Sunday, January 3, 2010

A (long overdue) Letter to my Smallest Bee

Dear Stella,

Well, 2010 is here & we just spent our 2nd Christmas with you. Boy, have you changed in the past year! Last Christmas, you were only 3 months old...still so tiny & fragile...but THIS year you were able to practically run across the living room towards all of your presents! You really knew just how to rip apart the wrapping paper to open them, too. It was the BEST feeling watching your face light up as you tore through them all. You had so much fun!! Your Melissa & Doug Alphabet puzzle was one of your absolute FAVORITE presents from your Dad & I. You have been wanting to sit down & put it together over & over again ever since Christmas Eve & we are SO proud that you are SO good at it!! You also *love*love*love* the armchair that your Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop bought for you. And just wait until your "retro kitchen" arrives in another week or 2!! I was bummed that it was on Backorder at first...but now I think it will be so nice to have Christmas all over again for you when it finally arrives:)

We took you to see Dr. Trotsky for your 15-month visit today & learned that all of that healthy eating you've been doing sure paid off:) You are 31.5 inches tall now & you weigh 23 pounds, 13 ounces! You were always such a little peanut...but you are finally up to the 60% percentile for your weight!

You have 6 teeth now: the 2 in the middle on the bottom, 1 in the middle on the top, 1 right next to the one in the middle on the top & one upper molar on each side! You've done great with teething, too. It hasn't kept you up at night or anything like that...only made you drool more than usual & want to bite on random things more than usual.

You are an expert walker & a SUPER fast crawler.

You say tons of things, including...

Mama
Dada
Nonna
Lucy (even though it comes out like "Ci-Ci")
GiGi (your favorite bedtime friend)
Shoe
"Bibber" (your word for bib)
"Dipee" (your word for diaper)
Cheese
Bee (your favorite character in Tumble Bumble)
Tree
Thank You
What's That?
Ooh Yeah!
Oh No!
Oh Well
Uh-Oh
"Nah" (your way of saying "no")
Fishie
Ball
Shoe
Mmmmm!
Baby

Plus...all of your adorable animal sounds..."Ruff Ruff Ruff", "Meow", "Moo", "Baa" & (my personal favorite), "Raaa-Raa"...which is your interpretation of what a duck says:)

Oh & you say this mystery word, "Tadoo", allllll the time these days but none of us have been able to figure out what it means yet. We are hoping that you will enlighten us one day soon because its driving your Dad & me CRAZY! ;-)

You try to put your hat on your head yourself now & one day you tried to put on your own shirt, too! You LOVE to pretend that you are talking on the phone & a lot of times will grab one of your toy phones & hold it up to your ear & walk around babbling while I am walking around talking to your Mom-Mom on the phone!

You just are way too amazing for words. Every day you do something more fascinating than the day before. Its awesome to see how much you are learning & how eager you are to learn!

Thank you for being the coolest kid on earth. I'm not sure how I got so lucky to be your mom but I thank my lucky stars every chance I get:)

All my love,
*Your Mom*

P.S. I breastfed you exclusively until about a week after your 1st birthday, at which point I started to introduce cow's milk & soy milk to your diet. From there, I gradually decreased the number of breastfeedings per day. Eventually we were down to just 2 nursings a day: 1st thing in the morning & once before bed. Then we gave up the morning feeding too & continued on with just the 7pm feeding. That is, until last week when you so eloquently looked up at me & stated, "Nah. Nah. Nah." With that, you turned your head from my chest, grabbed your beloved Gigi & snuggled into my lap as you always have at night...but for the first time without nursing. And that was that. You weaned yourself, my love. You decided that 15 months was enough time & we were done. You are such a big girl & I am so proud of you:)

P.P.S. It is also worth noting that you like to let us know when you've got a dirty diaper. You'll point to it, look at us & say "Uh-oh!" You are just too smart & way, way, way too cute:)

...xoxo..

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