23 Months and Counting

Dear Natalie,

What a month! I can't believe this is the last month you will be ONE. However, you are, in my opinion, an official kid. No baby left. It's sometimes makes me sad to see the baby in you leave, but it's also a joy to see you grow and mature. You are pure entertainment. You have such a BIG personality. You've always had one, it just seems to come out more and more each day.


I look forward to seeing what you'll do next and hearing what you'll say next.



This month your niece Madison was born. You loved her right from the start. You are so loving and tender with her, kissing and holding her every second she's with us. You will make a wonderful older sister.


But you have always had a tender heart - especially for babies!


This month I decided it was time to start rewarding you for your helpfulness - so I created your very first "chore chart". You love it! (Apparently you also love to dress yourself, too!) One of the times you earned a star sticker, as you were trying to put it on the chart it kept sticking to your finger and not going onto the chart. After trying a few times you looked at me and started to laugh. It was so cute to see you laugh at yourself and the situation. What a good sport!


One of your chores is to put the utensils away while I unload the rest of the dishwasher. The first time I gave you this task, after simple instructions on which utensil goes where, you put them away and you did it EXACTLY right! I was SO impressed. You are sharp as a tack.


You are also anxious to help with everything I am doing - "I do it, self". Fortunately you have pretty good dexterity and are able to handle some pretty skilled tasks. But when you realize that you can't do something, you look at me and say, "Help me, please?"


Speaking of good dexterity, you now enjoy painting with watercolors, and you do it very well! You also love to color and play with stickers. You are still learning your shapes but pretty much have all the basic ones down: Circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond and star. You are pretty consistent with your colors, too: Blue, red, green, pink (your favorite), black, white, purple and yellow. You also can count to thirteen - with no prompting. You occasionally say fourteen and then jump to seventeen. You count objects, too, and especially love counting coins.


You are also still very active outside - even though it's HOT. You ask to go outside and "golf". You also went swimming this month and allowed me to put arm floaties on you. You mastered it right from the start - which is really unheard of. I attribute it to jumping on the trampoline which teaches you how to balance. You are also a little dare devil. While swimming at our neighbors house, you fearlessly go down a short and fast slide right into the pool with little or no hesitation.


You love it when friends come over to play.


And you couldn't be any cuter with your pink cheeks from the heat!


Of course, following your instruction, we go inside to "cool down" by the fan. I'm relieved when you decide that you want to do some playing (or relaxing) in a nicely air conditioned room.


Although, I think the best time to go outside is when it's raining, and you seem to agree. You immediately want your "Dora BRELLA" and are brave enough to stand out there even when there is lightening and thunder.



You have a love for all things, including bugs. You have a hard time letting them go "home". One Sunday in Nursery, they brought out a container of rubber bugs and you picked up a huge cockroach and called it a Cicada. The Nursery leaders were impressed - so was I!


Even though you like bugs, you also like girly things like purses. You sometimes want to carry them all (you have 5 or so), but since you only have two arms, you are limited.


We have also realized your love of cooking this month. You LOVE to help me in the kitchen. I think a lot of that has to do with the step stool - "sep sool" - I bought. However, I need to get another one. We're always dragging it back and forth from the kitchen to cook, to wash dishes and your hands, then to the bathroom to wash your hands and face, comb your hair or just to play in the sink while I get ready. It sure is nice to have something a little safer than a chair to lift you up to counter height!

Along the lines of eating, once when I was trying to figure out what you'd like for breakfast/lunch/dinner, and you keep saying "No" to the options, I decided to throw in "boogers" as one of your choices. You thought that was hilarious and laughed for a long time about it. It's now a staple as one of your meal choices and you still laugh when I say it. YOU even throw it in once in awhile.


Obviously, you have a great sense of humor. Uncle Nick taught you to trick people with the classic "What's that on your shirt?" and as they look down to see, you run your finger up their face saying "Zoop!" You crack yourself up when you do it! And when I tried to do it to you one day, you didn't fall for the trick. You "Zooped" me instead!

Well, here are a few cute things that you have said and done this past month:

• I was chasing you and you stopped me and said "Time-out!" You also put Dad in "Time Out" for tickling you. So you obviously know the difference between the two!

• When we are in the car you tell us to drive "Faster!"

