MacKenzie at 23 months

MacKenzie,

I cannot believe you are already 23 months! I cannot even tell people your month age anymore, I have to say you are almost 2 and in just a month it will be that you are 2! I cannot even describe how quickly the past two years have gone by. Last year at this time I was placed on bed rest and we were anticipating your arrival each and every day!

You are absolutely brilliant and there is no other way to describe it. You know all of your uppercase letters (with mistakes allowed from time to time of course), you are learning your lowercase letters, you can count with assistance to 20, know most of your basic colors, know all of your basic shapes, and are learning more and more each day. You have begun to name friends by their names and will recognize more people that you are frequently around. We can teach you something and in a matter of minutes you will have picked it up. I find it incredible how quickly your mind works. We are working on your independence by giving you a choice or two of outfits, activities, and snacks or some meals in order to see more about what you like and how you think. We are also starting you on basic chores from time to time and you love to be so helpful with those.

You love to play blocks (especially with Daddy) and really enjoy being outside on the swing or slides now that we have cooler weather. One of your favorite things to play is with the money your great grandpa gave you. You like to dump it out, sort it, stack it up, identify every thing that it is in there. You also of course still love to read and some of your favorite books are Go, Dog Go (you will say some of the words if we stop at certain points in the book), Barnyard Dance, Click, Clack, Moo and anything to do with animals or Elmo. Elmo is definitely one of your favorite things, but you really like all of the Sesame Street characters. You love to go play with friends and are starting to actually interact with the other kids instead of playing near them. I think it is cute to watch what you enjoy doing and what you focus your attention on.

Your naps are sporadic and you will sometimes play quietly in your room for hours on end without taking a nap (but without asking to get out of your room either). I think you just need the wind down time regardless. You still love to sleep with your blankets, but I love to get you up and see you surrounded by books that you have been reading to yourself during nap or in the morning. Sometimes you talk or sing to yourself in your sleep and you hardly ever wake up mid night. In the morning Mommy will ask you what you dream about and you must think I am asking about what you drink because you say "Juice", "Milk", "Bubbles", and "water". Daddy is convinced you were actually dreaming about puppies the other day because you woke up talking about them. Daddy also said that he went to get you up one morning and Keegan was crying so you pulled your rocking chair in front of her crib and you were reading a book to her- so sweet. A not so sweet, but funny habit you have begun is climbing on top of your changing table and pulling out all of the wipes from the container and "trying" to change your diaper. I think you are just pretending, but you love to be up there.

Your favorite meals are breakfast and snack! You love eggs, pancakes, or oatmeal for breakfast and have acquired a deep fondness for peanut butter sandwiches. Sometimes I will ask you want to eat and you say "buht-er...bread" and I know what that means! You love to snack on multigrain cheerios and popcorn the most, but will eat most of anything in snack form. Your favorite veggie is broccoli, you love all fruit and unsweetened applesauce and you are slowly enjoying more foods. I think it is funny that you do not care for it as much the next day. I don't know why... You still drink a lot of milk and watered down juice to stay hydrated. You will eat a bit of sweets, but you love cookies and suckers the most.

We love you MacKenzie. Not a day goes by that Mommy and Daddy aren't amazed and overwhelmed by how much you touch our lives. I sincerely enjoy being with you and love all that you show me. Hope you have a great month ahead of you!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy