Isabella, my love, you simply amaze me. I wish I could stop the clock and keep you the way are, for always. I am sure you will not understand my love for you until the day comes that you give your heart to your own child. At this time, you are just three short months away from your second birthday. I must say, I think you are the smartest little girl! You learn very quickly. You mimic me, your grandma, and your grandpa. You have learned the sounds of several animals like the vaca (cow), froggy, piggy, fishy, pajarito (bird), kitty, rooster, lion, dog, and the horsey. You can count from one to ten with a little assistance. You know where many of your body part are and their names. There are so many other things that you know. At nineteen months old, you had all your teeth, except for your two-year molars. You still enjoy dancing, jumping on your mini trampoline, and on the beds, and singing. You absolutely love going outside! It is the summer time right now and late in the evenings, your grandma and grandpa will go outside to water the grass. You always get excited and run to put your shoes on so you can go outside with them. Oh! And your shoes, you love to put on and take off your shoes! You always want to be barefoot here at home. Your grandma and I always laugh at the fact that when she picks you up from the daycare, within two minutes, you have your socks and shoes off and are happy and barefoot! When you and I are getting dressed and ready to go somewhere, especially in the morning to go to daycare, I have to tell you, sternly, "Don't take your shoes off!" If I don't, by the time we are on our way to the car, I can almost always count on you being barefoot.
About three months ago, I turned your crib into a toddler bed. You slept in it for the first couple of days...but then, you started insisting to sleep with me in my bed. I must admit, you are very persistent and convincing. Most nights, you win and get to sleep with me. It's funny how small my queen size bed can feel when I am sandwiched between you and Lola! And especially when you are asleep sideways, with your feet in my back or on my face, and I am on my side, at the very edge of the bed! But, I must admit, there's nowhere else I would rather be. It comforts me to be able to reach over and hug you. When you snuggle close to me, I can't help but think how much I love you and how blessed I am to have you. I know we broke this habit of you sleeping with me months ago...but I guess we will have to work on breaking it again at a later time. In the mean time, I did break you from your beloved chupis! And you did love that chupis very much. When I would call from work to see what you and grandma were up to, she would sometimes tell me, "She's jumping on the bed with the chupis in her mouth!" and when I would ask, "WHY does she have that chupis!? She's only supposed to get it at bed time." Your grandma would answer, "Well...she wants it, so, I let her have it." So, one day, when I was about to start my days off, I attempted put you to bed and refused to give you your chupis. You cried, and cried, and cried...and cried! But I did not give in and you finally fell asleep without it. Then next night, you still asked for it but you did not cry. That was the last time you asked for it. I hid all the chupis from their usual hiding places and that was that. That was four months ago and you haven't asked for it again.
You are such a friendly little girl. At the daycare, all the kids in your class, older kids, and several of the teachers say hi and bye to you as you come and go each day. When we are in the grocery store, you say "Hi!" to complete strangers. You wave and smile at people and get along very well with other children. You have two friends at the daycare that you talk about often at home. Their names are Maly (Emily) and Memi (Remi). From what the teachers have told me, you and Remi have been best buddies for a while now. Now, you play with Emily quite a bit too. When we arrive each morning, Emily and Remi yell, "Bella! Bella!" Not long after that began, all the other kids began saying, "Bella! Bella!" when they would see you coming.
With Harley, The Birthday Girl
Playing With Ethan And Marilee
In June, we attended your first birthday party. The birthday girl was Harley and the theme was 'Calling All Superheroes!' You go to be Super Girl for the day. You really had a fun time and you jumped on Harley's trampoline with some of the other kids. Then, we went to Ethan's Superhero birthday. You had fun on the slide and in the blow up jumper with all the other kids.
Isabella, I wish I could express to you, in words, exactly how active and hyper you are ALL THE TIME! I have no idea how such a little body can have so much energy. Most days, during the week, I work until 8:00 in the evening. Grandma has usually already fed you dinner by the time I get home, so you and I play for a little while and then it's time for a bath. You really enjoy being in the water. you like to play with your toys, splash water everywhere, and fill up the cup I use to pour water on your hair. Most days, when you take a bath, I get nice and soaked too.
Playing in the tub.
At night, it is never an easy task to get you to go to bed. You run around the house like a wildcat, jump on the beds, look for toys to play with, ask to watch movies...doing just about anything to burn up every last bit of energy in your tiny body. By the time you drink your sippy cup of milk, and I finally get you into bed, it still takes another thirty minutes, and sometimes up to an hour, to get you to stop jumping on the bed, climbing all over me, showering me with kisses and hugs, pointing and naming the parts of my face, asking for Remi and Emily, and Tio Joe, and Lola, and Dora, and Boots, and Mickey Mouse, and every other person and character that you can think of! Finally, around 10:30 there is peace and quiet in the house because you have fallen asleep. In the morning, when it is time to wake up, I usually turn on the TV and The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is on. As soon as you hear the music and voices of your favorite characters, you wake up. Most mornings, you are in a happy mood, still tired from staying up too late, but happy. Then we quickly get you dressed, you brush your teeth while I fix your hair and were out the door by 7:20 am.
Sleepy mornings.
Still not wide awake.
Then, there is Lola. Poor, poor Lola... You are always telling her "NO Lola!" and "Mine!" and "GO Lola!" and you point for her to go away. When she is napping, you like to sneak up to her and tap her with your foot to startle her awake. But every time I see you do these kinds of things, which is very frequently, I tell you "Leave Lola alone!" But you don't always pick on her. you like to love on her and hug and pet her too. You like to cover her with your blanky and pat her like you are putting her to sleep and you like to rub her belly. You also like to share your food and snacks with her, the ones you don't like!
Over the last couple weeks, you vocabulary has increased tremendously! You repeat almost everything you hear us say. You have even repeated some words that your were not meant to hear...but when I hear you say those kinds of words that you shouldn't say, I let you know that those are not nice words and I usually don't hear them again.
A few weeks ago, I bought you a training potty. I showed you how to sit on it and peepee. You have done really well in learning to let us know when you need to go potty. And every morning, as soon as you get out of bed, you go right to the potty. I am going to let you continue this way until you let me know that you are ready to be completely out of pampers. But, just like every other one of your milestones, I don't think you will have much problems mastering it.
So, Isabella, my love, you are the fire that has lit up my life and I thank God for you always. I am so proud of the little girl you are growing into and I try to cherish each small piece of the baby world that you leave behind. You are growing up so fast. I try to always tell you what a good job you are doing, how smart you are, how beautiful you are to me, and how much you are loved. I wish that, one day, you could see yourself the way I see you, perfect.
Love, Mama
