20 Months

Photo Credits: The Life You Love Photography

Dear Mia,

You are a crazy crazy child these days. You are quite the communicator. There isn't much that you can't express in words. You're not speaking in complete sentences yet, but you are now speaking in phrases. For example, if you see someone with something you'd like, you say, "I want some!" Though it sounds more like, "awe-some!" If you're eating something and would like to share with Mommy & Daddy, you kindly offer, "Have some!" You invite others to share a seat with you, "Nana, sit here!" But your favorite phrase, unfortunately, is still, "No. Go Away."

You're picking up that Jude is not just a body part. Another word for "belly." The other day, when we went into the nursery to pick out a book to read, you told me, "Jude's room." I was so completely caught off guard. We've been trying to express to you for weeks the idea of Jude being a person. "Mia, when Jude gets here, will you share you toys with him?" Mia: No, Go Away. "Mia, when Jude gets here, will you sing and dance to make him laugh?" At which point you go into your rendition of 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and twirl around the living room.

You know so many more animals and their sounds now. You still love drawing and coloring. You love playing pretend and are just getting the hang of dress up. You are getting better acquainted with school and today, you started swimming lessons! You were not a huge fan of kicking and flipping over in the water. But reaching for floating toys and climbing out of the pool (exiting the water area) were 2 of your favorite activities. You have absolutely no fear of the water... which is part of Mommy and Daddy's concern.

You are a pro at expressing emotions such as "sad" and "happy." You very dramatically throw your head into your hands and cry, "sad, I'm so saaaaad!" whenever you don't get your way. You dance around singing, "happy happy" when you're in a good mood. If ever you make someone else sad (ie, telling Ba to go away which makes her cry), you quickly run over, extend your arms and say, "hug, Ba!" and after you give her a kiss on the cheek, she smiles and you walk away with a big smile on your face.

In a few short months when you become a big sister, I suspect that you will be so very helpful. You love to feed Stoli and Diesel. You good at calling Bubba into the house when it's too hot outside. You bring us your shoes and bows when it's time to go somewhere. And you always come when it's dinner time.

There's nothing more we can ask from our beautiful, precocious first child. Well, besides that you PLEASE stop spitting. That's not moisturizer you're rubbing on your body, baby girl.