Happy Birthday, Katherine!
You are 2 years old today! This is the first birthday, that I have spent away from any of you kids. And while I'm a little sad about that, it couldn't really be helped, and I know you aren't old enough to miss out on me being there. Your Daddy said tonight, that while he has missed one other birthday (Ruth's 7th), it didn't feel like he was missing out, since I was there. I told him the real reason this feels different is because you are most likely our last baby. I heard that you have had a good time in Alabama, and the pictures certainly show that, so I don't feel too bad about it. After all even if you had been here in Florida, with the homeschool convention going on, I wouldn't have been with you today anyway.
In the last year, we have moved when Daddy got a new job after being laid off. We have been to Harry Potter World. You have started running, jumping, lost and found your words. Your hair has gotten crazier and curlier and more and more beautiful. You have been away from home for the first time, taking two trips to Grumps and Ahna's without me or Daddy. And you have found a great love for animals.
A year makes such a big difference when you are so small. Each year as I get ready to write these letters I go back and read the one I wrote last year, and it's always so surprising to see what changed. Sometimes being with you each day I don't notice all the little things. But I'm finishing this letter about 2 weeks late, now that you are home, and it's funny how much has changed in the three weeks you were gone.
Last year you were just starting to get good at walking, but this year you have just started to run a little more than a fast walk. After a little work on the part of your siblings, yesterday in the doctor's office, they were able to get you to jump with two feet off the ground. She had asked if you could jump yet, and I told her no, you were just bouncing on your heels a bit. You like to wrestle with your Daddy now, with the best of them. Shreiking the entire time. You have also moved up to a twin bed in the room with Rebecca. And have started showing some interesting in potty training, far earlier than the others.
You have a mouthful of teeth, and while you gave up meat and most bread about the time you turned one, in the last few months, you have added back in a few things, like pork chops and steak. You are still our little fruit bat, like Rebecca, but you also love beans and peas more than any child I've ever seen. You prefer them to about anything. You insist on feeding yourself all the time and surprised Ahna with how good you are with a fork and spoon. If you drop a piece of food you pick it up, put it back in your bowl, and start again. You love to drink anything everyone else is drinking and sometimes drink out of a 20 oz bottle or a cup with a straw, or even an open cup. And to think this time last year, I couldn't coax you into drinking out of anything but the soft top sippies that you were chewing through.
Your hair which has been long for your age ever since you were born with more than an inch and a half in the back, has really grown in this year. You have so much of it, and it is all gorgeous curls that people just want to pat and run their hands through. I suspect that more than anything is why you have grown to be more reserved around people this year. You are naturally suspicious and more reserved around those you don't know, and you HATE to be touched by people you don't know. Rebecca sometimes apologizes for you and says, "She's not nice if she doesn't know you." But there is nothing wrong with you being more introverted and reserved. Nothing at all, you may be different from your siblings, but don't feel like you have to apologize for it.
You still seem to prefer me, and frequently ask me to hold you and you will sit in my lap and play while I attempt to get work done at my desk around you. But you are also very affectionate with your siblings. Britt is who you go to for cups and sword fights. He taught you to use a lightsaber before you were two and you go to him for any kind of game. Ruth is who you depend on for piggyback rides, and walks around the yard. She loves to mother you, and you love to let her. Rebecca is who you wake up in the morning, and come downstairs with, she's one of the few people that you will let cuddle you, and you want to do everything she does. And yet, she is the one you are most jealous of, most unwilling to share with. Lately, you have started to insist that you are just as big as she is. Not that you ever freely give out hugs or kisses, those must be bought for a cup or a promise to do something for you. You laugh and run when we ask for them. No one makes you light up like your daddy though. When you hear the laundry room door open, you yell "DAAAAAAAA" and run for it. When he gets out of the car and walks into a building you cry because he's left you. He has started putting you down for your nap before he leaves the house after lunch because you cry if he doesn't.
Most everything you do, you do without words. Before you turned one you had about 4 words da-da, ma-ma, bye-bye, and uh-oh (when you dropped something). But by one you were only using da-da, sometimes after that, you quit talking altogether. AT 20 months, I got an Early Steps evaluation for you, and they said you should have 16 gestures and around 50 words, which you didn't. We had already begun working on some signs with you, and they have been coming out to the house and giving me strategies and ways to work with you. They suspect speech apraxia and that you possibly don't hear a full range of sounds. So they are going to be following up with an ENT and a specialized hearing test. But you are already saying "Da" for Daddy, "Ma" for Momma, shoe (very clearly), "Bu-bu-s" for bubbles, "Na" for no, "Ya" for yes, uh-oh, "ol" for help, sometimes you say "peas" for please as you sign it. You consistently sign cup, please, down, hold, book, and eat now. While you were gone to Ahna and Grump's you started saying "nee-ya" for Neela, and "Ah" or sometimes "Ah...na" for Ahna. Most of the time, if you are in a good mood, I can get you to mimic most any sound. Our speech therapist has been really pleased to see just how rapidly you have improved.
You are so very bright and very, very observant. I frequently get the impression that you are much older than you are, but you just don't talk to us. What you understand has shocked different evaluators many, many times now. You already seem to have a real read on people, and can turn the waterworks on and off at will, to get what you want. You also watch and repeat a number of activities like folding towels after seeing it done once. You have also turned into a real flirt. Happy to smile and hang out with people at a distance, and then running for the hills, if you think they are going to actually come over or want to do anything with you. And you have a stubborn streak a mile long, that Ahna says reminds her more of me than any of the others. I told her not to tell your daddy, and we'd just keep blaming it on his side of the family.
We love you,
Momma
