Alina: 22 Months

In the pregnancy haze of the first trimester, I’ve failed to document Alina’s 20th and 21st months. Bad Momma. But with her 2nd birthday only two months away and a second baby set to arrive only a few months after that, I can’t afford to miss another milestone recap. So here you are, my beautiful Alina, at 22 months young…

Alina, you are absolutely amazing. Being your Mother has been the single most perfect thing to ever happen to me. My biggest hope is that you will always feel unconditionally loved; that the love your Daddy and I smother you with becomes the foundation of a confident woman. I wasn’t always sure if I was cut out to be a momma, but you constantly tell me you love me. You constantly wrap those tiny arms around my neck, turn my face and plant the most amazing kisses on my cheeks. Somehow, at 22 months old, you know how to make your Momma feel worthy.

Since your last milestone post at 19 months, you have blossomed into such a big girl. You communicate amazingly well, and can put two and three word sentences together. You give directives, love adjectives {your Auntie has taught you to call your Guncle “Weirdo Guncle” and you call yourself “Silly Baby”} and are constantly making observations of the world around you. You ask me 1200 questions a day {“A doing?”, “Was dat?” or “Was dis”}. I still have to fill in the blanks, usually verbs or pronouns, but we are working on complete sentences. You say things like, “Momma, doggie, look!” or “Daddy, bug!” and “Agua, please”. Complete or not, you get your point across just fine. You can, will or try to say every single word we ask you to, so there is no way to list them all here. But, if you tell me something that I don’t immediately understand, you say “No” and repeat the word over and over until I figure it out. You give Momma so many chances to get it right, and I am ever grateful that you never give up on me.

From the moment you wake up in the morning to just before your eyes shut for the night, you are yapping about something. You talk, talk, talk alllll day long. You talk up the point where I may go crazy, and then its nap time. You take a nap everyday, usually at least two hours, but it can be anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. And although Mommy enjoys the break, I wouldn’t switch places with anyone. Yapping with you is the coolest thing I’ve ever done. When I ask you what your name is {in English or Spanish}, you respond with “Alina {Insert last name}!” and with “Two!” when we ask how old you are. You say your favorite color is green every time, although I push the pink pretty hard.

You are so smart, Alina. We work on your shapes and colors everyday, and you are beginning to identify them properly the majority of the time. Just today you pointed to something and said “Mommy, yellow!”. And you were right! So cool! You love to sing your ABC’s {which sound something like: A,B,A,B….LMNOP} and you count {1,3,1,3… ONE!}. You even know specific letters, like R and B. You have memorized your story time songs, and LOVE the librarians so much. Miss Leah is your all time favorite, for sure. But, I’ve got to say, your most favorite person these days is Baby B. You ask for your buddy every single day, without fail. Thanks to your Auntie, you know the sounds of soooo many animals. Everything from coyotes to an ox to bumbe bees. You are convinced that Daddy is a lion though, because of the way he yawns so loud in the morning. You laugh hysterically and scream, “Mommy, look! Daddy, lion!”. I think Daddy secretly loves being your lion, and yawns extra loud just for you.

You LOVE to read. Your favorite book right now is called “Yucka Drucka Droni”. It is such a silly read, and we both have it memorized. I stop every so often you can insert the next word, which you do! Where the book says, “…and the house is big and…”, you wait till exactly the right moment, swing your head back and say “CWAAZZZZY!”. Cutest thing in the whole wide world. In our next house, my sweet Alina, I’m making us a special spot where we can snuggle and read next to all our favorite books. I’m calling it our Library Nook, and it will have a big comfy chair that will fit the two of us together perfectly. I am so happy that you are becoming a lover of literature, just like your momma.

You are an active, little girl. You can jump pretty high now, and you LOVE to dance. You have been taking dance classes for the last couple months and are doing really well. Every week you follow instructions better. You have learned to point and flex your toes, you love to stretch and can balance very well. You are even learning how to tumble! Daddy comes with us to class, and loves spending that time with you. You are an obedient little girl, mostly because Momma has started to get more firm in my discipline, because otherwise you would love to run the show all the time. Sometimes I give in, but when I don’t, you are smart about picking your battles. Your tantrums these days are purely out of protest, no longer do you freak out because I can’t understand you. Usually you just go along with what I want, but when you insist on something different, this is what I have to deal with…

Just this week I decided to ignore your silly outbursts {which is HARD to do in public}. I simply continued to keep on walking. Its not always easy, but I think it may be helping. No attention for negative behavior, little Miss Alina. Of course we all have bad days, so when I know you are overtired or just cranky, you get wiggle room. After all, you know how to work into my Momma’s soft spot. But operation manners is underway. You are expected to say please and thank you {which is usually gracias} and you greet those who greet you. You even extend your hand and say “nice to meet you”, but I didn’t teach you that one!

And, whether throwing a fit or not, there is no where you would rather be than close to your Momma. You are 100% a Momma’s girl, Alina. You keep one eye on me at all times. And you know what, I love it! I have to say, being loved like this is the most amazing feeling in the whole world.

You are a super sensitive, sweet thing, but we always knew you would be. You are so very empathetic and worry about others around you. When you hear another kid crying, you tell me “Ohhh noo, Momma! Baby, crying! No cry baby, no cry.”. And you really do LOVE babies. Speaking of babies, you love to say brother {hermano} and kiss my belly at night. You talk to him and say hi, although I am fairly certain you have no idea why we have you talk to my belly. Oh, what wondrous things await you, my dear! I know you will be an amazing big sister.

Alina, I hope you know you are loved. I hope you read this one day and think your Mom is one of those over the top, annoying Moms that are obsessed with their kids. Because, my dear, I am. There is nowhere in this world that you can go that I will not want to be. Parenting can be exhausting, but exhilarating at the same time. Your Daddy has given me the most amazing gifts in my life, including you and then also working so very hard that we can stay together during the day. We both agree that our focus right now is you {and your brother}.

Te quiero por siempre Alina,
Su Mama