Dancing Queen

Dear Mackenzie,

I love the toddler stage so much! As JieJie said, you are no longer "a boring baby who doesn't do anything" and you haven't reached your temper-prone Terrible Twos stage yet, so you're in the fun sweet spot in between! You grow more bubbly, playful and sociable every day and you do so many cute things that make our entire family smile. Some examples:

- You mimic me a lot. When I was making a cake the other day and you were sitting in the kitchen with me, you mixed your baby spoon around in your bowl just like I did with my wooden spoon and mixing bowl. When I was putting on lotion at night, you watched me and rubbed your hands all over your head and neck.

- You attempt to put your clothes and socks on by yourself. You're not quite there yet but it's so cute to watch you try.

- When I turn lights on or off, your eyes widen a LOT. It's as if the sudden appearance or disappearance of overhead lights completely amazes you!

- You toddle all over the place now and are getting so good walking. Sometimes you walk too quickly and almost tip over forward but you are able to catch yourself, find your balance and stand straight back up again. You even walked backward for the first time last week.

- Whenever your baby gate is open, you make a beeline for it! Now that you are more confident with walking, you love leaving the safe confines of your room to explore the rest of the house.

- When you do walk toward the door, you often turn back a little, stretch your arm out toward me and smile as if to say, "Come on, Mama, let's go!"

- You love to dance! Whenever I play music on my iPad, you smile and sway back and forth. If my iPad is on the coffee table, you often tap the screen and try to turn it on. When I help you with that and play a song, you smile such a big smile and start bouncing and swaying happily to the music.

- You like to chase me and be chased!

In other news, you have an eighth tooth coming out of your bottom gum. It is so cute but I am still breastfeeding you, so when you bite me while nursing, not so cute! You also tried whole milk for the first time last week but didn't like it. You drank it thinking it was water and immediately look startled when you realized it wasn't. I tried giving you a few more sips but you kept shaking your head and refused to drink anymore. I tried giving you milk again for a few days after that but you still refused it. So that is why we are still breastfeeding. We'll try again soon.

Love,

Mom

No One Messes With Your Sister!

Dear Mackenzie,

It has been one month since you turned one and you have blossomed so much in the past four weeks. It's as if you immediately jumped from being a little baby to a little girl! You have learned to do so many new things this past month and you have developed such a sweet, fun-loving personality.

New motor skills: walking a length of nearly ten feet on your own (you are such a good walker already and love walking all over the house--and it's so cute how proud and pleased you look every time you walk!); holding and drinking from your own bottle; stacking blocks; when sitting on the couch, turning over onto your belly and scooting off the couch backward; opening twist-cap bottles

New interests: pointing at everything, playing with light switches to turn the lights on and off; handing me series of things, listening to the songs that your dollhouse plays--you especially like the rub-a-dub song that plays when you push the button in the bathroom and will just sit next to your dollhouse and continuously push the button so the song plays over and over again

New cute behaviors: laying your cheek on the coffee table and smiling up at me; scribbling with a crayon and looking so happy while doing it; hearing us laugh really hard and laughing really hard along with us--I guess you don't want to be left out!

New growths: a tiny seventh tooth coming out of your bottom gum!

The biggest development, though, has been your sense of empathy. When you see one of your siblings crying, you scrunch up your face and whimper. You were especially sweet a few days ago when JieJie and Second GuhGaw were fighting over a colored pencil. Second GuhGaw wouldn't share it and JieJie started crying. You crawled over to JieJie, climbed into her lap and made whimpering sounds as if you were trying to commiserate with her. That alone was pretty darn cute but then you took it further--after you tried to comfort JieJie, you crawled over to Second GuhGaw, who was lying on his stomach and drawing. You climbed onto his back, sat on top of him and started yelling really loudly at him! You were totally scolding him for upsetting JieJie!

You are awesome! I love that you have become aware of other people's feelings and I really love that you had your sister's back!

Love,

Mom