Love Notes: 19 Months

Dear Helen Claire,

You are in your last teen month, and we won't be doing the teens again until you are an actual teenager (a LONG time from now)!!!

This month, we've been really trying to pay attention to the the way you respond best to love and to discipline. We have been trying to study you so we can love you best, how you need it and you will never doubt it in your heart. We have learned a lot! You are so adventurous- you are not afraid to walk into rooms by yourself, even in the dark! You will go anywhere and try anything. At our house, you walk around by yourself, you go into the bathroom and get a washcloth if you need one for your baby. You walk down the hall and into the toyroom by yourself at Granny and Pa's. You walk all over Mimi's house, even into the living room by yourself. At Nana and Paw-Paw's, you walk down the hallway to get books and you explore.

You love to do new things, too. Sometimes, you are reserved around new people at first, but you warm up pretty quickly and seem to have fun once you feel comfortable. We have been going to the Samford basketball games, and you LOVE them. You pay attention and cheer "Goooooo Dogs!" It has been so fun to watch you.

Speaking of the games, you do not like it at all when things are over. You beg for "moe, moe" when it's time to leave. You also cry when people leave our house. When Mimi left last time, you stood at your baby gate and said, "Go. Out." You wanted to go with Mimi. You do the same thing when Daddy leaves for work, or after he gets home if he has to go back outside to take the trash or get the mail.

You are tenderhearted and compassionate. At home, you reach over and pat us if we cough. It doesn't matter where you are, you will make a point to come over and pat whatever you can reach. You have started sleeping with your little sweetpea baby that you got for Easter last year. You named her Lauren all by yourself, and you are very gentle and loving with her. You pat her hair, and you "rock-rock" her. When you fall asleep, you hold onto her and snuggle. You are so sweet! Your teacher, Ms. Jessica, noticed at school too. This is part of an email she sent me one day this month: "She has such a tender heart and I love spending time with her every day"

If we could some this month up in one word, we would say noisy! You are trying to say so many new words. I read somewhere that children your age start picking up words at a fast pace, and by the time you are 2, you will know almost 100 words. You are putting that theory to good use this month. In addition to all the words you could say last month, you have recently started saying these words, too:

1. cheese



2. goga (yogurt)



3. poon (spoon)



4. ark (fork)



5. Unun Air (Helen Claire- you are so funny about it, too, you nod your head between the two words and use inflection like we do- so funny)



6. Yayen (also for Helen Claire- we have been really working on saying your name)



7. hide



8. home



9. warm



10. Alice (for Mrs. Alice at school. You say it without the "l")



11. walk



12. acka (cracker)



13. up



14. down



15. go



16. ide (ride)



17. truck (kind of- but you can always show us how to drive the truck and tell us that Papa and Daddy have trucks)



18. I Love You (I can't explain what it sounds like, but if we ask you to say it, you try your best)



19. brrr (when we talk or ask you about being cold)



20. baf (bath)



21. mine



22. my Daddy, my Mama (you have learned to put "my" in front of words)



23. napmat/mapmat- goodness, you love your napmat. We are going to have a hard time if and when you ever need a new one. You have to take it in at school on Mondays and bring it out to the car on Fridays all by yourself. You love to show it to me on your cot in the afternoons. It is weird how much you love that thing. It has ladybugs and sunshines on it, and you try to pick up the bugs and just giggle. So funny!



24. elp (help)

If we say something, you are like a little mocking bird and try to say it back to us. You do this all the time, and you are not afraid to try. Even if you cannot say the word, you will nod your head like you are telling us, "Yeah, I can say that."

We worked on learning to sing over Christmas with all of our Christmas CDs, and now when we ask you to sing, you sing your own little songs. Most of them are about Papa or Daddy, but you also sing about Jesus if I ask you to. You say Dee-da, Dee-da. It's so sweet.

You love the Amen Song and don't get the word Amen just right, but you do sing it to the right melody and clap along. Here is a video:

You can countdown now and have been working on that for the past couple of months. If you want to do something, I ask you to countdown, and you hold up both fingers and say something kind of like da, da, dee.

