter. I really am behind on hers, but it is coming!!!

R 38 months

Dear R,

One of the biggest developments in the last few months has been your interest in artwork. There have been huge transformations in the kinds of things you create with your crayons and other art supplies, so I decided to feature some of my favorite things that you've done in this monthly letter.

I love the colors on this one. If I didn't already have my favorite beach landscape of yours taped to our kitchen wall I might've considered adding this one up there.
Another abstract skyscape. The purple mixed in makes me feel like this is a painting of the sky at dusk.
You drew this next one during your rainbow phase. If you can't read the writing on the picture, it says "Rainbow Alligator." There's another one on the other side, too.
And here is where everyone should start to be astounded. One of the changes that has occurred in the last few months has been that you've started coloring in the lines. You like to find random shapes and fill them in--like if you are coloring a picture in a coloring book you want to color in every shape you can find. If I draw shapes for you, you want to make marks on every single one. Depending on your mood, you'll either draw a single dot, scribble one or two little scribbles, color in the entire shape very heavily, or color EVERYTHING in and around that shape as if you want to obliterate it from the page. We were VERY impressed when you colored in this giraffe! I was particularly taken with your color choices.
But THEN, you colored in this toucan, looking at a picture of a toucan on the cover of one of RUS's board books. I absolutely love how well you colored in the bill in stripes of alternating colors! It's phenomenal!
And here you are proudly showing off your creation!You've been doing so much more than just artwork lately, too. Just this morning you did several somersaults entirely on your own. Previously we'd always had to help you along. You're having a great time with friends every day at day care, although your "best friend" changes daily. That's good, though--you want to have good friends and I don't think you need to tie yourself up with just one best friend yet.

Love,
Mama

R 36-37 Months

Dear R,

I've been debating whether I should address this monthly letter to both you and your friend Pocha. We've been learning a lot about Pocha the last few months. I've mentioned before that you like to ask for stories and you tell us who the story should be about. There have been a lot of stories about Pocha. I like to start the story and then ask you to help me with details: "There was a little girl named R. And she had a friend named . . ."

"Pocha!"

"Okay, Pocha. And Pocha and R loved to . . . "

At this point you start to get impatient and say something along the lines of, "No, YOU tell me!" So I have to be careful not to ask you to supply too many of the details of the story. We make up all kinds of stories, often loosely based on real life and what we've done that day or yesterday or the day before.

These last few months have also shown your growing love and (dare I say) obsession with Dora. You love Dora and when given a choice of dvds to watch you almost always choose Dora. We have three different Dora books that we've read to you over and over and over again, and you insist on wearing your Dora pajamas (you have two different ones now, thanks to your two sets of grandparents) as soon as they are fresh out of the laundry.

You've been working hard at jumping farther and farther, and you practice standing on one foot and hopping on one foot every day. You get better at them each day--it's wild! We think you'd love a gymnastics or a dance class to practice your coordination.

You have also started drawing actual pictures and tracing letters and numbers. The other day we played quite a few games of tic-tac-toe while you practiced making X's over and over again. You got really good at it by the time we played our last game!

Love,
Mama

R 35 Months

Dear R,

What a month! Of course the big news is that your Grammie and Grampie now live close enough to visit with several times a week. This means lots more attention for you! It's great. You've helped Grampie plant a garden and enjoyed quite a few meals over at their house in their high chair.

You know that your birthday is coming up in June and it's already a topic of conversation just about every day. You've started planning out what kind of cupcakes you want to have and you sing yourself happy birthday several times a day.

You have become very interested in two kinds of stories: stories that we read to you and stories that we make up. When I make up a story, I usually start like this: "Once upon a time, there was a little girl/boy named . . ." and then I dramatically pause so that you can fill in the name for me.

Sometimes you insist that I come up with a name. Most of the time though, you want to come up with a name yourself. I've told stories about Marisa (the name you've given to most of your dolls at one point or another), about you, about RUS, about Grandpa, but lately, as in the last two weeks or so, you've wanted a lot of stories about "Jack."

(Perhaps unrelatedly, you've also generally been insisting that just about all of the stories I tell be about little boys, and I've noticed that you almost always use the male pronoun when describing your stuffed animals and other similarly androgynous/anthropomorphic items. The feminist in me is only slightly worried at this trend: there have to be good stories about little girls, too! And a doorknob can just as easily be a girl doorknob as a boy doorknob, right?)

Anyway, I've just about exhausted my repertoire of stories about boys named Jack (your favorite of course is "Jack and the Beanstalk" and every thump we've heard or made lately gets turned into the giant walking and ready to yell out "Fee Fi Fo Fum!"). That doesn't stop you from asking me and Daddy several times a day: "tell me a story about Jack!"

