Happy 22nd month baby!

**edits at bottom

My darling Amelia-
You have brought nothing but sunshine into mine and your daddy's life. Every day you grow more and more before our eyes and it amazes me. You put more words together into sentences, you love to dance, and most importantly, love to sing. You sing all the time, to the point where you request certain songs in the car. "La,la,la"? That would be you requesting a Britney Spears song. What's a mom to do but turn on a semi inappropriate song and let her daughter just go for it! You sing to me, the dog, daddy, yourself. The same goes for your reading. You love books. You will read to the dog, or me, yourself, or any stuffed animal available to listen.

You love to color, which we do every day. You sing while you draw. We tried finger paints, we'll wait on those. We try hard to have play dates so that you get more social interaction since it's just you and me. Which isn't a bad thing, but we need you playing with people your age! Mommy is looking into a tumbling class of some sort to not only burn some of your never ending energy, but also to make new friends.

We also have started time outs. You have learned you get a couple of chances at doing what you're not supposed to, then you go to time out. Sometimes you put yourself there! But there is always screaming and flailing involved. If I put you in time out and daddy is home, you'll hear "daaaaddy" from your time out spot. No Amelia, daddy will not save you. Or he'd better not...

We took you to the state fair for the first time. You have a love for "moo's", cows....and "nee's", horses. And piggies, of course. We thought it would be fun for you to see all of your favorite animals up close and personal. You wanted nothing to do with it. For now, I think we'll keep your love for them at a safe distance, as they were so big and actually moved! We tried to get you to pet the goats, but even they bothered you. Mommy also wanted to get you on the carousel, for a great photo op. but your poor little head didn't reach the line. No worries though. With the way you jump around this place, you'll be on the big kid rides screaming with the best of them in no time!

Daddy has introduced you to "deeeep". Translation: dip. Now, you feel you have to dip EVERYTHING in deeep. A graham cracker? DEEEP. Cereal? DEEEP. Yogart (which is a dip IMO)...DEEEPP. And then when you are given something that actually could require dip, say chicken nuggets, it's not enough DEEEP. I look over and you are scooping your DEEEP into your mouth, with your hand as the shovel. Thanks daddy, love ya for that.

We took our first bonafide long road trip with you when we went to Montana for Labor Day weekend. It was a short 4 days, but you did amazing. We left Thursday night and got lucky with your sleeping most of the night through. You woke up when the sun came up, just about an hour outside of Missoula. We sang in the car, you slept most of the way, and got to meet so much of your extended family that you had never met. We got to meet your cousin Mavrick, who was born the day before your daddy and I got married, for the first time. You met 2 aunts, and uncle, 4 boy cousins and 1 girl cousin. (the only other girl in the family!) You LOVED being able to run on all of the property and the attention you got. You are one loved little girl. Mommy almost had heart failure during a famous Montana thunder/lightening storm, you slept right through. You found, and were bothered by, "Norman", the deer head hanging from the stairwell. You would back up against the kitchen cabinets and just talk to him but not take your eyes off of him. It was adorable. The car ride home, since it was during the day, was long for all of us, but overall we had an amazing, yet too short, or a trip. It was a tad last minute but well worth it.

You met your first live "baby" (since you have one you play with), Miss Annie who was 5 weeks old. I was amazed at how instantly gentle you were with her. Everywhere she went, you went, concerned of how she was. When she slept, you would look at me or Kelly (Annie's mom) and say "shh baby sleeping" if we were talking too loud. It def. gave me a twinge of that baby feeling.

We're trying the big girl bed. We went to set it up yesterday, in celebration of today, but when we opened the box for your conversion kit it was broken. I think I was more heartbroken then anyone else. You have what they call a "life time" crib, so we don't have to buy you a new bed. We just take off what will be your foot board later on and place a guard rail up. After that, you go to a daybed, and then the full bed. Mommy can't believe how big and independent you've gotten. Daddy looked at me the other day and said "I can't believe how big she is".

We have you rooting for the right team. You walk around in your cheer leading outfit that daddy got you and say "Go Duckie", fist pumping in the air. Yes, Duckie. Just make sure when you try out for the real cheer leading team (hello scholarship!) you say duck honey.

With your second birthday upcoming, mommy is hand making your invites, but we have yet to decide on a theme. You love Handy Manny, Pooh, and of course Elmo. We'll see how creative mommy gets! Mommy keeps thinking: 2 leads to 3, leads to 4....it's amazing.

I've enjoyed every minute of being able to stay home with you and while at times it's a challenge, it's forced mommy to get more creative and I have to admit. When you call my name over the monitor at night (or in the morning) instead of daddies, a smile creeps on my face. You can always call me baby, I'll be there :)

We love you Miss Amels, and we promise to keep promoting you being you!

** Mommy wrote this late last night and since the coffee has now kicked in, realizes some things she forgot! Your favorite phrases. "OH no"-in very dramatic form. "It's a mess"...even though you don't mind being messy, you just need to let us know you have a mess goin on. "Thank you Baby". My personal favorite. Not just thank you, but you're so adorable you have to add the "baby" onto the end, and you'll say it to anyone.