22 Months (aka: 2 months away from being TWO YEARS OLD-- um, what?!)

Oh Miss Lala, in these past couple of months you have grown so much.

I suddenly realized how long your legs have gotten (now that I have Fenton to compare your size to).

But you also have hugely matured mentally as you've taken on this role as big sister, there are so many things that you just "get" now, you learn so much each day I'm shocked your head doesn't hurt by the time you go to bed with how much it's soaked in.

And I can tell that we are SO CLOSE to you talking in full sentences-- crazy!

You say short sentences like, "He's sad" and you say long sentences too, I just can't tell what all the words are in the long sentence quite yet.

But you love to talk and jabber and tell me about the world so I can hardly wait until I can actually understand all that you are saying.

There are days when you are especially rambunctious and curious and I have to be the strict momma who lays down the law, which is fine, because that's what I'm here for, to help you figure out how to make choices. 

But there are also days when the two of us are just good friends. 

You help me out.

You rock Fenton's carseat for me while I'm grabbing my stuff before we head out the door because he is crying.

And you help me carry bags into the house and help me set the table, stir the dinner and clean up.

You softly say "shhhhh" to Fenton in the car when he's upset and hold his hand.

You love to help, the more I ask you to help me the happier you are.

And you have officially reached a stage that I have been looking forward to for a very long time...

You have started playing pretend and it is the best! 

I have waited for this age for so very long.

Not to brag or anything, but I was pretty amazing at playing pretend, I rarely was outside of my pretend world until middle school somehow shook me hard enough to knock most of it out of me (man, middle school was rough) but I'm so excited to get start playing pretend again with you!

And one of the neatest things about watching you play pretend is that you pretend to be like me!

You collect all your little tupperware bowls and spoons and empty spice jars and cook food on the stairs.

And you collect all you favorite toys into your purse and carry it all around with your baby doll who you burp and give hugs and kisses to and you usually like to have your phone with you too.

You didn't care very much about your baby doll when we first gave it to you when Fenton was born but now as you've watched me more and more with Fenton, you've started leaving Gerard in your crib during the day and dragging around baby doll instead and you do things with your baby that you see me to do Fenton.

I am so flattered that you want to pretend to be like me!

I also love that you have deemed the bottom step of the stairs your own special place.

You love that stair.

You like to place all of your favorite things on your favorite step and then you gather them all up and put them in your grocery cart and walk around and then you place them all back on the step, over and over again.

And you always ask me to come sit next to you on that step so that you can talk jibberish to me and tell me about what's on your mind.

That stair is like your special sanctuary or safe zone.

And it cracks me up when you start running around in endless circles in the living room, jabbering away non-stop as you run and run and run and giggle at yourself.

You do it at least once a day.

It's like you are talking yourself through everything you've learned in the past day, cycling it all through your head.

Today we were playing with some other kids and you were loving it, just running around in circles with them, giggling your little head off (you have a fake laugh that is pretty hysterical!) and one of the kids who you especially like to play with grabbed a shoe and threw it at you and it hit you in the head.

I think he did it because he has older siblings and he's seen them do stuff like that.

But you've never had anyone do anything like that to you.

You didn't cry or even get a sad face, you just stared at him and then reached out to give him a hug.

Now that I think about it I want to burst into tears! 

I love how much you love.

Pretty soon you will be more exposed to little kids doing things like that to you and those around you because that's what toddlers and little kids do, and it makes me sad that you will probably pick up on what you see and start doing it too.

Sometimes I just want to bottle you up in a jar where you will be safe and no one can hurt you or teach you things like hitting and pushing, but it would hurt you even more to shelter you like that, and you love playing with other kids so much and really there are far worse things in this world than hitting and pushing, so I might as well teach you how to weather through that so that you will know how to deal with the bigger things up ahead.

I love that you love wearing socks and sparkly shoes (even when they hurt your feet) and how you love to have a drink in each hand and how you think deodorant is a giant tube of chapstick, and how you talk to yourself in bed as you fall asleep at night.

I love that your automatic response to Fenton being sad is to give him a hug and kiss.

I love how much you love life and being alive.

You are such a sunshine girl and I can't even believe you're mine.

Do we ever dress you?

Oh, it looks like we did once: