Dear JJ,
I’ve decided to write you a letter each month. I hope you’ll enjoy reading them when you’re a little older. You are now 2 years, 4 months and a bit old. I know, I’m late already for your first one!
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| Photo by Megan Webb Photography |
Eating
You are a great little eater at the moment, but I’m trying not to be cocky as I know you could become pickier as you get older. But at the moment, you’ll eat pretty much whatever your Mummy & Daddy eat. Beans, carrots, peas, broccoli, edamame, celery are all main stays, but you’ll refuse lettuce and avocado. I add carrot, beetroot and / or zucchini to cakes and oat muffins, and you gobble them up. Apples, strawberries, watermelon, grapes, pears, blueberries, oranges, mandarins are all good. You’re a bit wary of kiwifruit and won’t eat banana, unless it’s in another form – such as a spinach & banana milkshake. You think wholemeal (whole wheat) toast is normal, and you have some of Daddy’s toast with Nutella or peanut butter each morning, as well as some of Mummy’s Weetbix. Or sometimes we have porridge (you like the apple & blueberry flavour best) or pancakes. Dinnertime is now 6.00pm. Steak with veggies & chips are a favourite – lately you ask for seeded mustard to dip your chips into. Pork chops with apple sauce is popular too, but you insist on having 2 minute noodles with them. You’re also a fan of rice – be it white rice, fried rice or the local Thai’s squid ink black rice. You eat all of Mr Banya’s more gourmet dishes too – like Movida’s beef cheeks or Texan BBQ ribs. Some of the flavours are very rich, but you don’t seem to mind at all. You drink water or “juice water” (heavily diluted cranberry & raspberry juice), milk and milkshakes, all usually out of a normal cup, although lately you’ve been asking for milk out of a baby’s bottle. You’re actually wanting breastmilk again, like Bee, but I’ve been able to gently refuse most of the time. It’s been 5 months that you’ve been weened now, and I don’t really want to reintroduce this if I can avoid it…Sleeping
You have your own toddler bed in our bedroom, along with our “big bed” and Bee’s cot. When we have visitors you pride yourself in showing them our bedroom and your bed. However you haven’t slept in your bed for months, because you explained “a little bit nightmares”. So instead you sleep in between Mr Banya & my pillows, which is where you’ve slept pretty much since birth, despite our gentle encouragements otherwise. You are a Mummy’s girl when it comes to sleeping. You like to go to sleep lying with your head on my shoulder, your feet tucked in between my legs, and your hand rubbing my belly button. Lately you’ve been waking up to find Mummy missing – I’ve been in the other room feeding Bee, and this has been quite distressing for you. Sometimes I sit up in bed to feed Bee, so that you can still lie alongside me and still touch my belly button. This does placate you a bit, but you don’t really go back to sleep until Bee is finished feeding and is back in her cot, and you can have your Mummy back to yourself again. You used to be quite good at sleeping in, but Bee has been waking you earlier than usual, so we’ve shifted your day naptime and evening bedtime back an hour – getting ready for daylight saving a few weeks early.Talking
You are talking in roughly full sentences with improving grammar now, although your pronunciation is still sketchy so other people often need me to translate for you. Sometimes even Daddy and I need to ask you to repeat yourself a few times before we can understand you, but we usually get there in the end. You say “Good idea!” all the time, often to yourself. And if you lose something and would like Mummy to help find it, you’ll say “Let’s go on an adventure…” When we get home from a little outing, you tell Daddy what we did, what we saw, about the friends you made etc. If Daddy has gone to another room, you ask “Where my Daddy be? I lost my Daddy…” and then call out “Daddy, where are you?” You have very good manners at the moment, saying please, thank you, excuse me. Lately you’ve been saying “No thank you” a bit too much. Like when I tell you that you have a choice; either you can get in your car seat yourself, “No thank you”, or I’ll put you in there, “No thank you”. Umm, it wasn’t actually a choice!
You have your own toddler bed in our bedroom, along with our “big bed” and Bee’s cot. When we have visitors you pride yourself in showing them our bedroom and your bed. However you haven’t slept in your bed for months, because you explained “a little bit nightmares”. So instead you sleep in between Mr Banya & my pillows, which is where you’ve slept pretty much since birth, despite our gentle encouragements otherwise. You are a Mummy’s girl when it comes to sleeping. You like to go to sleep lying with your head on my shoulder, your feet tucked in between my legs, and your hand rubbing my belly button. Lately you’ve been waking up to find Mummy missing – I’ve been in the other room feeding Bee, and this has been quite distressing for you. Sometimes I sit up in bed to feed Bee, so that you can still lie alongside me and still touch my belly button. This does placate you a bit, but you don’t really go back to sleep until Bee is finished feeding and is back in her cot, and you can have your Mummy back to yourself again. You used to be quite good at sleeping in, but Bee has been waking you earlier than usual, so we’ve shifted your day naptime and evening bedtime back an hour – getting ready for daylight saving a few weeks early.Talking
You are talking in roughly full sentences with improving grammar now, although your pronunciation is still sketchy so other people often need me to translate for you. Sometimes even Daddy and I need to ask you to repeat yourself a few times before we can understand you, but we usually get there in the end. You say “Good idea!” all the time, often to yourself. And if you lose something and would like Mummy to help find it, you’ll say “Let’s go on an adventure…” When we get home from a little outing, you tell Daddy what we did, what we saw, about the friends you made etc. If Daddy has gone to another room, you ask “Where my Daddy be? I lost my Daddy…” and then call out “Daddy, where are you?” You have very good manners at the moment, saying please, thank you, excuse me. Lately you’ve been saying “No thank you” a bit too much. Like when I tell you that you have a choice; either you can get in your car seat yourself, “No thank you”, or I’ll put you in there, “No thank you”. Umm, it wasn’t actually a choice!
Reading
You love reading books, and would happily do so all day long. In fact, it’s one of our mainstay distraction methods because you drop almost anything for a story. You are starting to show an interest in learning about letters, and can now recognise the letters J and A. You understand that words are made up of letters, and you are starting to make the connection that words which start with a particular letter sound a particular way. You have a top that says “Big Sister” on it, and when you ask to wear it, you ask for “the top with the letters”.
Maths
You can count to ten, for instance, you’ll count when we are playing Hide & Seek. But this is more a learnt rhyme than actually understanding what numbers are. If I ask you how many of something there are, you’ll answer correctly if there are 3 or less, but you’ll get it wrong if there are more than that.
Our family dynamic has changed this month and you’ve been such a champ about it. You adore your little sister.
Mummy & Daddy love you all the way to the moon and back again.
xxx