Letter to Baby Girl

Dear T,

Holy crap... it's been ages since I have done one of these (basically a lifetime in baby years). You are now 17 months old and a full blown toddler, complete with the attitude. Your sass and personality keep us laughing all day long and you definitely have a mind of your own. You always walk with a purpose (regardless of whether we know what that purpose is or not) and you shock us daily with your growing understanding of the world around you.

Splash!

Speaking of walking, you mastered that skill pretty quickly! At around 14 months I was a little concerned because you still had yet to take any steps. You were pretty content to orang-utan crawl to get wherever you needed to go. And then your Dad and I took a little vacation. Of course, you took your first steps when we were gone. Since that week in mid-February you have taken leaps and bounds (literally) and are now running. Everywhere. (You also are not very light on your feet... we have dubbed you Princess Thunder Hooves... at least I always know where you are!)

The last month or so you have been a bit of a parrot, repeating (or attempting to repeat) everything. So far you have mastered: Mama, Dada, Nana, Papa, GeeGee, cow, wait, go, shut (as in shut the door), kitty, cat, Bob (one of the barn cats), hat, two (I say one, you say two!) and your favourite... NO! You have attempted "Kodiak" (comes out like Koooooo) and can point to your tummy, nose, ears, eyes and mouth on command. Your basically a baby genius. (According to me and both grandmothers, and we are 150% biased.)

At your last Dr.'s appointment you weighed in at 23ishlbs and were 32" tall. Growing girl! And you have a ton of teeth. Good thing since you like to eat! Your favourites are noodles, cheese, applesauce, yogurt, chicken and toast with butter and jam. We are concerned about a peanut allergy so we are being referred to an allergist and will go from there. You are (still) not a huge fan of vegetables.

You absolutely LOVE being in the barn, or anywhere outside for that matter (which is great, considering our lifestyle.) Your love for animals is undeniable, and you hand out pats, snuggles and kisses for all the barn cats and cows liberally. Along with that sassy personality, you have a very tender heart and give the best snuggles (which I demand as often as I can!)

Tomorrow we start a new chapter as I head back to work and you are off to day care. It hurts my heart a little to know that we won't have the whole day to snuggle, watch Dinosaur Train (your favourite cartoon) and explore every inch of the barn and great outdoors together but I think this will be good for you and me. A little socialization for both of us. We got this baby girl!

Thank you for making my world a better place each and every single day. Love you baby girl... never lose that sass!

xoxo Mama