We've told you about Jack-be-nimble, about Jack and Jill, about Jack Horner who sat in a corner, and we coincidentally happened to check out not one, but TWO different library books (randomly, as I rarely read the books before grabbing them, I just check for appropriate amount of words per page and interesting pictures) centered on little boys named Jack when we went a week or so ago. This was very thrilling to you, as you pointed out JACK! It's JACK! when we first read the books.

As we've told you more and more stories, you've started to get really involved in sharing in the telling. Sometimes, for example, especially when I am making up a story about someone, you will jump in and start telling the story too. I'll be telling you about how someone is walking down the street and you'll chime in that he is going to the restaurant! Or I'll start saying that someone woke up in the morning and you'll say, "and they woke up from nap and ate breakfast!"

Speaking of breakfast, after Daddy made chocolate chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast for Mother's Day you've been asking for chocolate pizza. You describe it in great detail. And when we have to--sadly--break the news to you that we're not going to have chocolate pizza, you excitedly suggest that "maybe we can have chocolate pizza at Grammie and Grampie's house!" I try to get you to make it in your own little kitchen but you insist that you can't, that only I can make chocolate pizza.

Oh, if you only knew how much I wish I really did know how to make chocolate pizza!

Love,
Mama

R 33 and 34 months

Dear R,

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Daddy and I are in for some trouble as you get older. Or at least I am, anyway! For now, let me just tell you that you are not allowed to be almost-3-going-on-13! We've noticed that when I am talking, for example, you will try to talk over me. If I'm trying to tell Daddy something from the other room, you will start talking and steadily increase your volume the longer I keep talking.

You've also taken to telling me, "No, you don't talk now! I'm talking to Daddy! No! You don't talk! Stop talking!" when you wants to have Daddy's ear to yourself. Or if I talk to you--usually asking you a question of some sort about your day at school--you will say, "Don't tell me that!" (Translation: Don't talk to me about that!)

When I pick you up from school, I usually ask your teachers some variation of "How was R's day today?" and I often get a head shake and a knowing smile with "She was R." We understand each other in these moments: you gave your share of attitude! When you don't want to do something you're not shy about telling the world that you don't want to do it. You know how to turn on the waterworks when you want to be dramatic. And there is no way you are going to lose the "stare-you-down" game. Staring at you to try and get you to do something really doesn't work.

It's amazing how much of me as a teenager I see in you, my little not-yet-three-year-old!

But you still hold my hand when we walk across the parking lot and you love to snuggle (of course, only when you're in the mood) and we have tickle fights almost every day. You have an sweet impish streak that makes me and Daddy both laugh every day. Lately you've taken to asking for stories about different people in your life, and it's great to hear you telling stories yourself.

Love,
Mama

R 32 Months

Dear R,

You are 32 months old today. If I had to pick one thing to describe this month, I'd say it's been a month of Daddy.

You are in a major Daddy-loving period. You want him to get you ready for all of your naps. You want him to do all of your baths. You want him to be the one helping you go to the potty. You want him to be the one to lay you down at night.

You've also had some incredible adventures with him-- all the snow we've had this month has led to lots and lots of time spent outside with Daddy while he shoveled the driveway and the sidewalks. This afternoon in fact you specifically requested to spend time out there with him and made the adorableest tracks all over our front yard walking super-carefully to make sure you wouldn't sink too far into the snow. (If you had sunk all the way it'd be at least up to your waist before you hit ice or really hard snow!) On these outings, Daddy made you several caves, a snow bear in a snow house, a chair, and a couple of slides out of all the snow.

You've also gotten really into listening to Daddy read to you. He read you the entire book of Alice in Wonderland. Unabridged. Well, not counting Through the Looking Glass. You love to lay in your bed and listen to the story. You got really into it after receiving a Disney book based on the cartoon movie "Alice in Wonderland." Your favorite page was the one where Alice eats something in the White Rabbit's house and grows too big for the house.

Your sense of humor keeps us all laughing. I love you!

Love,
Mama

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

R 28 and 29 months

Dear R,

I may need to start calling this your "bimonthly newsletter" since that's been the pattern with the last two. I'll do my best to stay on track from here on out, though. I actually started a draft of this last month but then things got wild once your little brother was born!

Before he came, we were seeing lots of new developments in terms of your ever-growing independence. Grammie was in town visiting from the end of September through the end of October, and you and she quickly developed a great morning routine. The two of you would get up around 5 or 5:30 a.m. and she'd brew a pot of coffee while hanging out with you eating cold cereal for breakfast. You're quite good at eating cereal with a spoon, although I have yet to see you eat a complete bowl without getting at least a few handfuls of cereal.

