Two and a half!
August 26th, 2010I wrote this on Maddie’s half birthday (August 20th), but I couldn’t get my photos organized until now. It’s been a crazy week. I finally sorted through the photos, and it’s time for another letter to Maddie!
Dear Madeline,
Today, you are 2.5 years old. I can hardly believe it! You are so fun to be around these days. You amaze us daily with your language skills and the things that you are capable of doing by yourself. You are expressive, independent, and almost always on the move. At the same time, you need us so much and will still snuggle in our laps to read books or hold my hand when I put you to bed at night. You frequently tell us that you love us, which is just about the sweetest thing ever.
It is so difficult to sum up everything that you have done in the past three months. Each day brings something new, and you keep learning and changing so much. At the time of my last letter, you were not allowing us to read your books to you very often. You wanted to read them yourself. You still do this quite a bit, but lately you have wanted us to read to you. You will sit through some fairly long books now, which I think is impressive! Of course, you might note that I didn’t say “sit still.” Sometimes you’re extremely wiggly and talkative as we try to tell you a story. I wonder if you’re even listening to what we’re saying at times, but then you’ll recite bits of the story back to us the next day, surprising us again and again with your retention. As book lovers, we are absolutely thrilled that you are so interested in books. Recently, I also told you a story about “a little girl named Maddie” which is suspiciously similar to Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You ask me to tell you the “story of the little girl named Maddie.” You have heard it so many times that you’re actually able to recite it with me. I love it! Some of your current favorites are Pinkalicous, The Three Little Pigs, The Poky Little Puppy (one of my childhood favorites!), and Corduroy. You also like Richard Scarry books and books about Winnie the Pooh.
We now treat you with a little bit of television from time to time. You love watching the scene with the rain in Winnie the Pooh! Usually, you just watch about 10 minutes before you lose interest and want to do something else. We limit the television viewing to the weekend, for the most part, and so far we’ve watched Winnie the Pooh, a little Sesame Street on demand, and Finding Nemo. I look forward to introducing you to more Disney and Pixar movies!
You are learning new things from school all the time. We are extremely happy with your teachers, and I have attended more of your group time activities. I’m amazed at all the things that you are learning. We are so lucky to have such an incredible opportunity, not to mention that you are just across the street from me. I am not able to visit as much as I would like, but when I do visit you are very excited. I try to drop by your classroom at least once a week. Many times when we are there, Maria will let you “spy” to end the circle time. One by one, you call out your classmates names to excuse them for lunch. Everyone takes their mat and puts it away and then sits down at the table.
We are very thankful for the Montessori way at times. You are good at putting away toys, listening to instruction, and doing things for yourself. Of course, you are also a two year old, so sometimes you have a mind and a will of your own. You insist on doing almost everything by yourself. This both impresses and frustrates us at times! You get very upset if we do something for you, and then you’ll insist on putting whatever it was into the exact state it was before and redo it. You want to pour your own drink at meal times (you do this at school), serve your own food from a big bowl (something else you do at school), climb into your car seat and high chair, pick out your clothes and dress yourself, turn on the faucets when washing your hands, and much more. You are capable of doing all of these things
You have been into collecting rocks on the playground at school and often bring home cups of special rocks. Now that your brother has started crawling, we’re a little concerned about the added choking hazards. You are pretty good at keeping them on your special big girl table, but they still get everywhere at times! I’m not sure what started this fascination with the rock collecting. This is something that you and your buddy Keira enjoy doing. You’ve also been getting covered in sand in the sandbox at school. One day, I came to visit and you and another one of your friends were literally rubbing your heads and faces in the sand. It was so humid, and the sand was stuck all over you!! It was ridiculous, but you were having a blast.
Speaking of sand, we visited the beach in July with your Grandma. She was coming for a quick visit, and we all thought that the beach sounded fun. You were excited about the beach, and we told you it was like a big sandbox. You enjoyed building sandcastles, but you did not like the water. You stated, “I do not like the beach!” You weren’t thrilled that the sand was starting to get everywhere (believe me, neither was I), and you were afraid that the waves were going to get you. The tide was coming in, so the water kept getting closer and closer. When we got to the swimming pool, you were much happier! After nap, you spotted the beach from our window in the high rise condo building. You exclaimed, “There’s the beach I like!” Seems like you enjoy the beach from afar, but not really so much close up. You did enjoy our after dinner stroll on the beach once you discovered shell collecting. You filled your pockets with tiny shells much like you do with the rocks at school.
You love going swimming, and we have had several opportunities this summer to do so. You even took another set of swimming lessons with Daddy. Your favorite things to do at swimming lessons were to sing “wheels on the bus” (altered with lines like “splash splash splash” and “kick kick kick”) and play with the pool toys.
