Dear Bee,
You are at such a lovely age. You are a whirlwind of squeals and laughs pattering around on chubby little legs.
You are into everything and anything at the moment and won’t sit still for one second. You’re definitely keeping me on my toes. But somehow we managed to make it through Christmas without you eating a single bauble.
Santa gave you gorilla figurines, as you had been a little gorilla obsessed in December. Watching a toddler attempt to beat her chest in a gorilla impersonation has got to be the cutest thing ever.
Here you are on Christmas morning (in your new pyjamas) borrowing JJ’s new magnifying glass to have a closer look (while ignoring the rest of your croissant).
Speaking of croissants, your weight (or lack thereof) has been on our minds lately. You were born at around 50th percentile, then dropped to 25th percentile after six months or so, and now you’ve slipped off the bottom of the charts. Mr Banya, JJ and myself were all very skinny kids, so I guess genes has a lot to do with it. But personally I’d prefer you were on the chart, even if just in single digits.
The thing is that you love food. You’ll happily eat anything and everything – but only one or two bites. As you can see above, you’ve tried and enjoyed some of your croissant, but finishing it is another matter.
I don’t believe in offering you lots of sugary foods, but instead we try to offer a range of healthy-ish foods, including lots that are high fat, high unrefined carbohydrate or high protein. You love olives, wholemeal peanut butter sandwiches, turkey, iceblocks made from coconut milk and wholemeal banana pancakes.
You also love fruit and vegies. If I put some sausage, carrots and beans on your plate, you’ll eat one or two bites of the sausage, but will probably finish all the carrots and the beans (and possibly ask for more). Whilst it’s great that you love your vegetables, it’s not going to help you put on weight!
But I’ve decided to stop being overly concerned. You are the happiest little thing. You have so much energy. You are hardly ever sick (and when you do get sick, you recover quickly). You’re nursing, so that’s like a multi-vitamin & immunity-boost tablet a few times a day. And you are meeting or exceeding all your developmental milestones. So, I’ve decided to stop considering low weight as a problem in itself. (It might be a symptom of a problem for some kids, and is worthwhile keeping an eye on and getting further checks, but I believe you doesn’t require ‘fixing’ or ‘fattening up’ in the absense of other concerns.)
These past few months have been summer school holidays. All your (and your sister’s) usual activities were cancelled, so we did a lot of playing at home. But don’t worry, you weren’t bored….
You played in our wading pool (lots), played ‘beach’ with cloud dough ‘sand’ and made impressions in play dough.
You got messy making (and playing with) edible play dough.
You splashed about in the sensory tub (and later in the bath tub) with these little boats.
You made your own stick person, and held it up proudly for a photo.
And lots more sensory play – this time with moon sand…
And this time with shaving cream…
And this time with foam dough…
You’re also doing lots more arts and crafts. Here is a photo of your first patty pan collage. (I’m so proud!)
You have become so very chatty these last few months. You can say more words than I’ve bothered to count, and are starting to say quite a few sentences. You’re saying things like “up, up, up stairs”, “go there”, “want down” and “want banana”.
Sometimes the pronunciation of your words or sentences isn’t perfect, but usually you’re easy enough to understand by close family or people who are familiar with toddler-speak. But if you wake and cry out “I want my mama”, sometimes you say it so clearly that I get confused as to whether it’s you or JJ calling.
Lately you’ve been saying “thank you” when we give you something, “sorry” after hurting someone (if you’re asked to) and “excuse me” if you fart. You actually get indignant if someone else farts and they don’t excuse themselves!
JJ thinks that your talking is hilarious. She is constantly having little conversations with you in the back seat of the car, like this one.
JJ: “Bee, say poo”
Bee: “Poo”
JJ: “Bee, say wee”
Bee: “Wee”
JJ: “Bee, say car”
Bee: “Vroom”
JJ: “Bee, say Christmas lights”
Bee: “No”
Cracks me up every time!
You can also count, as in you’ve learnt how to say 1,2,3 in order as if it is a song (but you have no concept of quantities just yet).
You can sing a few words of some nursery rhymes and know most of the actions. Your favourites are “Open, Shut Them”, “Dingly Dangly Scarecrow”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, “Happy Birthday”, “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, “The Black Cat”, “Pussycat Pussycat”, “Row Row Row Your Boat”, “Twinkle Twinkle” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. If I sing a song you don’t like, you’ll shout out to stop, and then sing a word or two, or show me an action, to tell me which one you want instead.
I sing you to sleep every night. I usually wait til you are tired, then start singing “if you’re happy and you know it, lie down” or “if you’re happy and you know it, close your eyes”. You’re drifting off at around 8.15pm most nights, and sleeping though (with a few short wakes to nurse) until 7.30am or so. But the sleep in means that you only nap for 1.5 hours during the day, and we’ve had a few days where you’ve skipped your nap altogether. (PLEASE don’t drop your nap just yet Bee, Mummy needs the break!).
You’re started showing a preference for certain clothes. The above photos might look posed, but actually they were taken after the bath one night when you insisted on putting on this aqua dress (which was hanging in your closet but is still too big for you). Following your lead, JJ wanted to put on one of her dresses. And then then you and JJ sat on the steps out the front waiting for Daddy to come home from work. Of course I couldn’t resist taking a few happy snaps because the two of you are NEVER this clean!
Now that JJ has returned to preschool three days a week, I’m really looking forward to some more Mummy/Bee time. We’ve returned to toddler playgroup, and have also started gym classes and swimming classes. Lots of fun!
Love you lots and lots and lots.
xx Mummy
Previous letters to Bee:
A letter to Bee (1 year, 2 months)
A letter to Bee (1 year)
A letter to Bee (11 months)
A letter to Bee (10 months)
A letter to Bee (9 months)
A letter to Bee (8 months)
A letter to Bee (7 months)
A letter to Bee (6 months)
A letter to Bee (5 months)
A letter to Bee (4 months)
A letter to Bee (3 months)
A letter to Bee (2 months)
A letter to Bee (1 months)
Bee’s Birth Story
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Such a lovely letter. Wow, she's grown up! I mean I've been following these posts and I can see such a big difference in each one of them.
My recent post The road to publication, part 3 – My working space
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Oh Rita – she's grown up sooo much! She is such a big little person now. I'm so glad that I wrote these letters because I love reading back and remembering what she was like at different ages. xx