One of your favorite things to do during breakfast is drink the milk out of your bowl. It's so cute. What is slightly less cute are the tantrums you throw--and the yelling that we're sure the entire neighborhood can hear--about the most arbitrary things in the mornings. It could be as simple as you requesting a bowl of "Daddy cereal" and someone guessing wrong exactly what kind of cereal "Daddy cereal" is. You certainly aren't the most chipper creature in the morning.

It's even worse if you've leaked out of your diaper and we have to try to wrestle you out of your pajamas before you've had food. Yikes.

But even better than watching you assert your new-found independence is hearing you tell stories, and to practice "reading" every chance you get. When we read stories at night, you almost always pull two books off the shelf, one for me to read and one for you to read. At first when you did this, I thought you wanted us both to sit silently and read our individual books together. But what you really want is for me to read my book aloud while you hold yours and occasionally flip through the pages. Then we switch books, and you "read" my book while I read yours.

You're getting very interested in imaginative play, and your favorite the last few months has been to put one of your dolls in one of your baby strollers and make one of the following announcements, while you leave whatever room you happen to be in (usually either your room or the living room):

"I put the babies in the stroller"

"I going bye byes"

"I going to the restaurant/aquarium/store"

You love all things baby-related. We bought you some items to help you take care of your babies, including a Fisher-Price doctor's kit (almost identical to one that I had growing up) and Grammie got you a new, more realistic-feeling baby doll for after RUS was born. Unfortunately, while you found these items lots of fun, and have played with them a bunch, they really don't distract you from wanting-- all the time-- to hold RUS. When we try to encourage you to imitate Mommy or Daddy by doing a similar thing that we're doing with your babies, you get very upset and say, "NO! I want to hold that baby!"

Other things you've told us many times over the last two months:

"Shh! The babies are sleeping," after laying your dolls down on various blankets around your room and/or the living room. You also frequently drag your baby crib out of your room down to the living room and watch your dolls sleep in it.

Now that we've moved, we're a little farther away from work (only about a 25-minute walk, really, but less convenient than the previous 7-minute walk) and we drop Daddy off in the mornings before heading to day care. You like to imagine that you're the one doing the dropping off, rather than the one being dropped off, as you sometimes announce "I drop Mommy off at school!"

Imitation is the word of the day here. I'm having a BLAST teaching you new signs almost every day. We don't really use them in everyday conversation, but it's great seeing you be able to move your fingers and imitate what I'm doing with my hands. I've been practicing signs most when we read together at night, although this is sometimes hard because I'm often holding the book at the same time. We also remember during meal times, but we haven't been really consistent with it. You regularly use the sign for "full" as you indicate that you're "all done" at the dinner table. You also like using various animal and color hand signs but not regularly. You've really been practicing the alphabet though, and I'm proud to say you can actually form signs for just about every letter and number although I'm not sure if you know them all yet. You definitely know "R" though!

Love,
Mama

26 and 27 Months

Dear R,

The last two months have been a whirlwind. You are getting more independent at every moment and this is probably the greatest change we have seen in you as summer has turned into fall. You put on your own shoes, and you insist on choosing the shoes you want to wear (usually a flower pair that Grandma got for you that you love). You also love to take your socks and shoes off, especially in the car when we are on our way somewhere. You're working on being able to pull your pants up and down yourself.

You play independently much more than before. One of the remarkable changes we've seen is that you now read books--aloud--to yourself. The first time I saw you doing this, you chose We're Going on a Bear Hunt from your shelf (this has been a favorite book since we've moved to this new house) and you sat on your little chair from Great-Grandma H. and flipped the pages and read:

"Going on a bear hunt. (flip flip) Gonna get a big one. (flip flip) Swishy swashy. (flip flip) WHATS THAT! (flip flip) it's a BEAR! (flip flip) all done!"

You're also acting out characters from books. We've gone on a bear hunt plenty of times around the house and on the way to the park (Mommy is usually the bear), but you also love to pretend to be the Pigeon from the Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. You have Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus nearly memorized and you love to quote random lines from it throughout your day. Your favorite page is when Daddy reads "LET ME DRIVE THE BUS!!!!" and shakes the book while he reads it. You demand that the book be shaken every time that page shows up, and often, you quote the line before we even get a chance to read it to you.

One of your favorite phrases this month has been "I did it ALLL-READY!" most often said in response to "let's go sit on the potty" but also said when you don't want to eat something that we're asking you to, when we want you to put some clothes on that you don't feel like putting on, or when there is something needing done that you just plain don't feel like doing. Unfortunately for you, we can usually see through the ruse and are rarely fooled. But I'm sure you'll come up with something else very soon.

