When you had just begun your second year we found out we were expecting our second baby. You made the announcement for us to the extended family.
When you started nursery at 18 months of age you only had a handful of words you used. “Mommy”, “Da-da”, “Elka”, “oopsie”, and “hooray” were among your most used words. You may not have used many words, but you talked ALL THE TIME! Our friend Shae said it sounded like you talked in Chinese. You would just jabber and jabber your own little language and then stop and say, “huh”, or “yah”. You knew what you were saying and you assumed we all did too. Your dad and I only had one car at the time and I tended a two year old little boy so we didn’t leave much during the day. I would sit and have conversations with you for hours as if I really knew what you were saying. I know…Mommy needed more of a social life, but thanks for playing along.
After your first day in nursery you became known as the “firecracker” in nursery. After a couple weeks the nursery leader and song leader both mentioned how much energy you had and how you hardly stopped moving the entire hour and 45 minutes. I replied, “uhhh, ya”. (I already knew!)
We still continued our power struggles that are still going strong six years later. The one I remember most at this time was your insistence in wearing something blue at all times. Thank goodness jeans counted.
You were always a good sleeper, but once you started sleeping in a “big girl bed” you developed a strange habit. We would put you down and then check on you several times throughout the night. No matter how many times we checked…and I tried to catch you, boy did I try to catch you…you were always sound asleep and in a different pair of pajamas than when we saw you last. There were times I checked on you five times and you would seriously go through five pair of pajamas and you were always back to sleep by the time we peeked. You must have been faking sleep and you must have busted up in silent laughter as soon as we shut the door again because we never heard a peep.
Then brother came along. Your grandma and grandpa Henke were here and they took you away for a couple nights to visit your Uncle Warren so you weren’t home when we came home from the hospital. You got home later that night and you slowly walked into the room. I was holding Lincoln on my lap and you climbed up on the couch next to me and checked him out for a few minutes. He must have passed inspection because you finally softly said, “baby. MY baby”. You and Lincoln have been inseparable since.
Shortly after Lincoln was born, when you were about 22 months, I realized you recognized every letter of the alphabet. We had been reading books every night and I would point out letters once in awhile. You also would play with the alphabet magnets and you had a Blue’s Clue’s computer game that used letters in a puzzle game. I had no clue you were remembering it though! I picked up a deck of flash cards with the alphabet and I was speechless as you started pulling each one out and telling me what the letter was. That is only one of many times you have demonstrated your amazing memory and left your dad and I speechless.
Here are a few more pictures of your exciting second year.
Whims 