17 Months!

Dear Charlotte,

You are now 17 months old! Initially I'd planned to update these as often as you have well-visits at the doctor, but a lot has happened in the past couple of months.

-You continue to be a happy, easy-going kid who loves to explore. This has been a major blessing recently.

-Your favorite foods are noodles (emphatically pronounced "noo-gle!"). You like sesame ginger noodles (which stink), macaroni and cheese (boxed or home made), spaghetti with red sauce (a treat to clean up), spinach ravioli/tortellini, and any other type of pasta you happened to find.

-You are a talking machine. You have many, many words that you say regularly; I've quit counting. Dada and I have started to use toddler speak and most adults probably think we're crazy. Examples include "wa-wa" for water and "dog-dog!" for dogs. You repeat everything. When we found out you got into a preschool program, Dada said "Congratulations!" and you repeated "-gradalation!" (which explains why you got in). You now put two words together. The first time you did this was to say "Byebye wa-wa" as the water trickled down the drain after bath time. You also frequently say "All done ___" when an activity ends or someone/something leaves. Many of your words do require a translator but I'm happy to provide that service.

-You have mastered walking and we now frequently hear you running across the wood floors. It's a fantastic sound. You fall often when you get distracted and your knees have been scraped up for a couple of weeks. You generally respond by saying "Boom!" and pointing to the damage...then you get up and move on.

-At the beginning of August, your grandfather passed away. You'd only met him once so you won't remember him but he found delight in holding you as an infant. Your cousin is named Stephen as a reminder of your grandfather.

-Also in August, we moved from Boston, MA to Arlington, VA. While Dada and I grew up in VA, this is a new place for you. You still talk about your friends from Boston (Nate, Sebastian, and Eben) who you clearly miss. You love our new place though and all of the extra space it offers. Being in a house means you get to go outside all the time. You've learned the neighborhood and can already direct us to the playground. You also start talking as soon as we walk by our house when we're on our way home. You have been a little more snugly lately which is probably the result of all of this change, but I welcome it.

-You will be starting preschool in a couple of weeks! You will attend school one morning a week for 3 hours. It's a co-op school, which means Mama gets to come with you once every few weeks. Hopefully Dada can join sometime too to get to see how much fun you have with the other kids. We had a school play date this week to meet your classmates and you had a fantastic time. I can't wait for you to learn the names of some new friends.

-In just a couple of months, you will be a big sister. You get so excited when we see babies, I hope you like our new baby just as much. Since my belly has gotten so big, you point to it and say "baby". Tonight you also pointed at Dada's belly and said "baby". I think I found it funnier than he did. You are going to be an amazing big sister, I know it.

I love you even more than the last letter I wrote you, even though I didn't think it was possible then.

Mama