23 Months
- We got a swim pass this month to the pool. The water to the big pool is too cold for you, so you end up running back to the hot tub the whole time. Your favorite was sitting on the top step and playing with the bubbles. Towards the end of the month, you got brave enough with the cold water to start jumping in all by yourself like the big kids.
- I love watching your language increase. You finally can say Sam. Before, you would always say "Hams", but I have been working with you on the "s" sound. For some reason, it is easier for you to say Sammy than Sam.
- Your favorite song right now is Twinkle Twinkle. You make your siblings sing it to you over and over again whenever we get in the car. Your favorite is when we sing it in a deep voice with our lips in a tight circle. That always gets you laughing.
- You are very determined to do things by yourself. The most common thing you say is, "No. ME ME ME!" This includes getting dressed and buckling up in the car. I have to plan extra time with clothes because you insist on getting dress by yourself, get frustrated when you can't do your shirt, ask me for help, I just touch your shirt and you think that is enough help, so then you try to do it yourself again, then you come back to me, and this cycle continues on for a while. Sometimes you figure you, other times I have to force the shirt on you and you throw a big fit afterwards that you didn't get to do it by yourself.
- You love babies. I often find lean diapers in your trash because you will "change" the diaper on your baby and throw away the diaper when there is "poo poo" in it. It is common to find dried up wipes on your floor because you changed the baby or gave the baby a bath.
- You are so fine just playing by yourself. I often find you reading books in your rocking chair and cooking up something in your kitchen.
- You are one of the best snuggle buddies. I love on slow mornings having you crawl into my bed and snuggle up and read books. There are these baby book from the library (Baby Eat, Baby Cuddle, Baby Move) that are your absolute favorites to read.
22 Months
- It was a fun month
celebrating Christmas. I often found you by the Christmas tree playing
with an ornament, even though the tree was really prickly. A few times I
had to stop you from opening up the presents. But your favorite part of
the decorations was the musical snow globe that Grandma Price gave you.
You would climb up the piano and turn on the music of both snow globes.
The music was loud and a bit annoying when played together, but thankfully
they both survived.
- The snow keeps coming and
you are really starting to love sledding. We go down the hill off our
driveway, and it is the perfect hill for you. You also pull out all the
snow toys and truck and plop down in the snow and play for a while. We
have a tradition that after playing outside, we will come in for hot
chocolate. You get so excited about hot cocoa, but will only drink maybe
half your cup.
- We took you to see Santa
twice this month and both times you were weary of him. You didn’t mind him
if there was a distance between you and him, but the moment that he got
close, you were clamp onto one of us. The cutest thing is that you never
said Santa, you always called him “Ho Ho Ho”.
- It was so good this year
to have Dad home for all of the Christmas season. Christmas Eve morning
came and we went to the nursing home to visit the residents. You found the
box of toys and made yourself at home. The residents loved just watching
you play, they don’t get many babies around. It was good to say hello to
other people’s grandmas since we can’t see our own. We ended the night
with our Christ meal (fish, bread, olives, and grape juice), reenacted the
nativity (you were Mary), and opened up our Christmas pajamas. We set out
our cookies for Santa, though you may have snuck one, and was about to go
to bed when we heard something. We went outside and heard “Ho Ho Ho” along
with jingle bells. It was so fun to see you three excited about Santa.
- Christmas was wonderful
and relaxing. You could care less about the presents in your stocking, you
were just excited about the candy and had most of it eaten by 11am. You
received a drawing pad from Santa and Dad and I gave you books, a cute
outfit (which you were so excited to put on right then), and dad made you
a darling baby bed. Maggie gave you a Minnie Mouse dress up puzzle and Sam
gave you a little baby doll.
- We stayed home the next
day, playing with new toys, watched a movie, and got ready for our trip to
Utah. The drive to Utah went well. We were able to see all our cousins, go
sledding in Mantua, have the big Matthews family Christmas party, and even
visit our friends in Ogden. You really loved asking Papa for Jelly beans
and eating all the yummy foods that Grandma baked.
