January 2010

Dear Zoë~

Well sweet girl, you are barreling into toddler-hood at full speed!  Every day we are seeing less of the baby you were and more of the little girl you are becoming.  And what fun it is!  You have the sweetest personality and love to be right in the middle of things.  Especially if it involves other children.  On more than one occasion you have let out a loud squeal of delight when we've seen children out and about.  Which, speaking of, is one reason why I've been looking into Mother's Day Out programs for you next fall.  I think we're going to have one very social girl on our hands!

You still aren't really talking yet...although you do "talk" all day long.  You jibber-jabber to yourself as you're playing and have a few little sounds you like to repeat (especially dirka and ish-ish).  A few months ago you started saying "ca-ca" for kitty cat.  This cracks me up because we don't even have a cat!  But you love your Cat book so much it's really no surprise.  And speaking of books, I don't think there is anything in this world you love more.  I'm glad that you're finally doing more "reading" and less chewing on your precious books.  (Sorry sweety, you did destroy more than one of your books.  Yeah, they pretty much looked like the dog got to them.)  But now you love to get all your books out, put them on our laps, read them very fast and then get another one and repeat.  You also really love books with flaps and different textures to feel (new parent tip: best baby gift *ever*).

Well, I can't lie...one of my favorite parts of your new toddler ways is your sleep habits.  Child, you are *finally* sleeping like a true champ!  Shortly after Christmas you dropped your morning nap.  Thank goodness this wasn't too difficult of an adjustment.  So now you're taking one nice long 2-3 hour nap in the early afternoon.  I really missed the morning nap at first...but now I've come to appreciate a longer chunk of time to get stuff done.  And your nighttime sleep has drastically improved.  For the last several months you've been going to bed very well and sleeping good through the night.  BUT you just couldn't seem to shake your habit of waking up at 5-5:30.  And that was no fun.  Well, it seems we figured out the culprit a few weeks ago...me.  I somehow had this idea that you still "needed" a last feeding before you went to bed (What if you didn't get enough to eat during the day?  What if you started waking up hungry?).  Well Mama learned her lesson.  I went out one night and left you & Daddy at home to do bedtime together.  And lo and behold you slept until 7:30 the next morning!  So, I got real honest with myself and admitted that this bedtime feeding was more about me wanting snuggles & quiet time with my overactive toddler than it was about you needing the milk.  I knew it would be happening soon...and I let go without tears.  Mostly because I knew there was some serious sleep around the corner! ;)  And ever since then you've been sleeping until 7-7:30 in the morning pretty consistently.  So nice!

Other things you love: 

Dragging things across the room (boxes, baskets, chairs)

Magazines

Seeing pictures of babies

Sitting on little chairs, boxes, gallons of water & basically anything at your level

Other things we love:

When you lean in to give kisses

When you lean your head over to give hugs

Snuggles before your nap/bedtime

When you sing & dance

When you lay your head on a pillow when we ask you to "go night-night"

You still love to be on daddy's back (or mommy's) especially in the late afternoon.  You would much rather have cuddles and be held than do your usual romping all over the place right when Mommy & Daddy are getting dinner ready.  But you know, we'll take the cuddles any way we can!  You've never really been a cuddly baby...and now that you're on the move it's rare that we can get you to stay still.  So we'll let you be our little monkey as long as you like...  

Love, 

Mama