We have some paper flowers hanging over your changing table that we call your party, because they were decorations at your first birthday. You love to "go to your party," and we hold you up and swing you into the paper. You laugh and laugh.

You still have a funny way of doing thumbs up. You use your index finger instead of your thumb, and I hope you do it that way for a long time! We have started using our finger too, and we love that we have a special thumbs up just for the three of us.


You are still very into animals, coloring, and chalk. You are loving your Christmas presents, especially your chalkboard table and easel and your paints. You love when we sit down to draw with you, and we let you get into the stickers this past week. You loved them and kept asking for "more, more" and trying to pull them "off, off."

On this particular morning, I grabbed my camera when I found you wearing two pairs of PJ pants at your table. You have been working so so hard to put on your pants all by yourself. You try everyday to "help" me, and you usually tell me no and say, "me" to let me know that you want to do it on your own. Well, you finally did it! You just forgot to take the other pair off first :)

Don't worry, though, baby. You did just fine in your double pants... you ate your yogurt, watched a little of the Today show, and colored.

You use your baby crib/bathtub pretty often, too. Here you are trying to pick out your washcloths...

Then you folded them up...

and finally decided to get puppy to help you clean your table.

Daddy was sick this month with a cold, and you were such a big helper. You had to make sure he had his juice and you gave him lots of food off of your plate to make sure he was eating enough. You patted his chest when he coughed and made sure he had lots of tissues- you love giving tissues to people and crack up when people blow their noses.

You also had an ear infection this month on the right side. We asked the doctor about tubes, because you have not been a stranger to ear infections in your little lifetime. Because of your respiratory problems, he did not feel comfortable putting you to sleep, so we just kept the motrin and amoxicillin flowing. At least you love to take medicine.

Right before Christmas, we took you for another haircut just to get the bangs out of your face. Miss Leslie cut your hair this time, and she evened it up a little bit to make it look more like a bob. You are such a big girl with your new hair do, and this one should last for a while since it can grow out evenly.

You are still wearing size 4 diapers, size 4 shoes, and your clothes size vary. Some things you wear a 12-18, some things are a 18-24, and some things you can still wear from last winter! We got you some 24 month outfits for Christmas, but they are still way too long! I feel like your feet are starting to grow, and we'll be moving up shoe size very soon.

I haven't posted your schedule in a long time, so I thought I should do that just to help us remember. This is how your schedule has looked since going to whole milk and cups between 12 and 13 months old:

6:30/6:45: Wake up and eat breakfast- usually oatmeal, fruit, yogurt or something like that with milk . Sometimes you are really hungry at breakfast, and other times you barely touch your food.

Get dressed, leave for school or play if it's the weekend

On school days, you have playground from 9:00-9:30

9:30: Snack with milk

Circle Time and Art at school from 10:00-10:30

Playground from 10:30-11:00

Story time from 11:00-11:30

11:30: Lunch with milk

12:00-2:30: Nap

Change diaper, wake up from 2:30-3:00

3:00: Snack with water

Playground from 3:30-4:00

Music & Movement/Sensory & Art from 4:00-4:30

4:30- Mama comes to pick you up- yay!!!!

5:30: Supper with milk (You usually get a cup of water right when get home and we are waiting on supper to finish)

6:30: Start bedtime routine: Bath, Books, Songs, Prayers

7:30: Lay down for bed

Lately, you ask for more milk and a snack after bath time, and in an effort to get you to sleep, we have been giving it to you. We can't decide if you are really hungry or if you are growing, or if you are trying to stretch out bed time. Also, 7:30 is our goal, but that's also been crazy lately. You have been begging to be rocked or sleep with Mama, which is strange, because you always have slept in your crib. We have been at a loss about what to do, and every night we keep trying it, but sometimes you cry so hard that you throw up, and I can't handle that. It's too sad. So, after we clean you up, we rock and you go to sleep until you wake up in the middle of the night and we start all over. We honestly don't know what's going on, other than your ears and maybe some new teeth trying to come in. We are hoping things will get better if we stay consistent.

That's about it for this month, little bean. We love you so much!

Love,
Mama and Daddy