21 months old

Dear Elle,

In the past month, you have been deeply obsessed with snowman, Santa, reindeer, and many other things related to this winter season. You adores dearly the Santa books, saying gleefully "HO HO HO" jut like the fat jolly man. Playing playdoh and drawing have become your daily ritual. You always request making a snowman and a turtle with the playdoh. We roll it, shape it, put them together with eyes, nose, mouth, hands, legs and a hat. When they're done, you'd put them carefully on top of the playdoh containers. Until they've been perfectly placed in the way you like, you'd set them aside and move on to drawing. You'd pick out a pen from the penholder one by one, and then grab our hands to put upon yours, telling us what you want to draw. We'd take your little hands in ours and guide you drawing on the paper. In no time, the paper will be filled with many snowman and Santa, along with all kinds of animals.

Oh, those peculiar behaviors and lil' pet peeves of yours make us laugh and drive us nut! Aside of whining "hair hair" and "sock sock", you whine about "pant pant" when you can't see your feet simply because the pant is too long. You're all giddy about stomping your feet into the snow pile when we get out the house. However, as soon as you get into the car, you're so freak out to find out that your shoes are wet and covered with snow that you scream in distress and kick frantically like the whole world has collapsed. While mama's driving alone with you, whenever your shoelace is loosen, you'd scream on top of your lung wanting mama's to fix it right away for you. If something drops to the floor while you're restrained in your booster seat, you'd scream freakishly to get our attention until it finally get picked up. "Ewww..." becomes your favorite word. You ewww at any nasty stuff. You ewww when you find a hair on the tray or weird stuffs on the floor. You want things to be placed in the order you set for them; otherwise, you'd make a big deal out of it. You're so freak out about your fingers get all wrinkly when you're in the bath for too long. You'd stuck all fingers into mama's mouth hoping that all wrinkles would disappear after you pull them out.




You have no idea how bossy you have turned into. Whenever you want to draw, you'd hold our hands and pull us to the table, commanding us to sit by saying "Me Sit!". To you, "Me" refers to us. We suspect it's because we always refer you as "You" and us as "Me", which makes you think "Me" is us. Yesterday, dada asked you if you're done and ready to get out of the tub, you replied sternly "NO" and then pointed at the rim of the bathtub asking dada to "SIT SIT". One day, mama tried to cuddle you while you're watching telly, you got so annoyed that you gave me the look and commanded mama to leave you alone and go "SIT SIT" on the other couch. Whenever mama tries to steal some food from your bowl, you'd move the bowl closely to your chest and shoo mama away, telling mama to eat from her own bowl.

Do you know how panic we're that we'd fake dying or pretend to be ignorant whenever you pull out your lion push toy? You'd beg us to sit on your lion push toy so that you can push us behind. We're too big to sit on it that we squeeze ourself in and walk on our knees. You're so giddy over our whining noises and suffering look that we believe you're a torture maniac.




It has been really tough on us, especially on weekends, that you have been an early bird for almost two weeks. We have been dragging our feet trying to buy more time to sleep in. One of us would carry you out of your crib and then tuck you into our bed wishfully thinking that you'd fall into sleep again. It happened once, only after an hour of physical abuse from your constantly body tossing and throwing, fist throwing and leg kicking. Aside from the miracle that only happened once, you're so ready to welcome a brand new day early and shine. You won't allow mama to tuck her head under the pillow or bury herself inside the blanket. You'd poke dada's eyes or hit his head trying to wake him up. You'd climb onto us jumping up and down. We'd throw any stuffs we could grab nearby at you in hope of they will keep you occupied for a while, so that we could keep our eyes closed for a few more minutes. Until you get really really bored, you'd grab mama's glasses from the bedside table, screaming "Glasses, ON!", and putting it onto mama's eyes. Then, you'd uncover the blanket and say "COME!", pull mama out of the bed and head towards the bathroom. You announce it's time to brush teeth by saying "刷牙!", turn on the faucet, and hand over the toothbrush and toothpaste to mama, making mama feels like you're mama's lil' butler.

Happy 21 months old, sweetie!

Love,
Mama