Dear Daniel, (22 Months)

Watching it hail. Welcome, Spring!

Hello, sweet Daniel. You're getting bigger and learning new things all the time, and you're twenty-two months (plus one week) old now! Your increasing independence and desire to try (and master) new things is really fun. I just really enjoy witnessing the ways you change each day. Here are some of the new things that have happened since the last update:

You're saying "Whoa!" a lot this month. You say it whenever you stumble or slip, or when anything surprising happens. I like this word very much, as it gives you a way to express your surprise without getting upset or feeling very scared about it. Plus, you sound a bit like Joey from Blossom, which makes me laugh.

My favorite new words of yours from this month: whoa, lentil, cupcake, camera, "yogurt," bacon, window (The first time you said this one, you were telling on Eddie for being up in a window where he wasn't allowed.), nipple, tissue ("ee-eew"), pizza, napkin, bum-bum, and banana ("mah-nah"). With many of your words, you only say the second half of the word, which makes things rather confusing and extra-challenging for Papa, Matthew, and me. You always keep us on our toes, kiddo—that's for sure!

This night at dinner you were putting noodles
on your face and saying, "Face!" over and over.

You said your first three-word sentence this month, which was "Hang on tight." It's something I say to you when I'm carrying you along with other things in my free arm, and I want you to cling like a monkey for safety. I hear you practicing this sentence a lot lately. You're also counting more and more. You count your fingers, the stairs as you climb them, and you count up and say, "GO!" before taking off running around the house. I love watching the games you invent to entertain yourself!

You've made up a blinking game this month, which you play with Papa and me often. It's very simple: you blink (exaggeratedly) to let us know we're playing, and then I blink back at you, and you laugh and laugh. I can't get enough of hearing you laugh!

You continue to enjoy helping out around the house, with the dishes, the laundry, and anything else one of us is trying to accomplish. You say, "help me" when you want to help us, not quite understanding the pronoun usage just yet. One of your favorite chores is helping with sweeping the floor. You just can't wait to "Help me! Help me!" when I get the sweeper out.

Having trouble with something being way too "Loud!"

Another big thing that's been going on around here is that we're moving to a new house (today, actually!). The upset of our environment changing has been really difficult for you, and I'm so sorry about that. We've all been doing our best to help this transition go as smoothly as possible for you, and hopefully after today, things will be getting more and more predictable again over time. I can relate to some of the ways you are extra sensitive to your environment. I have hope that we can all get back into our natural rhythm and routine soon.

On the plus side, though, we got you in to see an amazing Naturopathic Doctor and an incredible Developmental Pediatric Nurse Practitioner this month, both of whom have high hopes for being able to help you even more with your sensory processing difficulties. You have a fabulous team, and we're all trying to do the best we can by you.

The other morning we were sitting together coloring a thank-you card, and you said many of the colors for the first time: you asked me for the green crayon, then the blue one, then yellow, purple...and by the time we were finished with the card, you were saying brown and orange (as well as red, black, and white, which you already knew).

I was totally blown away by this, having never heard you say the colors before, nor ever actively teaching you any names of colors (or almost any of the words you know, for that matter). I am continually amazed at the capacity of the human brain, and I look forward to these delightfully surprising moments with you. I'm so aware that this type of thing is just going to keep happening over and over throughout my parenting journey, and I am endlessly grateful to you for this constant reminder of your individuality, your flexibility, and your awesomeness.

It also reminds me that there's so much left for you to teach me, and I want you to know, I'm always ready to learn.

Love,
Momma