21 Months

To My Sweet Genevieve,

Well, it finally happened, I stopped telling people your age in months and started replying that "You'll be two in December" or "a few days before Christmas".  We have had a fun month with a few struggles thanks to all four of your canine teeth coming in and yet another growth spurt (I'm guessing you're closing in on the 3-feet-tall mark and are close to 30 pounds now!).  That's actually why I started telling people you'll be two around Christmas, because strangers keep asking me if you're two or if you'll be two soon and I figure that if they think Christmas is soon (which it's not to me) then yes, your birthday is soon.

Your Great-Auntie Gerry, or Mamaw Gerry as we decided to call her, visited at the beginning of September.  You two completely fell for each other, it was so cute to watch.  She spoiled you by reading you about 100 books while she was here and doing puzzles over and over again.  We showed her some of our favorite spots including Jaycee Park where the splash pad and huge playground are and picked up our produce co-op share at the Arboretum where the turtles you love live.  You were really showing off the day we went to the park and followed one of your buddies up to the top of the tallest slide and went down right after she did--this slide is seriously two stories tall and all you wanted to do after you zoomed to the bottom (while I dashed to catch you) was do it again!

Cousin love--Vivie & Beckett

Aggies in training -- Vivie & Cousin Simone

Still loving to help around the house.

You have been loving puzzles and are getting really good at them too.  Your favorite has the numbers 0-9 and you've become a wiz at it and are even starting to identify some of the numbers outside of playing with the puzzle.  You have also started to really enjoy coloring with crayons, drawing on your Magna-doodle and you've become quite the graffiti chalk artist marking up every surface in sight, including the deck furniture, walls, cushions and me (though when faced with a 6-foot wide chalk board at a friends house you had no interest, go figure).

You seem to really be enjoying "school" and you've started taking your monkey mat, lunchbox and diaper bag out of my hands when we get to the door of your classroom and you march in by yourself without so much as a wave or sniffle good-bye (though you always come running when I pick you up).

Eating from a bowl with a spoon is still how you prefer every meal so you've been eating a lot of yogurt, granola and berries for breakfast and I've been busy finding new soup recipes to try.  Some of your favorites have been a Pulled Barbeque Chicken (Soup), Ginger Chicken Noodle Soup which after eating two helpings you swiped my bowl and slurped every last drop of the broth and this weekend I made a Mexican Squash and Pork (err, we told you it was chicken) stew and you ate everything in it and gave me three kisses when I refilled your bowl for the third time!  I have to admit, I've really enjoyed the new dishes too even if we do have to crank up the air conditioning in order to get in the mood for a steaming bowl of soup (today the thermometer in the car reached 103!).

Facing forward in the car for the first time.

You are as opinionated as ever on what music to listen to and what books you want to read.  Curious George is still one of your favorites, and Osbert, Goodnight Moon, and Strega Nonna have all joined the list of must reads at some point during the day or night.  You especially love to look for the red balloon in Goodnight Moon and the This growing list has led to a slightly longer nap time and bedtime routines than normal.  You also love looking at the photo book of your first year and name "Momma", "Dadda", "baby" on every page.  I've added "My Favorite Things" and "Edelweiss" from the Sound of Music to the song selection I sing to you at night and you seem to really like them and ask for "one more" after I lay you down in your crib for the night, so I've started giving you an encore every night.

You are adding more words everyday and are really getting the hang of longer words and a few names--bubble, butterfly (buh-by), blue berry (bu-bee), belly button (bee-bee), baby (bay-beeee), apple, turtle, dino, Elmo, George (Goge), and Jo-jo (though you don't seem to understand that Joe is Daddy's "other" name). 

It's been a great month and I can't even imagine what the next few weeks have in store, but one thing's for sure, I know you'll be keeping me on my toes! I love you my sweet girl!

Love,

Momma