Dear Siena – 23 Months

Dear Siena,

We’re almost done with these updates and it makes me sad to think you’re going to be TWO in less than a month! You’ve already learned to sing “Happy Birthday” so I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot of it in the month to come.

You’ve developed into quite the conversationalist and the things that you say continue to amaze us. This month you’ve learned that “Grandma and Lulu come on Thursday” and you have adorable little sayings like “not bad” and “it’s ok” while patting the person on the back to comfort them. It’s really nice not having to question what you want because you can literally tell us everything you want (although we don’t always want to give you what you want!). You even tell us who you want to change your diaper (it usually is daddy – haha!!!).

You figured out how to climb out of your crib this month, though you only seem to do it when we’re in the room. We’re not transitioning you to a toddler bed quite yet -we’re going to wait until you’re consistently crawling out. Plus, we are moving and it just doesn’t seem like the best time to make another big transition for you! You’ve started jumping and dancing a lot more and are a pretty fast runner. We’re still working on teaching you to not run into the street.

You LOVE to read and some days I swear we read 30 books. Your favorites seem to change with time which is nice for me and your dad, who grow sick of the same books. Right now you love this book of story rhymes for 1 year olds (thanks Adrienne!) which has about a hundred pages of nursery rhymes (your favorite of which is “Patty Cake.”) as well as The Bernstein Bear’s “Bears in the Night” that your Aunt Claire gave you (apparently a favorite of hers and your dads when they were kids!). Every time we get to the part with the owl you say “scary!!!” even though I’m not sure you really understand what scary is.

School is really growing on you! You seem to really enjoy it and your teachers have told us multiple times how “laid back and chill”  you are, which is a shock to us but makes me happy that you’re behaving. You’ve picked up on so many songs at school and it truly amazes me! One day you just started singing “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” as you ran around a tree and you absolutely love “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” You almost have your ABCs down except that you completely skip at least 10 letters, skipping ahead to Q R S once you get to K. You have started counting but it usually goes like this “1 2 3 4..8 10.” In August you learned about jungle animals and this month you’re learning all about farm life.

We introduced more TV and iPad games this month and it’s been a nice break for us sometimes. We pretty much rotate exclusively through the Curious George movie and TV show, and Finding Dory. You are captivated for about 20 minutes or so and then are off to the next thing. You’ve figured out now how to navigate the iPad and get to the games you want and play them. We generally only do this when I’m showering, but sometimes at other times. You’re still obsessed with looking at photos of your cousin Molly as well as videos/photos of yourself as well.

We had a lot of playdates this month, including a fun one to the Scripps Aquarium, a few trips to the pool, the children’s museum, and of course a lot of time at the park! We took you to the beach several times and you still love to get in the water, though not when it’s super cold.

You continue to be a picky eater and basically eat out of three categories: carbs, dairy and fruit. I still put veggies on your plate but you ignore them. Your favorite foods right now are Annie’s mac and cheese, toast with butter, string cheese and quesadillas. Yep, all of my intentions of feeding you a well balanced diet have gone out the window, but at least you’ll eat whole wheat bread and tortillas and oatmeal which are at least nutritious carbs. I’m happy that you still love all fruit and eat a lot of it. You’ll occasionally eat tuna or eggs but you are basically vegetarian by choice. We don’t offer you sweets often but when we do (or one of your grandparents do, which is more often than we do), you really go nuts for them, particularly cookies and brownies. Some of my healthy habits are rubbing off on you becuase every time you pretend to make something in a bowl you say you’re making salad. There’s still hope!!!

We’re still dealing with you hitting other kids, mostly when they try to take a toy you’re playing with or are playing with one of your toys, or get too close to you on the playground. You seem to particularly target your friend Jack, who is one of my best friend’s sons who lives across the street, and I’m not sure why but it’s definitely a struggle. You also have learned to scream at the top of your lungs and particularly enjoy doing it while we’re in stores like Target.

Siena, we love you so much! It’s been so fun watching you grow and learn and I can’t wait to see what your third year will have in store for you!

Love,

Mommy