Monday, July 31, 2023

Girlboss

Dear Mackenzie,

I love your take-charge attitude. You're always jumping at the chance to help me do things, whether it's carrying a load of laundry or turning the blender on when I'm making smoothies, and your most-uttered phrases are "I do it!" and "I can do it by myself!" I also love your determination. I took you out today so that you could scooter around the neighborhood and we ended up scootering to the nearby school, which is half a mile from our house. You played on the playground for a bit and when we headed home, you said your legs were tired. I said you could walk instead but you insisted on scootering all the way home. Even when we got to the last block, which gave you trouble because it's long and uphill, you pushed yourself to keep going until we made it to our walkway. I am so impressed by you!

Here are more things I love about you:

-One of your favorite things to do right now is play store. You spend hours carefully arranging your toys, books, jewelry and stuffed animals around your room to set up your "shop."

-You also like to play airport (you went on your first flight in April and was definitely been bitten by the travel bug!) and pretend you are the pilot. The last time we played and we "arrived" at our destination, you bowed regally and said to me, "I can take you anywhere you want to go."

-When I got a cut on my finger, you asked if you could see it. I held my finger up to you and you said, "Let me take a look," squinted at my finger, then put on these plastic lens-less play glasses and squinted at my finger again, just like an old woman would!

-When I explain something to you, you often reply, "Oh, I see."

-Sometimes you pronounce "yes" like "yesh" and it' is just so cute.

-Sometimes when I ask you to do something, you say "Okay, Mama" in the sweetest, softest voice.

-One of your favorite things is when I squat down on one side of the room and you run to me from the other side and jump into my arms. Sometimes, you'll just be going about your day but as soon as you see me in a squat position facing you, you smile, stop whatever you're doing, scurry to the other end of the room and charge at me with such glee! Once I catch you, you often shout, "Again!" Strangely, if I count down "3-2-1," you always tell me, "Don't count!" These days, I have to really brace myself because you are getting so big and strong and I don't want you to knock me over! 

-You burp the *loudest* burps! It's truly amazing that such big belches can come from such a tiny person. Your burps are louder than anyone's I've ever heard!

-Our conversation this morning:
Me: Do you want a bagel?
You: Yes.
Me: With cream cheese?
You: Yes.
Me: With everything seasoning.
You: That's correct.

In other news, we went over to our neighbor's house and you held her new three-week-old baby. The smile on your face when Connie first placed him in your arms! You looked so happy! But you couldn't hold him for long because you said he was too heavy. Then you asked why he was heavy. You have been used to holding your featherlight dolls and stuffies!

Love,
Mom

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

I'm Blue

Dear Mackenzie,

Whenever you finish your food, you proudly announce, "I finish all my [whatever you just ate]. See?" And then you flex your arms to show me the muscles you instantaneously grew from eating all of your food! So cute! Also cute is that whenever I ask you if you need anything, you say, "I just need a hug from Mama." I will hug you anytime, Kenziebear! Picking you up, though, is a different story because you are HEAVY now. I can barely make it up the stairs with you in my arms and am definitely winded by the time I get to the top. You are such a big girl already!

And you are also such a fun, happy little kid! You are always singing and dancing enthusiastically (your current favorite songs are "I'm Good" by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha and "Dear Future Husband" by Meghan Trainor) and cheerfully running around the house in one of your amazing get-ups (a common outfit for you consists of a headband, sunglasses, LOTS of bracelets, necklaces and anklets, winter gloves, one of your princess dresses or your Wonder Woman costume, several purses AND high heels that belong to JieJie's Build-A-Bear--they don't fit you at all but you manage to tiptoe up and down the hallways in the them like a runway model!). You still LOVE chocolate and eat it as much as you can. One night after dinner, Daddy was looking in the pantry for something sweet, so you showed him a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels. When Daddy said he didn't want them, your eyes widened and you pointed to the bag and said in all seriousness, "It's CHOCOLATE." You couldn't understand how someone was rejecting chocolate! After chocolate, your next love is the show Bluey. We'd never watched it before but when we were vacationing in Hilton Head over spring break, it's all that was playing on Disney when we were in the hotel room and you (and Daddy!) got hooked. You used to love Peppa Pig, then Turning Red and now it's all "Can I watch Bluey? Can I watch Bluey?" It is a funny show, though, and waaaaaay less annoying than that British pig!

Love,
Mom