Thursday, July 5, 2012

Upa.

Dear Elle,
This week you turned 14 months old. You have a new word and it's "up". When you say it, you say it a few times in a row and it kind of runs together into "upa-upa-upa" and it is seriously adorable. Grandma taught you that. You also learned some more animals sounds and you say "baa" "moo" and "whoooo". Your Dad and I took you to the Beardsley Zoo a few weeks ago and I know that you really didn't know difference between a white wolf and a goldfish but you smiled and pointed politely at different things from your little seat in your stroller. That's another new thing you do, point at everything. You extend that chubby arm and your little finger and sometimes you say, "dat" and sometimes you say, "dis". I think you want me to tell you about different things so I tell you lots of stuff about everything you want to know about. And we do a lot of talking because you want to know about everything.

Your mind has opened up into "how does it work" mode, you are a little mechanic and engineer of everything you see. You open and close things, turn switches on and off, turn dials, take things apart, put covers on things and take them off. You have a curiosity about everything. Yesterday you figured out to open my little can of breath mints by hitching your bottom teeth on the edge under the little tab and popping the top open. How did you learn this? You didn't see me do it! You are so logical and resourceful. When I put on my makeup in the morning you play around in the bathroom with me, talking your funny little baby language the whole time, opening the drawers taking all the band-aids out of the box or taking out all the Q-tips, licking them and putting them back in the box. You climb on everything, the world is your jungle gym. You try to climb over me if I'm in your way. You also learned if you push your little xylophone over to the coffee table and swing a leg up, you can get right up on the table. MIT, lookout.

You help me into and out of my flip flops several times in a row during our days at the lake house. Did I say several times? Let me rephrase. 40,000 times. If I kick off my shoes at the door when we get home, you bring them to me one at a time and put them on and take them off. And on and off and on and off and that is how this game goes. You know which ones are mine and which are daddy's and which are yours. Thank God you were born into our family because I've just been wandering around the streets like a fool, shoeless, with clean, dry Q-tips and a full tin of breath mints in my purse.

Peek-a-boo. You have been playing that for a long time and it never gets old. You laugh hysterically with your entire body. Sometimes you pull a blanket over your head and then run around the house which makes me very nervous because you ran into the bookcase once and bounced back and fell on the floor. But you were laughing the whole time. Hopefully you can still get into college.

Last week I made you an egg frittata. What is that you ask? It's a way that Mommies get to pretend they are toddler culinary geniuses by packing veggies into eggs and baking it, which has got to be only slightly harder than sticking your hand directly into a box of Fruit Loops and calling it dinner. Anyway, you were not a fan of this frittata and while you were in your high chair trying to stall until I offered you something else to eat, Uncle Paul and Auntie Traci came by for a visit. They were standing around you and talking and telling stories and while I was loading the dishwasher and my back was turned, you picked up a little bit of this "meal" and held it out for Uncle Paul to eat. DUDE! HURRY UP, BEFORE SHE SEEEEEES YOU! He ate it. Right out of your little grubby hand. Your eyes widened. You scoured your tray for other bits of this egg dish and kept shoveling in into his face, and then patting it in, shoving your whole palm across his mouth to make sure none got out. What you couldn't get in his mouth, you slid down the side of your body and tucked right up under your butt.

You had your first ever ice cream cone and i could tell by they way it was dripping down your arm and all over your chin, it was so awesome it blew your little mind.


With you, everyday is an adventure.

Love,
Mama