20-Month Little Toddler Toot

Quinn Margaret,

You are the funniest little toot! You have really come out of your shell and you make us laugh and then you frustrate us the next minute. I think you are feeling it too...you are just learning so much and you're dying to be a big girl. I think the transition of being at home with Mama has been a little hard for you but I also think you love it (and of course so do I)!

Here are some fun/funny/frustrating things about you right now:

Super Smart
Of course I think you're the smartest 20-month old out there because that's what mamas do. :) You can count to ten (it usually goes two, four, six, seBen, eight, TEN! YAYYY), you can say your ABC's almost all the way through w/out skipping any, you remember things really well (little scary sometimes), you say please and thank you (which usually ends up being "thank you Mama, welcome Quinn"), you sing and remember songs well, you engineer things in creative ways, you like to put our clothes and shoes on and you know exactly what foods might be healthy and stay away from them. Oh dear.

As you say, you constructed a "Tall Tower"!

You always boss Mama and Daddy around telling us what to draw. Heart, X, O, Puppy or Truck.

You figured out how to use a carrot as a spoon.

Name Game
You call yourself "Puinn" right now. When you hand me something you say "Thank you Puinn" anticipating me to say it. You like to make sure everything belongs to someone like Mama's water, Daddy's shoe and Puinn's milk. When I talk about people, you like to talk to me about them even days later when I think you've forgotten. Somehow you remembered that Pawpaw/Sherrie (which is one word) live in O-de-ssa and so do Aunt Abby, Uncle J and Mimi. I told you a couple of weeks ago that we would go play at Harper and Baby Hudson's house next Monday and somehow you randomly remembered that and wouldn't stop talking about it for two weeks. You know that Allison and Kim have babies in their bellies and that Granny has to take care of her dogs, Pixie and Penny. You always have to make sure we mention Nannie Mae in your prayers and you still say Auntie Em's boyfriend's name (Taylor) with your whole tongue.

Funny Words
You have started saying "Yeah" a lot and it drives me nuts. We are working on yes mam, no mam, yes sir, no sir, etc. You repeat EVERYTHING we say so we have had to start watching our words. It's pretty funny! You also remember things and randomly say them. For example, I told you a week ago that we would go play w/ Harper and Hudson next Monday and you randomly remembered it and started saying it at dinner. The way you say Monday in this video cracks me up!

We had such a fun MonDAY with Harper!

Silly Girl
You make us laugh all the time. You are the funniest when you are deliriously tired at night or before nap time. We laugh but we know the little monster is about to come out so I guess we are preparing ourselves. You get REALLY chatty during this time and you try so hard to make sentences that you stumble over words and stutter a little until you finally get to the main word you want to say. Sweet girl!

Not sure how you got my swim bottoms on like this.

BFFs
You and Ella. Seriously BFF. I'm not sure we'll need a sibling for you at this point with the way you two play together. Ella puts up w/ a lot of hitting, tackling, pulling and chasing but she also likes to play back. The other day, you drew all over her with chalk and I said "No Quinn! We do not draw on dogs." Things you never thought you'd say. :)

Food
You are starting to get more picky and it makes me sad. You used to eat a lot, but now you don't like anything green (except peas sometimes) and you aren't eating meat right now.  I tend to puree a lot of spinach and hide it in things like pasta sauce and eggs. It's kind of crazy. I'm pretty sure you could live on rice and beans, which tells me Mama and Daddy eat way too much Mexican food. Anytime I ask you what you want to eat you say pasta, soup or crackers. You also learned that I keep a lot of snacks in the pantry so you go to the pantry and yell "SNACK!" a lot. We are having to teach you not to yell so much. Not cool dude.

I may or may not have taught you how to drink the milk after cereal. :)

Discipline
Let's just say I need to purchase the books Parenting the Strong Willed Child and Love and Logic Parenting. I have a feeling time-outs and a lot of crying are in our near future.

Musical Genius
This is so random, but you love opera music. I randomly started singing some of the stuff I sang in college one day and you were mesmerized. I told you that was an opera song and now you ask for it all the time. I finally found some videos of a few and luckily, Daddy studied Italian in college so he knows some as well. Your favorite is the Flower Duet. You even sing w/ me sometimes! You are fascinated and you say "Opera song pretty."

Watching opera songs with Daddy.

Favorite things about you right now:
-All the talking you are doing including telling me "Mama, I love you" and "Sorry Mama" w/out me prompting you.
-You go to sleep by yourself really well (I hope I didn't just jinx us).
-You play independently (and by independently, I mean w/ Ella).
-Your run is awesome and you still swing your left arm.
-Your mullet.
-When you say "cheeeeeese".

Not-so-great things about you right now:
-Mood swings
-Getting in the car is probably my least favorite thing in the entire world. There aren't enough Goldfish, books or stickers in the world to get you to get in. I've had to physically hold you down and strap you in. It makes running errands miserable. :(

-Changing your diaper is getting a little dramatic...we always have a book or something on hand.
-Brushing your teeth. Your sticker chart is still the only way we can get you to do it and even that is hard sometimes.

Despite your toddler craziness, we grow to love you more and more every day. You are such a sweet girl and I'm so glad I get to spend lots of time w/ you now.

Love you!
Mama