Delly,
You are now 22 months old, and once again I skipped a month in your little blog letters. I really need to get my act together.
We've started keeping you up later, til 8pm, to try to get you to sleep til at least 6am. It It works sometimes, but there are still days when you're up well before 6. And when you're up, you are UP and ready to go. You no longer hang out in your crib and play at all, you just want OUT. Your napping hasn't changed, you still sleep for about 2 hours every afternoon, but I guess you're just not needing as much sleep at night now. We do, though, so cut the crap. And while you are OK staying up til 8, most days for that last 30-60 minutes you are a certifiable maniac. You get so silly and turn into such a little animal. But when we put you down you are DONE and you don't make a peep after we shut your door.
You are wanting to do more and more things yourself now, and we hear a lot of "MY do it!" and "MY hold it!" etc from you. We have to try to find ways to trick you into thinking you're doing things yourself while we actually do it, like pushing the grocery cart in stores. It's quite a challenge. Sometimes it's enough for you to just feel like you're participating or helping out with certain activities, but sometimes you really want to go it alone. It can slow us down quite a bit and we're finally learning to follow your lead and your pace instead of making you keep up with us. We can't always do that, like when we have to get out the door in the morning, but I often have to stop and ask myself if it really matters if we spend the next 15 minutes putting Buzz Lightyear in your car seat and buckling him in and unbuckling over and over? In the afternoon when I pick you up we usually have more time to kill with your little adventures and shenanigans, and I'm trying very hard to give you the time and space to explore to your heart's content. But I'm the first to admit that I'm not the best at it.
While you're asserting your independance daily now, you're also more affectionate than ever with us and demand our company more than ever. You give us lots of hugs and kisses, and have learned to use them as a stalling tactic when we're trying to get you dressed or undressed or are trying to brush your hair or something. You'll demand "Hand!" to get us to take your little hand in ours, and then say "Come on, Mommy!/Daddy!" while you lead us around to wherever you want to take us. Sometimes you lead us somewhere where you need our help, like turning on a movie for you or reading you a book, but sometimes you just take us across the room and then stop, and start occupying yourself with something else on your own. If you're sitting down, you'll pat the couch or the ground next to you and say "Sit!"
We talk to you a little bit about your baby sister in my tummy. If we ask you where the baby is, you say "Tummy!" and poke my belly. But who knows what you really understand. In just about 8 weeks this new kid is going to show up and we're all going to be in for a very rude awakening. I honestly don't know if we're any more prepared for it than you are!
love,
mommy
