seventeen months

Dear Julianna,

Seventeen months today. Happy day! The past month with you has been particularly special for me. I think it’s a combination of school starting back without me having to go in to work and you just growing into a very independent little girl. We’ve spent most of our days with Mama working on the computer while you play with your books, crayons, and toys. You go with me on runs and sometimes (when you’ll let me leave you) you stay in the nursery at the Y. We take care of the house (doing laundry, sweeping the floor, and watering the plants together) and we venture out to playdates with other parents and children. We’ve really become quite close this month and occasionally I have to stop myself from pulling you closer and holding you tight to try to keep you from growing up too fast. It won’t be long before you’re bossing around the younger kids, then getting on a school bus, and then headed off to college! I can’t believe how quickly you’ve grown so far!

You are making progress in the potty training department and I keep thinking one day soon we’ll fully switch to underwear during the daytime, but I’ve yet to do it. We’ll see how you do at school and then we’ll think about switching once we’ve gotten a good routine down. For now, you still pee in your pull-ups occasionally (especially if we’re out and about and you’re distracted), but you always wait to poop on the potty. Maybe feeling the wetness of wearing real clothes will help. I’m still mighty proud of how quickly you learn.

You are such a sweet girl. Everyone always comments on how you follow directions so well. Your Little Gym teacher always said you had excellent listening skills and you really do. You very rarely refuse to do something that we need you to do. I am very patiently waiting for the days when temper tantrums occur every hour (so patiently, in fact, that I don’t care if we never get to that point) but I’d anticipate that we will work through that pretty easily. You are indeed very eager to please and therefore very well-behaved. I am lucky.

Everyone always comments on your blonde hair also. I keep expecting it to start getting darker here pretty soon, but I guess we’ll wait and see. It’s not that I don’t like your blonde hair, really it’s beautiful, it’s just that Daddy and I both have darker hair and we’re certain that yours will get darker like ours. You still have your chubby little thigh rolls too. Sorry about that.

Doodle, I don’t think a day goes by now where you’re not trying to learn new words. You have over 30 words in your vocabulary and we can see the effort written on your face when you try to say a new one. You’ve also learned to “pretend read” lately. You sit on the floor and open up your books and “read” from them. You can correctly point out S’s and O’s on a piece of paper and anytime we say “S-T-O-P” you holler out, “STOP!” You have no interest in learning any other letters yet though.

Next week you start preschool. I am excited and fearful at the same time. Some mom’s I’ve been hanging out with have been talking about transitioning from the crib or toddler bed to a big kid bed and it sounds so rough! I dread when that day comes because it will seem like the crazy sleep training days from when you were just 4 and 5 months old all over again! But I also look back on the journey we’ve been on since you were born and if I have learned anything at all it’s that everything just gets easier. You’re so much a part of our lives now that we cannot imagine life without you in it and there’s nothing that we wouldn’t go through for you. Not one thing.

We love you Julianna.

Love,
Mama