You are now 21 months old. Now that I am pregnant with a future sibling for you I think a lot about the times you and I have had together, and how every day, every hour of every day, you are getting older and smarter and the dreamy mommy moments you have given me are a unique gift I have been given. You do a lot of crazy toddler things nowadays, but I am trying to realize - especially when I start thinking I am about to go insane - how special each little thing you do is and how a lot of the things I love about you won't always be. From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep you are making us smile and discovering something new.
In the mornings you love to pour your own cereal into your bowl and I still help you with the milk because sometimes I just don't feel like wiping up something sticky more than 30 times a day - I have my limits.
At tubby time you wash your tubby dolly while I wash your hair. You are learning to wash your own body and you know all your body parts. So all I have to do is hand you the soap and say, "wash your toes!" or "wash your belly!" and you will do it. You now love to, and are brave enough to, lay down in the water and you will slowly lower yourself down and just float for a while. After your tubby is done and all the water is drained you always attack me with a wet hug before I can get you wrapped in your towel. You love running down the hall to my room and you jump on the bed while you wait for me to gather your diaper and clothes.
You love to brush your teeth and do it probably 5 or 6 times a day if we will let you. You like to carry the tooth brush around with you if you can manage it (we try not to let you) so we have been through several toothbrushes lately.
Unfortunately, during the day here it is extremely hot. Especially now because it is summer. A regular temperature for the daytime here right now is 110-115 degrees. It is way too hot for us to go outside. You are a lover of the outdoors so we will try to take you out for a walk in the evenings after the sun has set and it's a little cooler - if you can call 98 degrees cooler. When we do go outside you love to go on walks around the neighborhood. You always say hi in this cute little tone while waving and tilting your head whenever you see someone. I got you a swimming pool and you love to get wet and play in the water. It now has a hole in it though that I need to patch.
You love to run down the hills and play in the sand at the park. You always get sand in your hair and all over your face. I have to admit it annoys me because I always have to give you a couple baths a day if we let you spend time in the sand - which is everywhere. The water here that we use for our baths, to clean our clothes, and to water our lawn is a salt water. They provide us with gentler water faucet in our kitchen with "sweet water" that is drinkable and gentler, but not in our bathrooms. So the salt water can be hard on your skin and our hair.
At least once a week you and I go to a play group with new friends we have met here. You are one of the youngest kids in one of the groups, which can be hard because the other kids can be rough and intimidating, but you have a good time getting out and playing. There are several little kids that live on our street that are close to your age and sometimes we will meet them outside to play for a while.
The other day we were at a friends house and normally you and her fight over the same toy or just play alone but in the same room. But this time you were chasing each other, playing house and with a mailbox, feeding each other fake food, riding bikes together, and playing with a purse. It was so fun for me to watch you play and interact successfully with another little person. You are usually very gentle and kind to other kids and you don't have a problem with sharing right now. It's usually the other kid trying to take what you have. Hopefully we can keep that sharing spirit.
You have several favorite movies. It wasn't my plan for this to happen, but when it is really hot out and we have nothing else to do, we will pop in a movie while we play or just to relax. Your favorites now are Shrek, Shrek 2, Baby Einstein's favorite places, Baby Einsteins Numbers, Baby Einsteins first signs, Harry Potter, and Billy Blank's Tae Bo. You know a lot of the signs from the sign language videos and you use them in your every day communication. One of my favorites that you do is the sign for "friend." You do it whenever you are hugging me or your dad or when we are in a group hug. You do it when you are chasing kitty or when we are playing ball.
You love Tae Bo. You will do the entire video sometimes. You even do the warm up. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life and I love it so much. We dance a lot together. We found a website where you can type in pretty much any song and it will play it for you free. You are a big fan of upbeat songs - especially the Black Eyed Peas. Specifically the new song Imma Be and Boom Boom Pow.
It would take forever for me to remember all the words that you say now. Every day you come up with something new, and you will copy or at least try to say any word your dad or I say. Sometimes you don't quite get the pronunciation and you make it your own. Every kind of ball you see now is a "bucka-ball" (basketball). Soap for you is "poop"; Poop for you is "poop"; and Shampoo is "Hah-poop". One night you started saying "Harry" - probably because your dad loves to watch Harry Potter so much - and we can't get enough of it because you say it with this cute English accent like "Ha (like in the word hat)- ree". We were even thinking of naming the baby Harry if it is a boy because then you would already know his name!
