Dear Adlee, 18 months

July 10, 2014

Dear Adlee Mae,

Sweet Girl, you are now eighteen months old and a go-getter. You like to do things for yourself. You know how to move the kitchen chairs to get to the table, counter, sink, or hutch. You can open all of the bottom cupboards, and you get yourself snacks or straws as you please. Twice, you have dumped out the cocoa powder and played in it. I store that in a high cupboard now. You are great at holding your silverware (but still use your fingers often) and holding pens or pencils for coloring.

You help me by throwing away garbage, putting your dirty clothes in the dirty clothes pile, and sometimes by helping me put other things away. You are becoming more aware of the way things are supposed to be and you give me a worried, “OH!” when you spill something.

You eat scrambled eggs (normally two of them!) for breakfast. You like yogurt, cheese, and fruit. You also like crackers: Ritz, Gold Fish, and animal crackers. You like eating pizza. You love sweets. Twice since I’ve been writing this you’ve used your chair trick to get to a bag of candy Daddy brought home.

You and Daddy like to go on four-wheeler rides together. Sometimes you tell me, “Da vroom-vroom bbbpphh” which means Daddy took you on the four-wheeler to see the neighbor’s horses. You get very excited when he comes home and try to open the door for him, but you can’t reach very well and end up locking him out.

You love animals. You can make many different animal noises including wolf and bee. You beat your chest when we ask you what a gorilla says. You don’t say neigh for a horse, but you blow through your lips. You don’t say “meow” or “quack.” You call cats and ducks by name.

You say many words. I listed words in your last letter, and you stopped saying some of those and started saying others. You say, “Mom-Mom, Dad, hot, hat, hi, goodbye, eye, DeeDee (Adlee or Baby), don’t touch, this, that, cat (sounds exactly like that), duck, num-num, yeah or yep, jump, fish (sounds like deesh), treats (dog treats), all-done or all-gone.” And, we just bought a rabbit today. You call her, “Thump-Thump.” You have a sound and face for yucky, a face for stinky, and a face to represent the word cry (when we read it at the end of “Little Boy Blue”). You’ve started to just make sounds if you can’t say the right word, and you have the right intonation enough that many times I can tell what you are saying. It’s pretty cute. You still use sign language for more, please, and thank-you. You make me so proud when you say thank-you unprompted.

Your favorite movie is Curious George. When you want to watch it, you point to the TV and say “T-T, Ah Ahh.” You also like to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and other Disney Junior shows. They don’t keep your attention for long. P.D. Eastman is your favorite author right now. We read Big Dog, Little Dog, Go, Dog, Go!, and The Alphabet Book quite often. You also love your Baby Einstein books.

I take you to the library for story time many Mondays. You are getting better and better at doing the motions to the songs, and you often stand right in front of the book when the story time lady reads.

You started sleeping in a toddler bed in May. Daddy and I read and sing nursery rhymes to you. You love Daddy to give you a ride when we read “This is the way the ladies ride.” Then, I sit at the end of your bed until you fall asleep.

You are naughty sometimes. You feed the dogs your food, and you are constantly walking around on the table. Most of the time, though, I can tell you not to do something and trust you to obey me (at least for a while). You are very sweet and give great kisses!

A few other things about you: You only have six teeth. You now can remember and quickly become comfortable with people (like grandparents) from visit to visit. You are very shy around strangers or people you haven’t spent much time with. Except for being with new people, you are very brave in new places. You go down all the highest slides at the parks I take you to (and sometimes you climb up to them by yourself too).

I’m sure there are more things I could write, but I think this is most of it. I love you!

Mom-Mom