21 months

Dear Julianna,
Whew! It’s been a whirlwind of a month! You’re growing in leaps and bounds and I can hardly remember what all you’ve experienced this month. In just three more months you’ll already be two. Hard to believe, but its true!

So where to begin?

Jules, I’m amazed that you can say the entire blessing at dinner now without any help. The one you say goes like this:

God is great; God is great.
Let us thank Him for our food.
Amen

You can also say your prayers before bed every night. As you sit on Daddy’s lap and hold your hands together you nod your head vigorously with each word you say. Your father and I sit there stifling laughs because you look so overly dramatic, but apparently the rhythm of the nodding helps you say the words to the prayer, so we try not to laugh. Every night when we go to bed, Daddy sneaks in and checks on you and then when he comes out I always ask, “Is she cute?” and he always answers, “Of course!”


Somewhere along the way you learned to count to 13 all by yourself. You know all the basic colors and you’re well on your way to saying the entire alphabet. You can get through most of it now, but occasionally need a little prompting. It’s been so funny listening to you sing Christmas carols this month. We’ve had the Christmas stations playing non-stop and you’ll jabber along with the Bing Crosby (or whoever happens to be singing) ‘til you get to the end of each line and you’ll say the last word of each line loudly and enthusiastically.

You’re exploring more vocabulary these days. You’ve gone from calling Nanna, “Nanna” to “Yanna” to “Nanny.” I expect one day you’ll go back to calling her “Nanna” again. You used to call me “Mama”, but now you say “Mommy”. You string two or three words together at a time now to tell us what you want or need. This has drastically cut down on the number of temper tantrums we’ve experienced, for which your daddy and I are thankful.


Your favorite words this week have been “nutcracker”, “Jesus”, and “Frosty”. You call every snowman you see “Frosty.” You ask for more “Frosty” and more “Jesus” all the time. Sometimes when we’re in the car you’ll say the same word over and over and over again – sometimes for more than 15 MINUTES STRAIGHT. It can get so aggravating that we consider CUTTING OUR EARS OFF, but it’s life with a toddler I suppose and we wouldn’t trade it for the world.

This month your mama has been pretty sad, Julianna. I’ve been feeling sorry for myself and been down on myself for gaining so much weight – just pretty whiney in general. You’ve been such a trooper to learn to entertain yourself for extended periods of time and then as I’ve gradually gotten back to exercising again, you’ve been awesome at playing in the nursery at the Y or hanging out in the stroller on walks. You truly are the sweetest little girl ever.


We took you to the Festival of Lights a week or so ago and you had an absolute blast! You got to ride out of your car seat and sit on the arm rests so you could narrate all the light displays for us. I’ve been to see those lights more times than I can remember and one thing’s for sure, I’ve never enjoyed it as much as I did this year! You bring joy to my life in so many ways, ways I’d never expect to find joy again, but that’s what you do. I love you, Julianna. Happy 21 months!

Love,
Mama