February 2, 2014

Dear Swen,

Apparently I am not capable of keeping up with blogging anymore. I blame you! You will not leave me alone enough to do anything on a computer. However, this blog is important for me to keep records of your life, so I am going to try harder. It's hard to believe that I'll forget anything about you because you consume my entire life (how lucky am I?), but it's bound to happen, and I want to be able to look back and remember things I've forgotten. I have a few friends that write letters to their children every once in a while. I like the idea, so maybe that will help me remember to write about you!

You are a little over 20 months old with the best personality EVER. You move non-stop and eat non-stop. Usually you do both at the same time. You love to find any random toy that resembles a bowl, then bring it up to me and say, "ahh ahh ahh ahh." I know this means that you would like a snack. Then you carry it around and put it in other little toys and eventually eat it. The word "more" has popped up into your vocabulary this past couple weeks, so when you run out of food, you come up so cute and ask for more.

Next to eating and playing with the garbage can, your all-time favorite thing to do is play with Kitty. My favorite thing is to hear you say her name because you call her Titty! So you just run around saying, "Titty, Titty, Titty" and it is hilarious. You can name all the parts of her face, and she doesn't mind you poking her eyes at all. She probably is okay with it because you are the one who feeds her. You are not patient enough to let her just eat her food, so you carry it around the house and throw her one piece at a time.  She follows you around to every room just waiting for the next little piece of food.

I truly love being your mom more than anything in the world. I find myself tearing up quite often just thinking about how much I love you. Really the only hard thing about raising you so far has been your sleep. If/when you ever go back to read this blog, you will think that all I ever cared about was getting you to sleep! I'm sorry about that. You now sleep through the night every single night. It took a lot of time, but you finally figured it out without any harsh sleep training. People all told us you'd never sleep if we didn't just force you to do it on your own by letting you cry. Daddy and I would never even consider doing that, but being first-time parents we did start doubting our intuition. However, we all three survived together, and you sleep better than most toddlers I hear about (as long as we keep you on a very strict schedule). All I can think now is that  I shouldn't have rushed you and had faith that you would sleep all night when you're ready. I plan on being much more patient with your little brothers and sisters.

Daddy and I really believe in letting you explore the world as much as possible and do most things you want. As a toddler you have really little say in anything about your life, so all the little things that don't matter we let you do. This includes eating your meals all over our house, playing with anything that isn't dangerous, not wearing shoes or socks, turning the TV on and off, taking out all the DVD's, rearranging the fridge, helping cook, eating dry cereal regularly, drinking sips of Diet Coke, throwing things down vents, taking napkins out at every restaurant, getting soaking wet in water fountains while you're fully dressed, being carried all the time, and so much more. You have only been alive 20 months, and you have so much to learn! The best way to learn about the world is to interact with it.

 I see so many kids your age with parents who expect them to act like adults.There is no need for you to be expected to act like an adult yet. You've barely been alive! I often get asked if we are "swatting" you or giving you time outs yet! Each parent has every right to parent how s/he wants, but to think that I would ever put your little body in time out is bonkers to me. You would have no idea what I was doing! And don't get me started on "swatting." I'd like to go on a tangent about how I feel about that. Instead, I will just promise you that your that daddy and I will NEVER let anyone spank you. Not ever.

The one thing that I had to stop you from doing when you were about 17 months old was nursing. I know you would still be nursing if I had the energy, because you loved it. But I am growing a baby sister, and I needed a break before she came! I think you finally have forgiven me, but it was hard for both of us.

Daddy and I love you so much, Swen! We lie in bed just talking about you every night. As long as you always know that we love you, then we will be happy.

Love, Mommy