Dear Del 23 months

Hello My Little Love,
A month is gone, again? Already? But then I want to write you a letter at least once a week because I know I'm forgetting things. Things like how you can say "bobo, booboo, baba" and any other combination of initial /b/ words but you say "baby" as "jiji" (or maybe it's spelled "gigi"?) And you are Obsessed with a capital O with babies. You've loved holding babies since you could hold yourself up but now it's this book. We Have a Baby. We read it every day before your nap. The book says things like: "We have a baby. A baby to love. (you say "looovvve") A baby to wash. "you sign and say bath very enthusiastically) A baby to dress. (you say "boots!" and we tell you that it's really socks so you say "socks" but for a long time you would insist it was boots and get really sad when we tried to convince you the baby was in fact getting socks on, not boots) A baby to kiss. (you make kissing sounds) et. etc. etc.

 

So that's new this month. Instead of nursing to sleep you let us read to you. Grammy started it. One day Daddy and Mommy went to a conference and Grammy and Nina hung out with you both. Grammy decided to read you books to see if you would fall asleep. And you did! So that's what we started doing. Book after book after book. After about 13 books you would be asleep. Recently Daddy started reading less than 13 books and then telling you books are done and it's time for snuggles. That's working.

 

Which leads in to the whole reason books are now such a huge part of the nap time routine. Nursing. I think it's done. I think. We were down to 2 times a day at the beginning of the month- before nap and before bed. Then I started working a lot and wasn't home at nap. So we cut out nap nursing. And 3 nights ago I was done with before-bed-at-night-nursing. You didn't think it was a great plan but there have been several nights where I'm not here at bedtime and you do fine. If you fell asleep during nursing that would be one thing. But you don't. So we're done. The first night you didn't mind. The second night you were pretty sad. Last night it wasn't a big deal. So I think that's that. And let's talk about that time between the lights going off and you falling asleep. If I'm with you guys (which is generally the case given the nursing situation) you insist I stay until you fall asleep. Noah announces every night that he wants Daddy to stay and you say: "Noooo. Maaaaammmmaaa!" And it goes back and forth and we're all giggling in the end at your funny pronunciation. Before falling asleep, you snuggling on top of me, kiss me all over my face, ask what different body parts are on me... and then you. Lean over me to giggle at your brother on the other side (who often insists he's trying to sleep and you're being too loud... or he giggles back escalating everything). Babble like crazy... loudly. Generally just a whole bunch of things that would be so so cute if it wasn't well past the moon rise. If Daddy is snuggling, (I think twice this month) after Noah falls asleep he can tell you he's going to do work and that is a-okay with you and then you fall asleep by yourself. I'm always impressed. I think I've been able to do that twice this month... which I guess is fair because Daddy's been able to do it twice too.

 

But daytime stuff... let's talk about that. You're super snuggly and give squeeze-tight hugs. You are still in to copying everything around you with pretty funny results. You copy facial expressions from books, Noah's dance moves, and the cat chasing the light or a piece of string Noah drags around.

Daddy noticed that instead of "Dada" you're calling him "Da-die". I'm still "Momma".

You insist on pig tails. Often. Unfortunately Daddy can't do them. But you've figured that out. So you only ask if I'm here. And they're cute and I'm glad you're okay with your hair being messed with but it's also pretty great just letting your hair down. When you want pig tails (in the car, sometimes... but that's another story) you yell: "nee-nee!" and climb up on the toilet seat for me to do them. I don't know how pig tails turned in to "nee-nee". And the whole time Noah says he'd really like it if you had a horse tail instead.

That brother. You two. It's very fun to hear you talking back and forth in bed when you wake up... usually one of you wakes the other one up unless we grab the chatty one out of bed early enough (doesn't happen often). You just agree with everything Noah says with a "yes" or a "me" and he keeps chatting away. You're very willing to follow his lead and his directions most of the time which leads to happy playing for all. When he has something you want we tell you that you have to wait until his turn is over and then I'm sure he'll share. He usually does soon after. And you do the same when you are the holder of the wanted object. I hope your friendship continues indefinitely.

I love you sweet pea,
Momma