nineteen months

Dear Julianna,

I’m so proud of all you’ve done this month! You’ve successfully spent your first three nights without Mama and Dada. You just stayed with Mamaw and Nanna and Pap while we went to New York for an anniversary trip this past weekend. It was fabulous to get away and of course we missed you SO MUCH, but it was so much easier than I thought it would be because you handled it like a big girl! You did whine or fuss at all. I don’t know why I was so worried about you. You played and played with all your grandparents and their toys and you had real conversations on the phone with us each day. I was so proud of you sleeping all night long and taking good naps away from home. You’re on your way to being very independent.

You’ve also made lots of progress using the big girl potty over the past two weeks. Now you often tell us when you need to go and you remind us enthusiastically afterwards that you get two “treats” (M&Ms) often by requesting a blue and a brown one. You don’t always go, but you do tell us when you need to go at least three and four times a day lately. Yay Doodle!

You switched to a big girl bed full time for nights shortly after you turned 18 months. I was so very nervous about it. Daddy put you to bed just like normal. He covered you up and walked out of the room and you didn’t get up once that first night. The nights since then have basically gone the same. You sometimes wake up in the morning and rattle your doorknob, but you’ve never gotten up in the middle of the night. You seem to enjoy sleeping in that big old bed even though you’ve been hesitant at nap time until recently. You took your first nap in the big girl bed just two days ago!

You’ve gotten so tall and skinny! You’re losing all of your baby fat! At your 18 month check up you told me all about how the doctor was going to look in your ears and eyes and nose and listen to your heart go “boom-boom” in your chest. You did cry when they gave you’re your vaccinations and flu shot, but that didn’t last long. We found out that you weigh a little over 28 pounds and you’re still in about the 95th percentile on everything. The doctor was pleased, but we expected nothing less.

You speak in sentences now. You say more than 85 words at last count and rarely have tantrums because you can’t communicate what you want. You’ve started trying to count (which comes out as two, two, two instead of one, two, three, but at least you give it a shot). You are starting to learn colors pretty well and you can say lots of people’s names now.

We’ve started putting you in “time out” for a minute for misbehavior (usually throwing your fork or hitting mommy). It’s really hard to tell yet if this has been effective, but we’ll stick with it.

You’ve started going to lunch bunch at school this month and you do pretty well with it. It’s hard to stay awake an extra half hour or so, but you’re a trooper. I’m so thankful that you’ve started to enjoy going to school to see your teachers and playmates. I think it’s been really good for you.

My heart is just bursting with pride at all you’ve accomplished recently, Doodle! The fun just never stops and I know there will always be excitement when you’re around. I love you bunches, girl!

Love,
Mama