Hey Little Miss
Sorry I missed your newsletter last month. Our Canadian friend was visiting. I was surprised how much you liked him—well, maybe just how much you didn’t hate him. Not that he’s particularly hate-able, just that you’re still really in the “stranger danger” phase. Luckily, most people understand now. They call you shy, but I would say you’re far from.
If only I could have video taped you in music class last week. We decided not to do Music Together this summer with moving into the house and everything. I was sad because how much you loved it when we did it in the spring. Oh boy, you must have missed it. You were so excited during the whole class! You were screaming and running around. You were copying me so well when we were stomping and dancing. It was so evident how much you’ve grown developmentally in the past few months.
You’ve grown mentally a lot too. You say so many words now! You say “I love you” (la-ooo), “up”, “down”, “mommy” (yeah, you started saying it again), “daddy”, “dog”, “kitty” (always “kitty”, never “cat” like you used to say), “raspberry”, “Idella”, “milk”, and “yeah”. And that’s just what I can think off of the top of my head! Speaking of “yeah”, that’s definitely the word you say the most. Mema finds this really amusing because apparently most kids’ favorite word at your age is “no”, but you don’t even say “no”. You shake your head—with attitude even!—but you don’t say the word. Really, you still say “yeah” more often than shaking your head “no” anyway.
You’re still in love with Yo Gabba Gabba. You probably watch it more than you should. You get so excited when it comes on. You dance when they say dance, you make the funny faces they’re making, you can almost point to the right character when we ask you to (“Where’s Brobee?”) on your coloring book. We got you a Yo Gabba Gabba toothbrush, plush Plex, and of course your coloring book.
Speaking of coloring, you love coloring. You just scribble away like crazy. You have no concept of staying in the lines or coloring certain places certain colors, but you flip through that book coloring each page forever. It’s really nice to have something to entertain you while we’re doing things like getting Mama’s oil changed. 
Things have been interesting around here with Mama going to school full-time. You’ve been going to Mema/Pop Pop’s and Oma/Opa’s five days a week, four hours a day. Since Mema’s work schedule changes, you go to her when she’s off work and you go to Oma and Opa when she’s working. You love going to hang out with them, but you’re not so hot on all the time away from Mama. For the first couple weeks it seemed like you were mad at me, now you just seem to really appreciate me when I’m around. Sometimes so much that I can’t get anything done!
This has also thrown a wrench into the works with your nap/sleep schedule. Before I started school, you were routinely down at 11:30 for 2-3 hours and then 8:30 for bed. Now you’re sleeping from somewhere between 2pm and 3pm for just under two hours and bedtime is a huge fight. Mama and Daddy often read to you, nurse you (Mama, not Daddy), walk around the block with you in the Boba, and you’re still awake. Sometimes one of your grandparents is able to get you to nap, but other times you’re wide awake and cranky when I pick you up. It feels like there is zero routine in your schedule and I know it’s my fault. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to school in the morning and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I go in the afternoon and I think that if it were the same time every day that your nap would be more regular. I don’t really know what to do about it besides tough it out until the semester is over and maybe do a different type of schedule next semester.
Lastly, you’ve started to smile for the camera. That alone is super cute, but what makes it even more cute is your smile for the camera is super, super cheesy. I love it!
Maybe you get the cheesy smile from your Mama.
Love ya Peanut!
