20 months

Sloane Nicole,

You are 20 months old today. My how time flies. Just 4 more months and you will be 2 years old and you'll be a big sister - crazy to think about. Here's what you've been up to...

You are one crazy ball of energy and we love to watch the wheels in your head turn as you take everything in.  Your favorite modes of transportation are running, marching, and walking backwards.  Rarely do you walk at a leisurely pace.  You walk with purpose and I love that so much about you.

You love to sing. You often sing to yourself in the morning when you are waking up. It is priceless. You rock out in the car. I'll turn up the tunes and you'll shake your booty in the car seat while singing into your pretend microphone. I try to concentrate on the road, but you are so entertaining to watch. You take such wonderful care of your baby dolls and you still love to read. You also cook up some delicious meals in your kitchen. You love to perform "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and usually end by spending a good couple of minutes doing the "knees & toes" part over and over and over.  You are a total ham and goofball.





















You passed a major milestone and gave up your binkies this past month. By "gave up" I, of course, mean that they were cruelly taken from you. We were only using them in the crib at night but you'd started to try to demand one more often and we figured with the new baby coming soon it was now or never. There were a few minutes of confused crying for the first couple of nights but you haven't seemed to look back. Nice work!

You take a nap every afternoon for an hour and a half or two hours. You go to bed easily at 7:30 pm and sleep until about 7:30. Sometimes you sleep in until 8:30 on the weekends. Thank you. My favorite time of day is when you are snuggled in your pjs and we sit in the rocking chair and sing our goodnight song. You lay your head on my shoulder, wrap your arms around me, and hum along to parts of the song.  It melts my heart.

You love to play dress up, snuggle your babies, and walk around the house with your purse over your shoulder.

You also love to play with cars and bang on anything that makes noise.  You could spend hours throwing rocks.  You love to run up and down the tiny little hill in our back yard. 

About a month ago you figured out how to turn door knobs. Which wouldn't be a huge deal except that the deadbolt on our front door quit working and I was terrified that you'd try to escape and be running in the street. Plus that meant you had full access to the pantry and you love to go in there, pull out random food and demand snacks. A couple of child proof locks later and you were out of business. 1 point to your parents. We also had to put locks on the cabinets under the sink because you went through the garbage a couple of times. Gross. I hate those damned contraptions and it will be a while before I stop cursing every time I have to throw something away.

About 2 months ago on one random day you decided you were done with your high chair. You flat out refused to sit in a high chair at home or in a restaurant though you've never put up a fight to sitting in the one at daycare. You would sit in a booster seat at a restaurant so I bought one for home which you also refused. So you spent about a month where you would only sit in a grown up chair (often demanding only the desk chair) with the table hitting you at about the nose, reaching up to grab your dinner. It was an exhausting and frustrating time. Then one day out of the blue you decided the high chair (which really isn't a high chair anymore since all of the baby accessories have been removed) wasn't so bad after all and since then you've happily resumed your more reasonable perch at the table. Plus your dad taught you how to climb up and down from your high chair so you think that's pretty cool.

You have thinned out from all the running around and the baby chub we loved has mostly disappeared.  But you don't miss a meal and are definitely not shy about demanding snacks.














You are obsessed with balloons. Good news is that they've been all over the grocery store lately because of Valentine's day so you are quite entertained on our weekly shopping trip. The bad news is when you realize you don't get to go home with one.

You've cooled it with the hitting. Thank you very much! But you are not so slowly making your way into the "mine" and whining stages.  We hear "no, mine" about 50 times a day. Ugh.

You are talking up a storm and every day surprise me with at least one or two words I didn't know you knew. You'll string 2 or 3 words together sometimes and your dad and I are so pleased that we can understand you now most of the time.

We love every minute with you (even the tough ones) and are so proud of the curious and happy kid you are becoming. Thanks for making us feel like we are actually okay at this whole parenting thing. We love you.