You like to stomp on bugs. We get a lot of earwigs in our house lately, which makes me crawl with irritation, and if you spot one you immediately yell "bug!" Dad is our bug killer - not by choice - I just can't do it. You pinch your nose and say "eww" every time you think something is gross. It could be a flatulent act from yourself or your dad (mommy never farts), kitty going potty, seeing a bug on the ground, or even something small floating in your water - it's the same reaction.
You love going potty and this month you have wanted to sit on the toilet more and more. You've only actually gone to the bathroom in the potty a couple of times. I think you just like the feeling of being a big girl and the recognition you get from it. You've been showing signs of potty-training readiness for a while now so we oblige your potty interests and plan to get you on a regular potty schedule at the end of the month when your training potty arrives in our shipment.
You love kitty, but sometimes you can be a little rough with her. She doesn't like to sit by you unless you are asleep because of it. You still chase her all over the house and scream at her a lot because it makes you laugh to see her run. There have been times we have had to pry you off of her because you are on top of her and you have her in the sleeper hold. We're trying to teach you to be nice and gentle with her but you don't really care. I just hope Kitty can survive TWO babies. You love feeding kitty and every day you walk us to the pantry closet to get kitty some food or a kitty treat.
You are very loving and affectionate. You are constantly giving me and your dad and your dollies kisses and hugs. You put blankets on us at bedtime and kiss anything that looks remotely like it could be a boo boo like a freckle or a mole or a scar. You are very good at pointing out any blemish on my face... that's fun. I love your hugs and kisses - they are like a drug and they make me feel literally recharged. You also like for me and your dad to kiss and will sometimes push our heads together.
You love your dollies and are constantly wrapping them in blankets and rocking them to sleep. You like to take them with you when we go bye bye or when we go on a walk outside. You also love to color and draw. Anytime you see a pen you will grab it and immediately find something to draw on. Some things you drew on this month: Me - my feet, my arm, my face; the wall, the curtain, some of your books, regular old paper (yay!), some tables, yourself, and your toys like your big green ball.
We now have a houseboy who comes to clean the house every Tuesday. You like to help him sometimes. You love helping with cleaning - which is good because the mess was usually made by you. You are obsessed with pouring water out everywhere and you also spit your drinks out regularly. You like to hold food in your mouth for hours and then spit it out in some corner or on the floor somewhere I can't see it. I'm not sure why you do this so much. Your finger prints and footprints are everywhere - on tables, windows, walls... but I try to remember that in the long run, none of this really matters. Your cute little hands will someday be big hands that live somewhere else.
You are a climber. You have figured out that you can move a chair to anywhere you want and it will get you higher. You also figured out that you can open drawers and climb them. You like to get on the counters and the tables. You are always standing and jumping on the couches and chairs. You can climb the slide at the playground and go down it all by yourself. You are a very adventurous little person. It excites me and scares me at the same time. I love that you are so athletic. I know you will do well in dance or gymnastics or sports when you are older and I look forward to seeing what you decide you want to do.
This month we made a visit to the hospital for the first time because you decided to stick a sticky jewel in your ear. It was momma's fault that you got your hands on them and I know you were just trying to stick it on your ear but didn't quite get it right. I found you crying, poking at your ear and I saw the jewels on the floor and knew what had happened. It was too deep for me to get out safely, so I called your dad and he took us to the ER. We spent 4 hours there, and they tried 4 different ways - tweezers, water, some long plastic stick, laying down and sitting and they STILL could not get it out. So you and I were referred to an ENT specialist for the next morning. After waiting for a little while we saw the doctor. He laid you down, me and the nurse held you, he got it out with some long alligator-like tweezers and it was out. Just. Like. That. Quick and painless. I was SO relieved. I was told the night before not to feed you after midnight and not give you any breakfast just in case they had to put you to sleep. That would have been so annoying. Thankfully they didn't have to.
You love counting - well, you love when I count. You will say, "Mom!" and then take something like your shoes or some blocks and you will set them out one at a time and I will count as you do it. I say, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5...etc." and you say "2, 2, 2, 2, 2... etc." We could do it for hours you have so much fun!
There are probably a million things I am forgetting to write about - you are so wonderful and so amazing Madeline. It has been an adjustment for me to live here in Saudi Arabia. But one thing I have come to realize is that wherever we are, as long as you and your Dad are with me, I am home. I love you so much. I'll love you forever.
Love,
Momma
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