February 27, 2013
Dear Katie Bug,
Finally, finally we’re all healthy again. And we’ve been having so much fun. You’ve learned so many new words – you say “yeah”, “no”, “up”, “down”, “ni-night”, “sticker”, “shoe”, etc. You also have some consistent noises like “na-na” for “more please” and “up-ow” for airplane. You also understand a TON of words and it’s been nice to be able to have some simple conversations.
One upshot of your increased language skills is that you don’t get as frustrated that you can’t communicate what you want. That said, you are really perfecting the art of the tantrum to such a greater degree than your brother ever did. It usually happens when you’re hungry, but once you get going there is no turning back. You go ALL. OUT. There’s kicking, and screaming and throwing yourself on the floor and even asking to be picked up just to turn around and scream even louder the second I come near you to pick you up. You don’t allow any distractions or solutions and would never let us off as easily as to take us up on our many offered comforting hugs or pats. So the only thing we can really do once you get going is to just sit back and admire the melodrama and fear for your teenage years.
Luckily, while your tantrums are so dramatic, they are rare and most of the time you are such a happy little thing. You are always laughing at something or other. You love to tag along behind Nicky and to play with whatever he’s playing with. You are so very self sufficient and confident. You’re always carefully watching what we do and mimicking anything you see. You eat all of your meals entirely by yourself now. You can even put your shoes and socks on all by yourself, which I’m not even sure Nicky can do yet. Even the way you play with your toys is not babyish any more. You’ve definitely moved on to exploring all the things a toy can do instead of just sticking it straight into your mouth. It’s amazing to see all the things you’re learning and picking up on.
My only beef with you this month is that you and I aren’t seeing eye to eye on the meaning of the middle of the night. You’re up daily around 5am, just as happy as can be. Worse, you’re starting to convince your brother to join you in your early morning romps. Now you seem to be able to pull of these early wakings with not much impact to your mood the rest of the day, but Nicky and Mommy need their sleep and neither of us is adjusting to this new schedule very well. So please, please, please start sleeping until a reasonable hour again soon?
You are such a sweet, sweet little thing. You always have a smile or hug or snuggle ready to share with us. I love being with you so much (even at 5am)!
Love,
Mommy