22 months

Dearest Kylie,

Today you are 22 months old! This past month as been all about climbing, counting, colors and kisses.

You climb all over the furniture in our family room. Your favorite is to climb from the floor to the toy piano, then up on the black chair, then slide down to the floor and do it all again. You also like to slide your matchbox cars and your stuffed animals down the chair slide.

You moved from a crib to a toddler bed this month and you climb easily in and out of it. You still wait for one of us to get you in the morning and after your naps before you get out of bed.

You no longer sit in a booster seat at home; you sit in our regular dining room chairs. You are squirmy but well-behaved. You no longer wear a bibster at meals.

You started swim class this month. You can calmly do a cheek-to-cheek backfloat and have blown a few bubbles. You are extremely happy in the water.

Throughout the day, you recite numbers as you play. I’ve heard you recite 3-9 correctly many times. Two remains your favorite number and you love to have your toys in pairs.

You are working hard to learn your colors. You constantly name the color of what you are holding and then look to us to either verify or correct you. You still make lots of mistakes yet you consistently try.

You are developing a sense of time. You understand and say, “later” and “in a minute”.

You’ve started making faces at the camera.

You are learning new words at too rapid a rate to record. But some new words and phrases we’ve heard a lot of this month are: “hold it”, “this is stuff”, cute, pretty, okay, and new. You are infatuated with new toys and books. We hear a lot of “Read Kylie’s new book” and “Hold Kylie’s new toy”.

You like to sing “Old McDonald” with me. Your parts are “ee-i-ee-i-oh” and picking the animal such as a cow and then singing “moo, moo here” and “moo, moo, there”. You can be quite inventive and have put an elephant, a snake, a lion and a fish on the farm in addition to animals like cows, sheep, ducks, dogs, cats, and such.

You enjoy helping us empty the dishwasher. You know where to put your toddler plates and the Tupperware. And you love it when one of us hands you something and asks you to throw it away for us. You really like to sweep.

Whenever you want comforting from a bruised knee or a bumped lip, you request, “kiss it, kiss it” as you cry. And it is wonderful that once we’ve kissed it, you calm right down.

You are a delightful little girl and we love you!