21 Months

Baby girl is 21 months old--and she is at such a fantastic stage. We wish we could freeze time, because this is a blast. She is talking up a storm, picking up many new words each and every day. She is like una grabadora (a tape-recorder)!!! Today she learned two important new words: Yankees & Chooch.

Her manners make us very proud, saying "please" and "thank you" unprompted. Of course at this stage, the fantasticness isn't without a few "toddler" moments. When she's misbehaved, she gets sent to her room to think about what she's done. Often, she immediately starts crying, because she knows she made an oops. But shortly after she's started crying, she'll stop, stand at her door, and in her perfect and angelic voice profess: "I sorry Mon-ee." (Yes, Mommy is Mon-ee in our house.)

She can recognize every letter of the alphabet. You show her a letter, she'll tell you what it is. She can count up to 10 and is quickly working her way up to 15. She is also taking her first steps into what I hope will be a life-time love of reading. We have been working on sight-words and at this point she can read: I, am, of, he, up, on, my, by, it, is, with, play. I wrote a simple sentence on her white board and almost fell over when she read it. It said: "I am Lola." We didn't even know she could recognize her own name! She surprises us everyday...

We are very much looking forward to the summer, as Lola's favorite word is "outside"--we can't wait to be out in the sunshine daily and in June, enjoy a wonderful week in Florida with our family--and visit Mickey, of course! And then before we know it, she'll be turning 2. Being her Mommy & Daddy is life's greatest joy...