My Monroe

Having two babies close together in age is turning out to be a bit bittersweet for me. On the one hand, I know that for Monroe it will probably be an easier transition into sharing her parents with another kid because she is so young and won't remember what it is like to be the only child. On the other, (oh my gosh I'm already crying) she won't remember this time that we've had together and I will. Even though being at home is hard for me a lot of the time, I have absolutely loved the time that I've had with just me and my Monroe. She's my little best friend and it's kind of scary to imagine bringing another person into our daily mix.

So I'm going to just talk about Mo. Who she is and the things I love about her, her quirks and hilarious personality.

This video makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it

Mo is very much a mini version of me. Not in her face, although her nose comes from me, but she looks more like her Dad and has since day 1. No, her personality comes from me and I love it. There are things about that which obviously I hope she doesn't have to deal with (like everyone always describing me as someone who you'll like and think is funny once you get to know me) but really I can't imagine her being any other way.

She is very much 2. The moodiness that comes with her age hit pretty much right around her birthday, but she handles it in such funny ways. Hondo and I don't let her throw tantrums or fits, so pretty much the second she tries to start we'll tell her that she can throw a fit in her room or communicate what is wrong. So now, it having been about a month or more of this, if she starts to throw an angry fit I don't even have to say anything. She'll lash out for a second and then look at me and say "Go to my room." And I'll let her choose whether or not she wants to. Sometimes she does, but she'll just stand in the doorway and look out at me until I say "are you done?" and then she'll come out. It's pretty funny to watch, although I obviously can't laugh. She's such a good kid, always has been, and she listens to us so well that we hardly even have to discipline her.

With her cousin Quincy in July

One of her favorite things to say is "I can't want to." Her dad HATES it when she says it! She really means "I don't want to," but somewhere between learning to say that and hearing the words "I can't" (thanks a lot, Finding Nemo) she combined the phrases into her own unique phrase. 



Another phrase she picked up which is about the best thing I've ever had anyone say to me is "I'm so happy to see you." Hondo would get home from work and give her a big hug and say that to her almost daily, so now anytime she gives me or him (or Aunt Holly) a hug, she says "I'm happy to see you!" and adds "Everyday." Hearing her perfect little voice say that pretty much melts away any bad feelings you could have been having that day. 

Doing some exercises with Dad

She loves reading. We've read all of her books so many times that I have over half of them memorized, Hondo could probably recite at least 1/4 from memory, and Mo herself can pretty much "read" them to me without any prompting. She is so smart; she knows all of her letters and can count to 20 (mostly, she tends to skip 5 and for some reason tries to jump to 17 too quickly) and also to 10 in Spanish. She knows letters by sight, and we're working on sound recognition.

I haven't attempted potty training yet because it intimidates me and until I feel like I'm ready to tackle it I don't think it's fair to try to get her to do it. Hondo and I disagree about this a bit, he's ready for her to be done with diapers but I'm just really nervous about trying it for some reason. But sometime pretty soon we'll probably start that whole process. She is definitely smart enough to get it, I'm not really worried about it.

She loves babies and animals. Doggies have been her favorite since she was a baby, and she also loves horses. But pretty much any animal makes her all excited. She even (heaven help me!) gets excited when she sees ants on the sidewalk. I'm not at all scared about how she'll handle having a baby around the house all the time, I know she'll be a great helper and an amazing big sister.

For her birthday we took her to the children's museum in SLC. She had lots of fun with all the activities there

She loves playing in the water, it's unfortunate that summer is over and all the pools are closed. She's very brave and even though I am a little nervous I let her explore and go in the water by herself. She will go down the little kid slides over and over without help. I think she'll do great with swimming in her life. 

We had a hard time with bedtime for quite awhile this year. She got sick and her schedule was thrown off by the time change in March, and for pretty much the next 4-5 months she wouldn't go to bed until 11 or later. Not fun for Hondo and me. We stopped trying to fight her on it because she somehow can make herself throw up when she doesn't want to do something. SUPER ANNOYING and gross. After cleaning vomit off her floor and her bed for about a week we just gave up and let her fall asleep in our bed, then move her to hers. But lately things have gotten a lot better--we've established a little routine for bed time and she's been going to bed between 9 and 10 which is amazing! Except she then wakes up at like 7 which is not my fav. I'm not a morning person.

Monroe is always such a happy girl. It makes me feel like we're doing something right that she is so happy. I'm very excited for her to have a sister, because I love my sisters and can only pray they have the same close relationship as I have with all of my sisters.