Tuesday, January 24, 2017

A Letter to Elise at 22 Months

My little Leesey Loo Loo, you are nearing your 2nd birthday. It is hard to believe you are already almost 2 years old. You can do so much and are becoming so independent which is wonderful to see, but you are my baby and it's hard to think of you as anything else. You even insist that your name is baby and if we ask you your name you very emphatically tell us it is baby. Which is funny to me because I call you a whole array of nicknames, but baby is not one of them. You are regularly called Sister, Leesey, Eeser, Eeserson, Eesey Eeserson, Leesey Loo Loo, Leesey Loodle Loo, Deeser, Deeseroo, Sissapee, Istapeedle, Istapee, and sissy. But I can't really even think of a time where you were referred to as a baby other than when I call you and Carter my babies. It's so funny! We've been working on you learning your name and referring to yourself by name but I'm not too dead set on you picking it up right now. It is just too darn precious to hear you exclaim "Baby!" when we ask what your name is!
 

Just like the last few months you have really taken off with what you say. Please has gone from peese to pleees. You are wonderful about saying please but won't say thank you unless prompted. Even then you often won't say it. You have said quite a few 2-3 word sentences and even a few 4 word phrases. You love to sing and consistently sing in the car when we are driving somewhere. It is adorable to hear. Carter was watching a show and there was a song in it. You started singing gibberish along to it perfectly in tune, it was adorable! Your favorite word is toot and you get so much joy from yelling it out when someone has tooted. You still say water for drink and get so mad when we give you water instead of milk when you want milk. You do say juice although we never buy juice. Even more so you have taken off physically. You can gallop and love chasing Carter down the hall at a gallop. You also like to climb things and then stand on them while saying, "Ta da!" One day you even stood in the cart after I'd unbuckled you and was picking your shoe up of the ground. You were so proud to yell out "Ta da!" It was so funny. Anything Carter does, you are quick to try yourself. I was sorting laundry one day and Carter made a pile at the foot of the bed and would jump off the bed into the pile. You joined right in! You also like to tiptoe when you walk and do it on occasion when you are being silly. Another favorite for you right now is spinning around in circles until you get dizzy. Sometimes you make yourself so dizzy you can hardly walk afterward!
 
 

Shoes are still your favorite. You insist on putting sockies and shoooooes on all the time. You also love to wear Carter's shoes as well as daddy and my shoes. I've been surprised by how well you are able to walk in shoes that are too big for you. We are thinking your 2nd birthday theme will be a shoe theme complete with a little area for trying on different shoes and playing in them. I really can't think of anything that you love more than shoes. You always take your shoes and socks off when we drive anywhere. I'm lucky if we arrive and you still have one sock on. Sometimes you'll be in your seat screaming and have even been known to yell out "owie," just because you can't get your sock off. I'll ask Carter what's wrong with you and he'll say, "Oh, she just can't get her sock off." One day we arrived at our destination and you were wearing a sock on one foot but the other foot was bare. I couldn't for the life of me find your other sock. Then I realized you had taken it off and put it on your other foot along with a random sock you found by your car seat. So you had 3 socks on one foot! You've gotten pretty good at getting your socks on by yourself. You also love your baby dolls. You like to carry them around, pat their bellies and/or backs, and snuggle them. You insisted on taking your baby doll into the library this morning. She absolutely could not be left in the car but you also had no interest in sharing her. You have become very attached to your blankies and lovies. You call them all blankie which comes out as either "bankie" or "bockie" which can be confusing at times. When you say blankie you can mean you blanket or your lovies so it's always a gamble. You like to take them places and try to sneak them into the stroller on runs but I don't let you because I know they'll just get thrown out of the stroller and I'm not going to deal with the nonsense of a lovie getting lost, Carter' beloved Big Al got lost and it was traumatic for all involved.
 

I wish you were ready for potty training because you continue to have such bad issues with diaper rash, but you definitely are not. When we are home for long periods of time I let you run around without a diaper or while wearing training undies. I'll show you the potty chair and remind you to sit on it if you need to potty or poop. Sometimes you will sit on it and actually potty. Other times you scream "NO!" at me and refuse to go anywhere near it. I learned from our experience with Carter, forcing you on the potty would be the biggest mistake I could make. So I just let you go when you feel the urge to go and wan to sit on the potty. I'm not going to turn it into a traumatizing experience for you. You are just like Carter was when you are successful. When you go on the potty you get so excited and want to just sit on it over and over again trying to potty even though you don't need to go. I've been impressed that when you do potty on your potty chair, you'll take it into the bathroom and dump the potty into the toilet without prompting. It's pretty impressive. I have a feeling you will be easier to train than your brother because you already know when you need to go before you go sometimes which he didn't ever really do until after he turned 3. Other times you'll be standing and get this surprised look on your face as you potty on the floor. So you aren't quite ready, but you are close and I'm so proud of how well you are doing right now!
 
 
Elise, you are the sweetest girl and are becoming so independent. We love your take charge attitude and your sweet, little voice. Your sweet curls are impossible not to play with and you make me laugh every day. You are our sweet, little baby girl and we couldn't love you more. Thank you for making every day more fun and full of love!

Now on to Daddy:
 
 
I feel like you got really fast really quick. We can no longer have a laugh when you trot off in the store, because now you cover so much ground it can be tough to catch up with you!

You are really good at fending for yourself, but you do not hesitate to ask for help if you need it. Learning new words everyday, it is so much fun to hear you ask for new things or in new ways. Just the other day you asked for milk and used the word milk for the first time, it took me a minute to realize what you had said because I am so used to you calling everything wawa!

Carter also finds it fun to try and teach you new words. It always cracks me up some of the things he says to you and you repeat or try to repeat. Watching you chase him down is a lot of fun. You are now big enough and have quick enough reflexes that I have seen you get your hands up in time to defend yourself when he runs into you. He wasn't expecting that and it definitely caught him of guard when he fell over!

Keep growing and keep learning sweet girl, I love you so much.

Love Dad!


2 comments:

  1. Excellent pictures to go with this. She is growing up. I love how she has a different favorite at different times. And she can be quite forceful.

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