Your Royall Blogness: 20 Month Letter

Dear Bean,
Wow! 20 months! Just…wow! After being sick/recovering from being sick for much of last month, you have been full steam ahead for month 20. Your vocabulary! It is growing exponentially. You make me smile daily with a new, cute thing that you say. You starting to say a few short sentences. While playing with bubbles you said "I popped it!". When we ask you who you love, will list all of your friends and family. One day when we asked, you said "I love Happy!". You have started saying Lauren ( learn), Eric (ig-it), and Norah (no no). Finally! Your first sentence ever: "I don't want to" is used often. You make my heart crumble with you say "I sorry, mama". When you are really impressed you'll say "oh wow!". We have heard a couple of mumbled "I love yous". When looking at clothes or babies you will say "Awww, cute!". You'll ask for "dinner/lunch on a plate". You want to go on a walk, Breckin?…"ooookaaaaay! Come on, Mama!". And while you still say "ooookay!" a lot, you have started using "yep!" as well. When we ran out of toilet paper you said "no more paper". Whenever you hear a baby crying you say "Baby sad" with an empathetic look. You point out when all the characters in your books are sad too. You will say "See ya!" instead of bye sometimes. Sometimes daddy will take you into the living room in the morning so I can get a few more minutes of sleep. You'll wave and say "Bye Mommy! Mommy sleeping!".

rock show

You love to be naked and will ask to be "nakey". You want your dolls to be nakey too. You like to take their clothes off. You say "di-dipey" when you need a new diaper. We got you a potty, but you have not done the deed in it yet. You say "sit!" to bubba but he does not obey you. This makes you mad. You also try to give your friend, Wilder, dog commands when he is at our house playing. You pat your legs and call for him "Wilder!" and you try to force him to get in your dolly stroller or push you around in the dolly stroller. You are obsessed with soup. You "make" soup daily with your play kitchen food. You also make soup by putting Leon's food in his water bowl. You do this very quietly b/c you know you are not supposed to.

You have a flare for the dramatic. When something is "lost" (like the remote control) we will say "Where is the remote control?" and you will gasp and throw you your hand over your mouth and say "oh god!" (it sounds like "oh go-awd"like you are an old lady from minnesota). I think you are copying your mother exactly on this one…You will fake being hurt when we are wrestling and you say "ow ow ow ow ow!" You threw your biggest fit yet at Deus Ex Machina where we were watching our friends' band play. You were tired and you refused to let anyone pick you up and you screamed and insisted on laying on the dirty parking lot for 20+ minutes. You yell "Fast! Fast!" when I push you in your car stroller b/c you like me to run and push you. You will run through the house with your dolly stroller and yell "Fast!". You hold your hand up and say "stop". When you are feeling sassy you will say it to your mommy and daddy. You hate wearing headbands and usually rip them off your head and scream "no headband!" as soon as I put one on.

You love to put our underwear/bras on. Usually around your neck.

As sassy as you can be, you are equally sweet and loving. You say "hiiiiiii!" first thing in the morning and throughout the day. Your eyes light up and you have the sweetest voice. You'll come in for sweet kisses (and say "mwah!") and hugs with pats on the back. You are a loving and doting mommy to your baby dolls. You like to wrap them up in your receiving blankets, diaper them, give them kisses, rock them, nurse them, and put them night night. When you put them night night, you swaddle them up and say "ssshhh sssshhh ssshhh". You even tried to wrap Leon up in the blanky one day while he was napping on the couch. You love to talk about your family and friends. You will often pretend to talk to people on my phone. When you don't know who somebody is you'll ask "S'that?" (Who's that). When we are looking at a book or pictures, you like to kiss the characters/people. You like for us to kiss your boo boos…you even ask Leon to kiss your boo boos!

You love to identify colors. Sometimes you get them right (blue, pink, yellow), but usually you call everything blue. You love to color and paint! You even seem to hold color pencils correctly in your right hand. I think you are definitely right handed. You like to have me write out names and you pretend like you know what the letters are. You have definitely discovered the joy of cartoons and you will ask to watch "George", "Thomas", "Chuggington", "Ellen", and "guppies" (which I have no idea where you saw Guppies the first time…We were at Barnes and Noble and you saw a book about the show and you pointed to it and said "Guppies!". I had no idea what you were talking about!). You love books more. We read books. A lot. A lot A lot. Your favorites right now are When Sophie Gets Angry ("sophie"), Babar, any curious george book, The Lorax ("Ax"), Archie Comics ("archie"), Piggy Nation, and Green Eggs and Ham. The Lorax movie was on TV the other day and you sat through a good portion of it!

First apple off the apple tree

We love our playdates with wilder

Your love for dancing and singing has not faded. I have been practicing the ukulele so much lately that we had to get another one so you could play with me because every time I practiced you wanted to play too! You will call it your "guitar" or your "lele" (lay-lee). You hold it and strum it correctly, and you even sing along or play harmonica ("monica") while you play. It is impressive and awesome. You will make up songs where you hum and throw in occasional, random words that you know like "hmmmm daddy hmmmmm door hmmmm milks ". You do the same thing when you are reading a book aloud to yourself.

out the kitchen window

putting a blanky on bubba

You like to ask for a "cookie" or a "treat". You love snack trays. After I picked you up from Wilder's house after they baby sat you, you said "Brooke, Brett, niiiiice". You laugh after you fart and you try to make yourself fart. You say "aaaahhhh" after you drink (breast milk, cereal milk, water, …). You try to carry as many babies in your arms as possible and try to take them all on our walks. You bring a book on our walks sometimes. You got your first pair of gardening gloves. You play "hoops" on your goal. You ask for milk in a sippy. There is little room for you to sit on the kitchen counter while I cook, so you have started laying on the kitchen floor rug. You get mad when your daddy and I kiss or cuddle in front of you. You can climb the play equipment at the park and go on the slides all by yourself! You love to run. You try to jump. Your a risk taker. You'll climb on anything. You love french fries.