one point five

My Girl,

You are 18 months. One and a half years. I always hate starting these things off with the old cliché “how did you grow up so fast stuff” but, how did you grow up so fast?

You are such a little person. A beautiful, smart, energetic, creative little person. You are my joy and my heart. I hope you always know that. Even amidst the difficult, frustrating times – like when you are cutting eye teeth – you are my complete joy.

You are my tall and skinny little girl coming in at 24 pounds and 32.25 inches. We have no idea where you get your height but you have been up there for your whole life so we’ll see if that continues on.

The past few months have been so much fun with you. Watching you learn and explore is just amazing. We have seen explosions in your language development over the past two months and this is, by far, my favourite part of being your Mommy. I love that we can sit down and chat. Like, have real conversations. You are picking up new words and expressions at an alarming rate and are starting to put together some of your own phrases and sentences.

Daddy and I are ever so proud of the little lady you are becoming. You are a spit fire and you like to get your own way, but you always, always, always carry your manners with you. People tell us, even when we aren’t around, that you are very polite and we must say, that makes us beam. Your pleases and thank you’s are very consistent and you’re working on figuring out the context of some other polite expressions like “excuse me” “welcome” and “bless you”.

You love to be outside. You would be happy as a clam if we let you play outside for the entire day. You love to play with the puppies, the chicken, the balls, the wagon and walk to the pond. Your daddy beams when he sees you acting like a regular old farm girl and begging to “dine tractor” (drive tractor). But, you also love to wear pretties and to go shopping and read books and those things make this heart of mine swell. You are such a well-rounded little lass.

When Daddy brought minnows home for fishing, you were excited to "go sishin’” and you were quite hilarious when you caught a few in the net and braved it up enough to touch it. When it started squirming you were pretty surprised.

Your newest indoor activity of choice is to play “soup”. I give you some bowls, some spoons and a bunch of dried macaroni and kidney beans and you go nuts, girlfriend. You adore playing soup. Mostly, you just like making a huge mess in my kitchen that I have to sweep up 48982 times a day. But that’s okay, it’s worth it to see you having so much fun.

We have recently started swimming lessons and even though you ask me almost every day to go to the “swimmin’ poo” you absolutely hate it when we’re in the water. We’ve only had two lessons, though, and I won’t give up. It seems like you know it should be fun you’re just not quite at the point where you can let yourself enjoy it.

A few weeks ago, your made our jaws drop when we were playing at Auntie M and Auntie L’s and you suddenly counted to 10. Whoever said Barney and Mickey Mouse aren’t educational is foolin’ themselves. Because, girlfriend? That is who taught you. I love hearing you count. You never say one. It always goes like this, “Two, sree, sore, sibe, six, senen, eightnineten I DID IT”. We’ve started working on 11-20, and you’ll repeat those numbers when we say them but you definitely aren’t counting them by yourself.

You love to sing songs. Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, ABCs Blue Skies and Rainbows and Oh Be Careful Little Eyes are some current favourites. I love that you are starting to pick up some of the words and lines and try to sing along. At bedtime, if I sing Make Me a Servant or Here I am to Worship, you always try to sing along. You have a heart for God, my dear. In the car, when I put your worship CD on, you dance and sing to “Jeetus”. You love to pray at meal time and bed time and this fills my heart.

You are so full of spunk and energy and laughter. You love to do high fives and cut the pickle, tickle tickle. You are your Daddy’s girl but you also have a soft spot for Mama, especially when you’re upset. Every day you ask me “Daddy at wowwwwk?” Apparently I tell you lots of people are at work, because any time I say to you, “Where is ____ (person/thing/whatever)?” you smile and nod your head and say “At wowk”. You love babies, and kids (you call big kids “buddies”) and will say hi to just about anyone.

There is just so much I could say about you, my sweet girl. Almost every night as we fall asleep, your Daddy and I talk and laugh about all of the funny things you said that day. I wish I could bottle up every single one of these memories and store them up forever.

You are growing up before my eyes. Just three more months until you become a big sister and six more months until you turn two. Impossible. I am so looking forward to spending the next three months making memories together as we wait for your little brother/sister to arrive.

You totally rock my world, sweet girl.

Love you always,

Mama