21 Months

Sara Kate, you are 21 months old!! What have you been up to?

- You are a big girl now at school! You started the new year by moving up to the next classroom...you are now a Pygmy! We were sad for you to leave Miss Allison (she's always been your favorite) and the other teachers in the baby rooms, but we are happy that you are growing, learning, and thriving at school. You are back with your best friend, Grayson, and your new teacher, Miss Natasha, tells me that you girls are so happy about that. Several of your other friends moved up classrooms at the same time as you so you are still able to be with your same group of friends (like Remy). These pictures are from your first day of school in 2012 and your first day going to your new class.

- With a new class comes a new daily schedule. I wake you up around 6:50-7:00 if you aren't already awake and playing in your bed, and we get dressed and head to school. You arrive around 7:30 and go to your class. Your separation anxiety is terrible right now. Between being gone lately and the move up, you cry so hard when I drop you off. I've been giving you your cereal bar right when we get there so you can eat, since that is somewhat of a comfort. Your school schedule looks like this:

You work on things like letters and numbers and tracing them on your activity sheets, learning different shapes (like trapezoid!), certain gross motor skills and fine motor skills every day, there is a song of the day (which your teacher told me you love song time), there is a story of the day, and alot of fun play time. You are so excited to see us when we pick you up, which is usually between 5-5:30.

- Dinner time is a MESS these days!! You are VERY into doing things yourself so we have been letting you because it makes you happy and you have to learn. You have been eating very well lately, but some weeks are still not so good. Some dinners you have had lately that you ate up include salad, pasta with sausage and broccoli (and you actually ate some broccoli!!), ham and potatoes, chili, spaghetti, tomato soup, eggs and toast, lobster bisque, and pizza. You still love yogurt, breakfast bars, graham crackers, Cheerios, grapes, green beans, Gold Fish crackers, Ritz crackers, and apple sauce.

- You have been snacking like crazy lately!! It seems that everytime you get home (from school, after nap, from church) you have to have a snack. You are so funny because you will yell 'Mama' and run to the pantry. We open the pantry and you point to exactly what you want. And sometimes you just pull random things off the bottom shelf that you think you want (like a box of uncooked pasta!).

- You are exhausted by the end of the day!! Your bedtime routine starts between 7:30-7:45, we are rocking by 8, and you fall asleep immediately. Some nights you wake up crying during the night but you can put yourself right back to sleep and some nights you sleep all night without waking up. During the week, you are awake between 6:45-7:00, but on Saturday's you can sleep until 8:00-8:30, and on Sunday we get you up around 8:00. With all the traveling we have done lately due to the holidays and the funeral, I have learned that you are a major wiggle worm at night!!

- You have been teething lately and you have 2 new teeth that have come through the gums within the last week! You now have your 4 top teeth, your 4 bottom teeth, both of your top 2-year molars, and your new teeth are both of your bottom 2-year molars.
- You love reading and your new favorite book is 'Green Eggs and Ham.' We read it all the time. You got lots of new books for Christmas, including some that play music, and you love those, too! Also, you like to have a book in the car with you.

- You LOVE music! We hear you singing to yourself and doing the motions to song by yourself. We sing lots of songs with you and you do the motions, and when we are doing this you always say 'more.' Some favorite songs right now include 'The Wheels on the Bus,' 'If You're Happy and You Know It,' 'Itsy Bitsy Spider,' 'Head Shoulders Knees and Toes,' and 'Old McDonald.' It is so precious to see you doing the motions to these songs.

- You talk all the time but alot of it is still gibberish. Some words you say regularly include mama, dada, cat, dog, duck, this, that, that one, more, hi, bye bye, night night, ball, bath, again, all gone, Poppa, Pop, and eye. You are very into repeating what we say. Daddy has been teaching you to say 'I love you,' and you always point to your eye when you say 'I.' We are also teaching you how to say all your vowels, and you can say them all but 'u.'

- You are such a smart girl, and you seem to pick new things up so easily. We love seeing you learn new things! You know where your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, hair, tummy, hands, arms, and feet are. You can make the animals sounds of a cat, dog, tiger, bear, monkey, duck, elephant, and cow. When we ask you where Sara Kate, mommy, daddy, Meme, Poppa, Pop, Gran, Hannah, Hayden, Cody, and Cora are you can point to them. You can count to 3. You know what 'time for bath' means. You know what it means when we ask 'if you are stinky.' You know what 'go to the car' means.
- You are very good at following directions...like pick up your toys, put the blocks away, go give this to daddy, go give mommy a kiss, etc. You seem to beam with pride when you do something that we ask you to do.

- You are so silly!! You are always doing silly things and you know how to make us laugh! I mentioned that you are into repeating what we say, but you are also into copying silly things we do, which you think is hilarious!

- You are learning how to 'smile' on command, like during picture time. It doesn't always work that way but you do know what 'smile' and 'cheese' mean. And it's so cute when you give a big ole grin!
- You are wearing size 18 month clothes and size 18 month pajamas.

- You are wearing size 4 diaper.
- You are wearing size 4 shoes.
- You are getting so big, and we can't believe you are getting so close to 2! You are so beautiful and so funny and so smart, and we just love you so much!