• You tickle your lips under your pacifier. Yes, you are still sucking on a pacifier! You also chew on them until they develop a hole. You tell me that they are "broken" and throw them in the garbage. Pretty soon we won't have anymore. Oh well!

• You have started speaking and singing in a low and growly voice. It's funny and a little strange!

• You sing all the time! You now know:
  
• your ABCs
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• the first verse to "Teach Me to Walk In the Light"
• Wheels on the Bus
• Five Little Monkeys
• Shake Your Booty - you sang this for the first time after I said "shake, shake, shake" as I was shaking a bottle of fingernail polish.
• You hum along to the hymns while holding the hymn book in Sacrament Meeting
  

• You know your prepositions. You also know how to use "-ing" on your verbs.
  

• You stomp around saying "Fe Fi Fo Fum"

• You randomly say "Break it Down" which comes from Yo Gabba Gabba and you haven't watched that in forever! Your new favorites are, of course, Dora but now you are in love with "Little Bear" and ask for it just as much as you ask for Dora!
  

• We've practiced saying "Please" when you want something and now you say it after everything, even when you are upset and are demanding something. It's nice to hear you be so polite. You also say "Thank you" and "You're welcome".

• You have learned the concept of pretend, and I was very impressed you even knew that word when I asked you what you were doing one day. You frequently "pretend" to go to grandma's house. You also pretend to take showers in my shower as I'm getting ready. You step inside and say "Pretend wash hair" while rubbing your head with your hands.
  

• You wear dad's headphones to listen to music. It's so cute to hear you sing and wiggle to the beat with them on.

• You've traveled more than a peddles' distance this month on your tricycle while out on our neighbor's driveway. You were so excited, too, yelling "I did it! I did it!"

• You've started using big words like quesadilla and xylophone. Both of which you just said on your own. One day while you were playing in a playhouse while at the hospital visiting Aunt Becca and Madison and made everyone quesadillas.

• Watching the 2008 Summer Olympics you would see the gymnasts' tumble around and tell us that you want to do what they are doing. You've learned how to do a somersault on your own this month!
  

• We've had a lot of mosquitos this summer, getting repeatedly bit by them on our legs. You looked at me once and said "Mosquito bite me" with the saddest look on your face.

• You got the stomach flu this month and when you felt like you were going to throw up you would look at me and say "Throw up!" - which was very helpful. It also gave you diarrhea and when we would change your diaper you will tell us you had "Diarrhea" and a "Rash" if it was hurting you.

• You've also recently started to get the hang of using your potty. Just after we got out of the shower, you were playing with Dad in the front room - naked. You looked at him and said "Potty", so he rushed you to your potty. You went pee - and you peed a lot! After that, you've learned to recognize when you have had to go to the bathroom, therefore earning several stars for your chart. In fact, one day you earned so many stars that you lost interest in putting them on your chart - and still don't really care to do it - and that was only after you earned 17 stars! You are such a fast learner, it's astonishing.

• When I comb your hair or wipe your mouth after you eat, you always remind me to do it "Softly, please."
  

• And can I ever forget the first prayer you said this month. You just decided to do it - all on your own. This is how it went: "Heav Fader, Thank you day. Bless you. Jesus. Amen." Since this first prayer you have been willing to say almost every prayer before mealtimes and before bed. It's so cute to see you fold your arms and say your prayer. It's funny when in the middle of your prayers you look at your food and take a bite. Classic kid behavior. I don't blame you, sometimes I feel like doing the same.
  

• But the CUTEST thing you did and said this month was when I was in your room messing with your crib so you could (finally) use it as a bed. I had it tipped on it's side so I could work on the bottom of it. You came in, gasped, and said "It's SO pretty" and then peeked around the corner to look at the bottom of it and said "Oh my gosh!" and then you looked at it a little longer and exclaimed "I like it!" It was absolutely amazing to hear all of those sentences and thoughts come out at once. To know that you understand all of those feelings. And most of all, to hear you say these things and you're not even TWO! Dad and I were SO impressed.

It's obvious that you say things daily that just impress us. Your comprehension is incredible! I'm sure I'm forgetting many other new and fun things you've done this month. There are so many, how can you remember them all!

I love you so much. Your Dad and I are so proud of you and all that you are learning and doing. You are truly amazing.

Love,

Mommy