You have been taking another type of lesson this month – fancy ribbon dancing! Your friends Keira and Sophie are in the class with you. I’m not sure how much any of you are learning about dancing, but you all seem to enjoy it. It’s interesting to see how the instructor tries to get a group of two year olds to pay attention and follow her lead. She has varying levels of success. You go from loving it to wanting to go eat dinner. The class is right after work, so it does throw off our dinner schedule by a little bit. It’s been an interesting experience, and I look forward to more lessons as you get older. It will be fun to expose you to a variety of experiences. The class is through the local community center and only 4 sessions, so it is a perfect way to sample different things.
I have made it this far into the letter, and I can’t believe that I haven’t mentioned potty training or your pacifier!!! You had some major milestones in the past 3 months. You embarked on a new adventure with potty training in mid-June! One week, you were asking to use the potty every time you needed to poop, and the next thing we knew we were putting you in underwear and asking you about the potty every 5 minutes! You had a good number of accidents in the first week, but since then your accidents have been few and far between. We are so proud of you!
I was nervous about this transition, but you have once again amazed us with how capable you are. We rarely even have to ask if you need to potty (though we do often remind you before getting in the car or going to bed). You were very proud to wear big girl underwear, and we bought you some new Elmo underwear. You now have Tinkerbell, Princess, and Elmo undies. After a little over a week of potty training, we asked you to pick out your nighttime diaper. You looked at us and said, “I don’t wear diapers, aaaannnnnymore, ok? I’m a big girl, and I wear underwear.” With that, we were done with diapers permanently. You have only had a few night time accidents.
The other major milestone this month was getting rid of your pacifier. We have only used the paci for bedtime and naps at home for a while. We knew the time had come to get rid of the pacifier at night. Previously, we didn’t know when would be a good time for the transition. You had so many big changes in your life: new brother, new classroom, new big girl bed, and potty training, to name a few. We finally got to the point where we decided that you had no major milestones and we planned to stay in town for the next few weeks. The paci fairy came and took your pacis and left a princess puzzle. You are convinced the Cinderella herself brought you the puzzle.
That night, we heard you talking to Lila, your new purple fish that Grandma bought you from the aquarium at the beach. You said, in a very sad voice, “no more pacis, Lila.” The following night was the roughest one with lots of tears and trouble going to bed. You said to Daddy, very seriously, “Babies have pacis. Big girls don’t have pacis.” After a pause, you followed with, “I want to be a baby.” It was heartbreaking, but you adjusted and have been paci free for weeks. You do tend to babble and sing for a while when you go to bed. It takes you a little longer to settle.
You are very good at your puzzles! Shortly after the last letter, we bought you a few more challenging puzzles. The first one you tried had 12 pieces and is like a classic jigsaw puzzle. I swear it took you only 3 or 4 minutes to finish it the first time. We quickly transitioned to the 24-piece jigsaw puzzle. I was so impressed when you were explaining to us how to put together a puzzle. “See, this is a corner piece!” and “See this pink here [on this piece]? See the pink here [on this other piece, indicating that they fit together]?” You are able to put together 48-piece puzzles all by yourself. One day, I tried to put together one of your puzzles while you were napping. It took me forever to complete! I can’t believe how quickly you can put them together.
You have quite the imagination. Lately, you’ve been spotting wild animals in the house (or elsewhere). At first, you were obsessed with deer. You informed me one day that there was a deer in the potty! I told you how interesting that was and that I didn’t know we had potty deer. You made sure to let me know that the deer was a tiny one. You have seen wolves on your toys, bears in the bedroom, and deer on foods that you do not want to eat.
You enjoy playing with your baby doll whose only name, sadly, is “Baby.” Since your brother started eating solids, you’ve been especially interested in feeding your baby. We recently surprised you with a high chair for Baby. The other thing that baby does quite often is poop. She poops everywhere, apparently. You will amuse yourself for 30 minutes with a wipe. You’ll wipe everything in sight, explaining how Baby pooped on your shopping cart’s wheels, basket, and handle. You will exclaim that Baby pooped on your leg, the couch, and the floor. It’s a good thing that you also have a medical kit, and Baby has frequent doctor visits. She’s clearly ill.
You love your baby brother, and he loves you, too. He is totally fascinated with you. When you are both riding in your car seats, he cranes his neck to see what you are doing. He watches you playing at home. He is interested in any of your toys, especially when given a choice between your toys and baby toys. Now that he’s crawling, you aren’t too thrilled about him getting into your things. You’ll be learning more about sharing as he gets older! You are very proud of your brother and often refer to him as “my baby,” “my cullen,” “baby cullen,” “baby brother,” and still the ever popular, “cullen-man.” It warms my heart to see you two interact (though I know that sibling rivalries are in my future!).
