I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

toddler letter

Dear Autumn @ 17 Months

Dear Autumn at 17 Months-2

April 2015

Dear Autumn,

I love that you are happiest when you are outside. You point for your coat or vest so we will put it on you and then you walk over to the door, grasp the handle and fight the lock to get out. You pitch quite the fit when you can’t go outside. But it’s so nice to see you happy when sitting on the back porch, walking along the pathway, or in the backpack while I walk the dog.

You’ve always enjoyed being outside but the love for it has intensified when the weather got nicer and you started walking. I think you love being outside, but also love the independence.

At the last Dr’s appointment you were not yet walking, which worried him a bit because of your ‘advanced age’. But we knew you fine, you just wanted to be sure of yourself before letting go of us. Once you became more confident you would take a few steps from the sofa to get a toy, but that quickly progress and now you breeze by us in the house. You are still nervous of falling outside though. I don’t mind, I love that you grasp my finger with such might. I hope you will never stop.

At least the Dr was pleased in your steady weight gain. You still have skinny chicken legs that I love to gobble up. You still have days in which you are really picky about eating, or just not hungry, but for the most part you eat really well. You love stealing my food, especially my guacamole.

You understand both English and Spanish and try to communicate in both languages the best you can. We are so happy that you are learning so much so quickly. It’s amazing when you grasp a new thing, like an animal noise or body part, with ease. My favorite is when we go on our walks and I ask you what noises the different animals make and you mimic my “ooh ohh ahh ahh” for the monkey with “aah ahh oooohhh”. The best!

Some of the best moments are when you walk up to me and grab my leg when I’m cooking and you give it a big squeeze while you rest your head on my thigh. You are the best cuddlier when you are in the rare mood to stay still. But for the most part you are on the go and will walk over with your arms stretched out wide, lean your body and head against me for a beat before pulling away to give me a smile as you go on to get a toy or love (pester) the dog.

I can’t wait to enjoy this next month with you. We have my 2nd mother’s day to celebrate and I am looking to all of us going to the Make Way For Ducklings Parade for it. The weather should be getting nicer and nicer, so hopefully we will spend plenty of time outside. And I’m sure that you’ll love doing more and more craft projects like coloring and painting. Our fridge and my desk will be plastered with your creations soon enough!

I love you so much!

Love,

Mommy

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Dear Autumn @ 16 months

Dear Autumn at 16 months-1

Dear Autumn,

It’s Thursday night and I am currently on a flight to Seattle to visit Aunt Emily. You are staying with Daddy and visiting G-ma, Uncle Chase, Aunt Heather, and your cousins. I am missing you already. This will be the longest that we have been apart. I know you are in excellent hands as your Dad is downright amazing, but it was hard for me to say good bye. I already can’t wait to see you Tuesday morning when you wake up with your wild bed head. Oh, that hair is out of control!

You are such a happy, smiley sweetheart. You have your moments when you get really frustrated at us but for the most part you are a happy girl who likes to be involved with things. While it can often be hard to juggle, you like to be in the kitchen with me. Your favorite activity is to crack eggs, so you really like it when I make quiche. You quickly whack your way through a dozen eggs. At the end you give me a big smile as you are proud of your completed task.

We are making slow progress on you walking, but I’ll take it. I basically bribe you to stand and take a few steps with stickers. You love your stickers! I have been finding them on my clothes and around the house recently. Seeing them on the sink when I brush my teeth at night just makes for a happy reminder of the great day you had.

You are working hard on communicating with us. You are taking to say names of classmates at daycare and you are a parrot trying to repeat after me when I say something. Your teacher gives us updates on how you can say ‘dos’ and ‘tres’. But you really let everyone know you can (loudly) say ‘Hola’. The newest thing is that you say ‘Ow!’ to just about everything from Kemper knocking into you to us giving you a hug. Everything is ‘Ow!!!’ Thankfully, you just as enthusiastically say ‘Yay!’ and ‘Wow!’

We struggled to find a milk that wouldn’t upset your stomach or your bum for a bit. Cow’s milk upset your stomach so we moved on to Almond milk. Things were going well for about a week until you developed such a horrible, horrible diaper rash. I felt so bad for you. It broke my heart all over again at every diaper change.  We moved on to a combination of goats milk and coconut milk. Thankfully things have been going well with that. Even if you make us broke with that $18 a gallon goats milk! But we’ll get anything for you!

Your personality is shining so brightly now. You test your limits by playing around with us, even biting us to get a rise out of us. Thankfully, you don’t do that often! You are adventurous, but cautious as you are timid to walk yet. I love to hear your ramblings in the mornings when you wake up. I know that in the coming months your ramblings will be more and more developed. So much fun.

I love each and every day with you my Autumn.

Love,

Mommy

Dear Autumn at 16 months-2

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