Dear Lottie Bella
Darling girl, you’re two years old! I got really emotional on the eve of your birthday last year. I thought it was because it was the first birthday, because that first special year had passed and because you were no longer a ‘baby baby’.
But it appears that every time I say good night to you the night before your birthday, I’m going to get a bit tearful. I can almost see you in years to come, rolling your eyes, but for now, you indulge me with the biggest, sweetest cuddle and kisses as you do every night.
It’s been a big year for you. You learnt to walk and became a big sister, among many other milestones. And your little personality is really starting to shine through. You’re the happiest, most content little person I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. You’re a gentle soul, painfully shy if the focus is on you, but happy as Larry if you can blend into a group and get on with your serious business of playing.
You’re most content, though, with your mama. You’ve suddenly become a bit clingy with me recently and will refuse to go to anyone, even daddy sometimes, while clinging around my neck and cuddling in close. Dropping you off at preschool in a few weeks is going to be interesting, to say the least. But I secretly love it. I’d cuddle you all day long if I could.
Someone suggested recently that I should blog more about the tough side of parenting. Of course there are days when you’re grumpy, but overall, life isn’t tough with you. Yes you refuse to eat dinner sometimes, you hate having your hair washed, you hate coming indoors when you’ve been playing outside, but in general, you’re a delight to be around. You take enjoyment from the simplest things, just going for a walk gets the biggest smiles. You are easy to entertain, happy company, and have a really good sense of humour. We often have a good old giggle together.
So yes, I could write about the tough days, but they are few and far between and even when you do have a tantrum, it’s usually pretty short lived and you’re fairly easy to jolly out of it.
You’re not yet talking and we’ve had a few concerns about your development, so we have a team of health professionals investigating. Of course we are worried, but what I keep coming back to, is that you’re healthy and happy and that, to me, is the most important thing.
I’ll write another post all about your birthday and party, but you’ve had such fun celebrating over the past week or so, with a day out, family get-together, a party and some lovely presents. You’ve spent a week in a permanent state of excitement and surprise, and it’s been so so lovely to see.
This month you’ve been loving:
Dancing – You just love to dance. As soon as you hear music, you start to sway and your face lights up.
Drawing – We’ve put your little table and chairs downstairs in the kitchen and all your pens and crayons are on it, and every morning, you go straight to your table to do some drawing, It can be difficult to prise the pens from you too.
Building – you’re getting really good at building towers with your building blocks and will happily sit for ages stacking them up and then knocking them down.
Books – Your love affair with books continues and daddy now reads you a story every night before bed. I can often hear you giggling about a story, or kissing the book if there’s an animal in it.
Exploring – Your grandad hit the nail on the head recently when he said ‘Lottie has found her land legs’. You really have discovered a love of getting outside and exploring. You’re not keen on getting in the buggy any more, unless your absolutely exhausted and would far rather walk.
Being outside and in the park – You’d spend all day every day outside if you could.
Animals – We’ve been on a few farm visits recently and subsequently you’ve been to help me feed the horses and you absolutely love animals. You have no fear and as soon as you see an animal, you are off to talk to it. You like to pat Ben the horse and you think it’s very funny if he trots or canters over to see us at the gate. I think daddy is worried that you like horses a bit too much. You also have a thing about cats. Every time you see one, you try to kiss it, even if it’s just a picture of one.
Kissing – you are selective with which people you kiss, but will kiss all animals, books, toys, mobile phones and other inanimate objects.
The bath and water – You just love splashing and playing with water. You go crazy in the bath, squealing with delight.
Mr Tumble – Your attention was recently caught by ‘Something Special’ while CBeebies was on in the background and you have grown to adore Mr Tumble. You never previously watched much TV, so it’s nice to see you concentrate and chill out for 15 minutes.
Waving and clapping – I think Mr Tumble was responsible for teaching you to wave and now you are waving more and more. Quite often you wave at everyone in the supermarket as we leave.
Frankie – Your interest in your baby sister is definitely growing. She’s more interactive by the day and you often kiss her. You always wave goodnight to her and you often play with her and give her your toys. If she drops a toy from her bouncy chair, you’ll always pick it up and give it back to her. You also climb up the side of her cot to peek in at her in the morning and she beams as soon as she sees you. I’m loving seeing your relationship blossom.
Soft play – You just go wild in there.
Eating out – You really enjoy coming out for lunch, eating new things and sitting with daddy and I. We don’t often eat together at home as daddy isn’t home in time, so it’s a treat for you.
Sharing and tidying – We started to encourage you to share and tidy up toys in preparation for preschool and you just love it. We always tell you how good you are, and you just love being praised.
Before I had children, I used to hear parents saying how proud they were of their children and while I thought it was lovely, I didn’t really understand it. But now I do. My heart bursts with pride over you, you’re such a sweet, gentle, funny, kind little girl. Everyone adores you and I just couldn’t wish for a better behaved, more content little girl to share my days with.
Now that you’re two, I won’t write to you every two months any more. I’ll probably write you a letter every six months, unless there is something big happening. I’ve loved writing these updates to you and I know we’ll look back on them in years to come and smile (and probably cry in my case). You’re growing up now and are off to preschool next month and I can’t wait to see what’s next in your little journey of life.
I love you darling girl. More than you could ever ever imagine. And I will always always always be here to look after and support you as long as I live and breathe.
All my love,
Mama xxx
