Dear Nathalie,

This may be the choppiest letter I have written to date – I am not caring today.

October in review:

This may be the month when I moved up in the Ranking of Favorite People! I have been with you a bit more than Papa this month. Let’s see how long it lasts, but you have been so excited to see me lately. Even relinquishing the hands of Mummy and Papa to walk with me on Halloween! Oh, my heart!!! Even though one day I woke you from your slumber and forced you to do things like put on clothes and brushed your hair and (GASP) cover your feet in SOCKS…all so that I could take you to Jenny’s for the day. You crashed hard in the car and stayed asleep after I delivered you to her couch. But did I take a photo of that cuteness? OF COURSE NOT! There is a reason we humans should not give birth in our late forties…YOU TODDLERS ARE EXHAUSTING!

Did you see the sass in that video clip? Mmmmhmmm. Good thing you are cute. This visit to church ended with you giving hugs and kisses to Miss Monica and one of the other volunteer before leaving. It was quite adorable, …another moment not caught on video. But we did get this:

Playing with Fishies

Did you see that ponytail? That is video evidence that it stayed in for at least 20 seconds!

And, much like your Mummy, you do enjoy rocks.

One time while being your designated adult in charge, I had Papa on a video call and you had a toy golf club and inadvertently knocked the side of my phone with it while talking to him…you patted the side of my phone and told Papa “I sorry” – the cuteness was real.
November in Review:

November began with POTTY TRAINING…

…and a visit to the dentist for Mummy to have a cleaning. In an effort to get you dentist adapted you joined her, with me present as back up. You were fine sitting with Mummy in the chair, but then they put a “bib” on her! HEAVENS TO BETSY it was like they placed the most offensive object imaginable on her chest. You were not pleased and then when they leaned her back in the chair…that was it, your anger turned into despair. It was as if the reclining position meant that Mummy had DISAPPEARED! So, we went back to the waiting room and played with toys like this:

Hanging Out at Afdent

I love how polite you are becoming…sort of…when you feel like it. In response to “Thank You” we get a response of “yooweckom”…pretty sure that means “You’re welcome”

You celebrated Gracey’s 16th birthday and experienced being in the spying eye of Chris Jr’s drone. You were calling it to you and were fine until it got close, then you became a Papa barnacle…

Video:

Mummy says you apologize to all of the things these days… cupboard doors, stuffed animals. You are trying to be kind to all things under the sun

November was the best!  It was when Aunt Pixie moved back home from Washington!  Which was just in time for you to end up contracting Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease after celebrating Thanksgiving. (Which is also the year that I missed Thanksgiving due to a migraine and waiting on Aunt Pixie’s flight to land…c’est la vie) Apparently, before you left the Lovitt gathering you gave EVERYONE kisses.

Your vocabulary is expanding beyond our ability to capture it.  Even since October, you seem to get the L sound into “You’re welcome” and it comes out as two separate words.

You are surprising us with the things you say and do; on one occasion Papa was struggling to get you buckled into your car seat and after several failed attempts you uttered in frustration “come on” drawing out the word “on” in such a way that you would think you were 12 rather than a toddler.  I imagine at twelve our response will not be laughter.

I will say, that you are the epitome of The Terrible Two’s and to be honest (or lucky) I did not experience that with your mother or aunt.  Don’t get me wrong, they both had their moments but your moments are… well, a way of life right now.  Though your vocabulary is expanding I am hoping that once you master the English language and can CLEARLY state what it is that you want, your world will expand and your attitude may shift…here’s to hoping.

We pretty much wrapped up November with allowing you to decorate my Christmas tree…I had intended to “edit” your work after you left…but I couldn’t. Also…with Aunt Pixie home, we now have FOUR cats in the house and …let’s just say it is a good thing we don’t use glass ornaments and we have the tree anchored to the ceiling with twine.

 

December FLEW by!

Your Aunt Pixie joined you and some of the Lovitt family at Allie’s Cafe for lunch where you spent the time eating all of her fries and then walking her around the restaurant while holding her hand and waving and saying hello to other patrons.

Another cute moment that I have second-hand information on:  Before Christmas dinner with the Lovitt family, during Aunt Kelley’s blessing of the meal, you apparently were saying Amen, amen, amen…  AND I MISSED IT!!  After this occasion…NO ONE GOT KISSES.

We continue to take you to church whenever possible. I was present for this after church one evening:  You danced

…and received many compliments from The Ladies at church about your little poncho sweater…everyone wants one, including me.

You received gifts from EVERYONE and I spent way more on you than I had planned but did you LOOK at this activity center!  IT’S HEIRLOOM QUALITY! (the video quality…not so much)

During Christmas festivities with the Giles clan, you tried to rival your mother in her toddler injuries with a trip into some object and ended up with this beauty:

We kept you overnight that night and I cannot tell you how many times you inadvertently brought Papa close to myocardial infarction…you DO NOT watch where you are going…at all.  Our kitchen table is a death trap of sharp corners.  The bad kitties like to chase things you trail behind you and force you to look at them rather than at the minefield that is our home full of SHARP CORNERS.

We did find the magic trick to getting you to settle down: WINNIE THE POOH MOVIES!!! You watched them in their entirety. I had never witnessed this before.

The next day you really did NOT want to go home, getting you dressed was a chore until Aunt Pixie decided to make it a game of hide-and-seek and that everytime they hid from us, she added a special piece of clothing that made her harder to find.  Not the most efficient way of getting dressed but it was a pleasant experience for you.  Also, when you “hid” in Aunt Pixie’s room…you walked in and GASPED and half-whispered “So messy!”  – this spurred Aunt Pixie into action later and forced her to clean her room.

On the ride home, you kept your head completely covered by a blanket and would not speak at all until we were driving in a direction where the sun was not shining in your window.  Truly, the moment we turned away from the sun, you popped your head out from under the cover and became Normal Nathalie again… although, I don’t know that there is a Normal…  You are not fully aged yet.

That is all I have Tiny One. Now I sit at home on New Year’s Eve with movies queued up and ready to watch with good company…Papa and Aunt Pixie…who keep harping at me to get off my computer so that we can start the movie.  This is the real party.

Happy New Year!  Don’t party too hard. Go to bed early…I know I will.

Love forever,

Nawnie