You sleep from about 7:30/45 pm until 6:30 am. You have been taking 2 naps a day- one long and one short. These usually occur around 9:30 am and again at 2pm. However, I think you are beginning to drop the morning nap because there are many days I can push you through it by distracting you with an activity. This means your one nap for the day is usually about 2 hours.
You love to eat and will try new foods most of the time. Your new favorites include sliced cheese, dried fruit, pasta with red sauce and sips of Dada's milk shakes. I am still working on getting you to eat most fruits in their full form. William was the same way, but I hope you'll learn to like their textures. So far, you will eat a real apple but like most fruits in a mashed up consistency. You like to have a fork and spoon on your tray and many times you want to feed yourself. So, I just strip you down to a diaper, give you the fork and let you go for it. Sometimes you decide you don't want the fork and spoon and so you just dive in with your hands.
You are so fast to absorb the world around you. You can copy what people do after watching them one time and just the other day I saw you point to William's toy area and very clearly say, "breakable." Your vocabulary is amazing to me. You are VERY verbal and love to babble your way through a conversation with strangers. You know exactly what you want and if you don't know the word, you walk me over to see the object or you point at it. You know every animal noise and point to objects in books while telling me what they are (sometimes). Your new words include, "good girl," "william" "utt-oh paci" (when you drop it) "big baby" and when I ask you questions, you will shake your head "yes" and "no" to answer. I think that's pretty funny and most of the time you are right on!
You love your baby dolls. I like to watch you play with your dolls and I think it's pretty remarkable to see you put the dolls in the highchair, pick up a bowl and a spoon and feed them. You smack your lips together to make an "eating" sound and then you pick the baby up and give her a kiss and say, "mmmmmm- muuuhhhh!" You smile and laugh a hardy laugh when you squeeze the back of Huggims and hear her squeak button go off. You repeat the sound and think it's sooooo funny! When you put your baby to sleep, you always put your finger on your lips and say, "shhhhhh!" Again, it's just amazing how quickly you pick up different concepts and understand a sequence of events from start to finish.
You LOVE to run, climb, skip and play in the water. You are CONSTANTLY busy. It's a wonder I can keep you clean because with any chance to explore, you are off and running. You love to stand by the sprinkler and drink from a hose. You and William spend countless afternoons playing in the backyard with buckets, the hose and a handful of race cars. William loves to encourage you to run through the sprinkler while you like to hold the hose and spray him!
You like to fill up the buckets and drop the race cars inside and then put the lid on the buckets. It's a joy to watch you and William play together. He loves you so very much and has a lot of fun just being in your company. Recently, I got you a slide. You LOVE it. You like to climb the stairs and yell "WEEEEEEE" when you slide down.
You also love your tennis shoes and like to stomp on the cement in a marching motion while looking at your feet. I think you feel secure in them and they make you run fast which puts a huge smile on your face!
Your laugh is infectious. Seriously, it is the sweetest, happiest giggle I have ever heard. You LOVE to play games with people and you tickle your toes. You say, "tickle, tickle tickle" and get a kick out of it.
I have noticed your emotions beginning to develop more and more. You are very sensitive and you know when people are watching you. Sometimes when you are dancing and jumping around to music, you stop when you notice people laughing in delight. It's kinda like you are shy, but then a few minutes later you might start dancing again where you left off. When we tell you "no" about something, there are times when it really hurts your feelings and you cry a very genuine "you hurt my feelings" kind of cry. It upsets you terribly, but I am working on always telling you, "you are a good girl. you are not in trouble, but X is not a good decision" or "X is dangerous," etc. Hopefully you will begin to understand this concept soon.
You are doing so much better at Mother's Day Out. Drop off is much easier - sometimes you cry and other days you march right on in like you own the place. Your naps there are not stellar, but that is ok with me. More often than not, you are happy when I pick you up. You run to the door and jump in my arms and give me the biggest hug. It's the absolute best part of my day. William loves to come with me to pick you up. He listens to the teachers tell me about your day and he sometimes asks them questions like how long did you nap? did you eat all your lunch? I laugh to myself because I think it's so sweet that he's concerned for your happiness and well being. Most 5 year olds are probably clueless about that stuff, but not your brother.
When you are hungry, you go to the pantry and open the door. You will pull out exactly what you want and bring it to me. You even take stuff out of the box and bring it to me! William has taught you to say "Please" when you want to a bite of his snacks and when you want a drink, you go straight to the refrigerator and wait for us to open the door. Then you find your sippy cup on the bottom shelf and gladly take it out on your own.
You love your Dada. He's the icing on your cake. You and Dada have a routine in the mornings where he takes you downstairs for milk and a graham cracker. You guys watch The Bubble Guppies (your FAVORITE show) and munch on cereal until William and I make it downstairs. You love to run around the upstairs while Dada gets ready in the mornings and before he leaves for work, you point to the front door and say, "Paper." Then you and Dada go onto the porch and grab The Wall Street Journal and bring it inside. This is when you realize Dada is leaving and you grab his neck and won't let go. But when he gets home in the evenings, your eyes pop out of your head and you catch your second wind. You and Dada play games and he'll fly you like an airplane on his legs. Sometimes you ask him to give your baby dolls a ride too.
You get a real kick out of making funny faces. This one below is what we call your "surprise face." When we say "surprise face!" you bust out with this funny move!
You are such a happy girl and the delight of our hearts. The last 15 months have been such a gift and I cannot wait to watch you blossom as the years go by. Soon you will be a big sister and I know our new baby will learn so much from you!
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