We had your 30-month conference with your teacher, Maria, today. Your teachers seem to enjoy you and comment frequently about your strengths. You are doing extremely well communicating and excel at self-care. You know just what to do in the classroom with choosing your work, requesting supplies, setting your table, using the potty, and washing your hands. You are very capable! Maria let us know that you have had some conflicts with your best friend, Keira, and that you sometimes need to be separated. Your relationship is so close, you are like sisters and sometimes have little sibling tiffs. Most of the time, you have a lot of fun together.
In the past 3 months, we have been to the mountains with Keira’s family twice. We went for Memorial Day and for Labor Day. We love our mountain trips at their retreat in Fancy Gap, Virginia. Keira’s mommy is great at coming up with craft ideas and other projects to keep you and Keira busy. We have nicknamed their mountain house, Camp Leslie. You talk about going to the mountains all the time. Last Friday, you said, “Keira and I are going to the mountains.” I explained that we weren’t going today, but in a few weeks (we have another trip planned soon). You got very upset! You responded, “but it’s Friday!!” as if we always went to the mountains on Fridays. Very cute (and smart!).
One of the things you two love doing in the mountains is dancing to Viva la Vida by Coldplay. It’s so fun to watch you dancing, spinning, running around! Another thing you did in the mountains over Memorial Day weekend was to skip your nap. I believe that is the first time that you went an entire day without a nap. I think you’ve had a few days with very short naps, but you never went a whole day without it. Since that weekend, you’ve missed a few naps on weekends here and there. You adjust to this remarkably well. I think these are our first signs that your days of nap time are numbered. Can we have a few more years, please?
Another thing you did during Memorial Day weekend (while boycotting nap) was try to climb out of the pack-n-play. You were already sleeping in your big girl bed at home, but we thought it would be easy and convenient to continue using the portable crib on trips. We decided that we could no longer risk to put you in the pack and play, and you now sleep on a kid-sized air mattress when on trips. You LOVE your new bed! We bring your sheets, special pillow, blanket, and buddies from home. It’s quite cozy!
You’re just an amazing little girl, and it is so fun to watch you develop. You have a mind of your own, and you’re able to articulate your thoughts quite well these days. You are able to express your emotions and pains, and you have strong preferences that you’ve developed on your own (for example, you would wear your green rainbow shirt every single day, if we would let you!). You’ve started to include your brother at times when listing our family members, and I love when we’re sitting at the table for dinner all together and you said, “our whole family is here!” You do tons of artwork at school, and very often you tell your teachers, “I made this for Mommy and Daddy.” The last batch of artwork had, “I made this for Mommy, Daddy, and Cullen.” You also have had two concept pieces, a rainbow and a butterfly. They vaguely resembled these things.
Shoe shopping continues to be a challenge. We recently went shopping for your fall shoes. Your left foot is a size 6 and your right foot is a 7.5 (well, those are the “sizes to grow into”). It can be tricky to find a style that we like that comes in both sizes.
You like to assign “favorite” things to people. Recently, Daddy hung some pictures in your room and you said that one of the butterflies was your favorite. Apparently, another butterfly was my favorite, the dragonfly was Daddy’s favorite, and the snail was Cullen’s favorite. You had three wall hangings on the wall next to your bed, and you noted that one was Keira’s favorite, one was Shannon’s favorite, and one was Scott’s favorite. You then stated that Ben (Keira’s older brother) does not have one.
You know your full name and the “other” names for Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Papa, Mommy, and Daddy. You try to tell knock knock jokes. I’m convinced that by the time one can grasp the knock knock joke, they are no longer funny. You talk constantly. You can count into the teens. Sometimes, I can get you to count along with me to twenty. Sometimes you make up numbers like “twelve-teen.” You know your alphabet, for the most part, and can identify most of your letters by sight. You had your first ice cream truck experience. I had to run out of the house in my socks, carrying you in what I’m sure wasn’t the most comfortable position, to catch her. We celebrated another Father’s Day.
One day, I noticed you had a couple more molars. You have a mouthful of teeth now, though I think you still have a few more to go. You are becoming a better eater and love eating corn on the cob, quesadillas, pizza, fresh fruits (all kinds – bananas, apples, pears, kiwi fruit, grapes, peaches, etc), macaroni and cheese, summer squash, applesauce, peas, grilled cheese, breakfast bars, cereal, bunny snacks (organic gummy fruits), garlic bread, pasta, cheese (you prefer yellow), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and pretty much any junk food (which we limit, of course). You drink quite a bit of apple juice and milk. You’re not a fan of plain water, though I know you drink it at school on the playground.
You say, “Bye bye, Daddy, I love you” every morning when we go to school. You say you love us often when you go to bed. You give kisses to Cullen before going to bed. You even say, “I love you big bunches,” which totally melts my heart! I lub you big bunches, too, my little (big) girl!
Love,
Mommy
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