You've also been busy helping us get ready for the new baby to arrive. Your biggest contribution so far has been testing out all the old baby toys-- you know, the ones that used to be yours but now are really too small to hold your interest for too long-- and ensuring that they all still work. You loved spending time with me in the baby's room while I worked on organizing and getting all the little newborn baby gear ready, and your favorite thing to do was to turn on the CD player and dance around while getting out every single baby toy. It's been so interesting to see how differently you manipulate the toys and use them now that you're so much older than the last time these toys were out.

You have about five different dolls and you alternate carrying one around and calling it your baby. You love putting blankets on them, laying them down for naps, holding them on your shoulder and patting their backs, rocking them in your arms, wheeling them around the house in your stroller, and giving the babies baby toys to play with. You frequently hand me and Daddy one of the dolls and insist that we hold it a particular way or rock it or pat its back while you handle a different one. I'm so curious and excited to see how you do with your real live little baby brother or sister.

Love,
Mama

25 months

Dear R,

You have been happily settling into the life of a two-year-old, claiming ownership of as much of your little world as you can and growing ever-more independent. But all of this is happening in fits and starts, with plenty of "fits" and "starts" along the way.

Today you were the sweetest little girl just about all day. When we asked if you wanted yogurt for a snack, your face lit up, you yelled, "YOGURT!" and ran to your high chair and started buckling all the buckles. Yes, your newest thing is buckling every buckle in sight, and insisting that if there is a buckle to be done, "I do it!" During your snack, you were so happy to be eating yogurt and blueberries, and you proclaimed several times, "MY yogurt! I eat it!" Then we offered you some frozen watermelon, an offer that you met with more shrieks and giggles. "I eat water MELON!" You were so excited!

And all through dinner you were so happy to be sitting there eating corn on the cob, peas, and gardenburger riblets with us. It was kind of amazing. Everything was funny. You giggled like a crazy lady at everything we did or said. And when I suggested it was bath time, you leaped down and said, "I walk upstairs!", didn't protest one bit when we got you in the water, and you even let Daddy wash your hair and rinse it like it was your favorite thing to do in the whole world.

When it was time to read stories and get ready for bed, we read some Mother Goose and you requested your favorite book (I have read this book to you at least 15 times in the past week): My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, we got your giraffe pillow, and you snuggled up to listen. And when I said it was time to lie down, you went right to sleep.

It was nothing short of awesomeness.

This month you've become Mommy's little clone. Everything I do, including "having a baby in my belly" or "eating ANYTHING" or "taking a shower" or "going to work" instantly becomes, "I have baby in MY belly!"; "I eat _________!"; "I take a shower!" and so on and so forth. You want me to hold your hand every time we go somewhere, and whenever Daddy suggests doing something, you shout, "NO, MOMMY DO IT!" or "MOMMY TURN!".

When Daddy and I took you to pick up some dinner the other night you wouldn't sit in the stroller unless I was pushing it. And I couldn't just be pushing it with one hand and walking alongside you. I HAD to have both hands on the stroller.

We're never 100% sure what will set off your latest "fit." Not that you have tantrums all the time, just that they feel awfully random when they do crop up. A lot of times we just have to laugh. Seriously, you're going to be upset because I'm standing with one foot on the rug and the other foot on the hardwood floor? There are bigger things to care about in this world, and I know you'll recover from this one. And you usually do--in 60 seconds or less.

Baby girl, I love you so much my heart breaks every time I look at you. Thank you for being my little girl and opening my eyes to a whole new perspective on the world.

Love,
Mama

24 months

Dear R,

Happy Birthday! You spent this entire month excited about your birthday. We sang happy birthday just about every day, and you even started requesting it as your good night lullaby. "Sing happy birthday, Gammie!" you'd say. And I'd start the song, but once I got the first line out, "Happy Birthday To You," you'd interject, "Sing Happy Birthday, GAMMIE!" so I couldn't even sing the full song. Just that one line. Then you'd tell me, "Sing Happy Birthday, Gampie!" and then "Sing Happy Birthday, Gammie Gampie," "Sing Happy Birthday, Mommy!"

You'd announce everywhere that it was someone's birthday. Usually Gammie and Gampie's but sometimes it was my birthday or Daddy's birthday.

On your birthday you were so excited to have cake. You could not wait to blow out candles-- your day care teachers reported that you spent all day talking about blowing out candles and practicing your technique repeatedly.

Grandma and Grandpa sent you some play cupcakes for your birthday.
These cupcakes have become one of your favorite toys. You love to feed us cupcake. You ask for cupcakes all the time, and you especially enjoy blowing out candles on the cupcakes. We have tea parties with the tea set you got from Grammie and Grampie and cupcakes to go on the side.

Happy 2nd Birthday, R. I love you so much, and am so glad you are enjoying this whole ride as much as we are.

Love,
Mama