19 Months Old

Dear Devyn,

Can I just tell you how excited I am to find out more of what's going on in that beautiful brain of yours as you learn to talk more and more?  You are putting together two and three word phrases all the time now, like "dog food, dog tail, cat tail, mama shoes, dada bag, eat food," and my personal favorite, "Where Dev?" (meaning you want to play peekaboo!).  You can also do all of the hand motions to Patty-cake and say a lot of the words, though you like to cut to the chase and start with "roll it..."

You can also count to ten, which has me absolutely flummoxed and over the moon!  You also definitely understand the concepts of one, two, and three, correctly identifying one shoe, two horses in a photo, or three slices of banana on your plate.

You still love listening to and making music.  I bought some jingle bells on a velcro strap as party favors for your birthday, and you've recently discovered that you can velcro them onto your ankle and dance around making music.  You'll do that all day happily.

You've also started really enjoying playing with your dolls and stuffed animals. Dolly is your favorite doll, and we just got a little floppy stuffed dalmatian dog at IKEA that you adore—we named her Dee Dee Doggy in honor of your Grandma's dalmatian.

You also like anything with buttons (the more it looks like something a grown up would use, the better) and anything with words.  You pull my cookbooks out all the time and page through them, looking at the pictures.

You LOVE to help out when I can give you a real job to do.  So far, you unload the silverware from the dishwasher for me, and you take the silverware to the table to help me "set" the table (you're still too short to really see to put it at the places, but that's OK!).  You also love standing on a chair in the kitchen to help me cook.

We started going to MOPS, and I put you in the 19–24 month room before you were really 19 months old.  The director of the day care part emailed me and wanted to make sure you were really ready to be in that older room.  I said we were flexible, and she said she would check with the teacher.  The teacher said you did great and were fine with all the bigger kids, so you get to stay there, and I'm thrilled.  I think you started talking more from hanging out with Grey, and so I'm hopeful that the older kids in MOPS will have the same positive effect.

You're also tall enough now to reach things on the dining room table, the kitchen cart and the kitchen counter, so we have to be extra careful.

Happy Thanksgiving, my darling girl.  You are the thing I am most thankful for, now and always.

Love,
~Mommy