June 11, 2009 (yeah, right)

Dear Bella,

A year and a half has passed since you were yanked out of me holding your head high and your eyes open wide, and you continue to run unabashedly ahead of the pack. (Not that I’m biased or anything – and I’d love you no less if you were…anything else.)

At eighteen months, you know your entire alphabet (except D, which about half the time you call “ABC”), most of your numbers to ten and are reading a few words (a, I, the, by…) on the “Meet The Sight Words” DVD’s before the voice on there says them. You love to sing, and your favourite songs are Twinkle Twinkle, Row Row Row Your Boat (to which you sing “Mewiwee, Mewiwee!” and melt the hearts of everyone around you) and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. You also love when we do “This Little Piggy” and any other rhyme or song that involves your body. Often when we touch you or reach for you, you giggle and say “No tickle Bella!” and at other times you point to your armpit and ask “Tickle Bella?” followed by “Tickle Wah Wah!”

“Wah Wah” happens to be your favourite person on the planet and the two of you are the best of friends. You won’t even take a snack or toy without ensuring “Wah Wah too?” The two of you blame each other for everything, which is completely normal but I think you’re getting started early. You are together from the moment you wake up until the moment you head off to your bedrooms at night, and if one of you is out of the line of sight of the other, it’s mere seconds before you’re looking or asking for each other. One of my favourite moments of the day is when you first see each other in the morning and run with open arms for a hug. You should “HI WAH WAH!” and he says “Hi Bella!” as you hug and he kisses your head. Just typing those words makes me tear up. You two are the best thing that ever happened to your Daddy and I, and you’re just a perfect fit for our family.

You’ve reached the lovely stage of diaper change acrobatics, which is not very entertaining. It’s particularly not entertaining when you kick poop around the room and roll away laughing. Really, really not entertaining, but normal so we’ll just hope the stage ends soon.

Whenever we’re outside, you love to run away giggling and have someone chase you and grab you in a big hug. Always toward the road, of course. It’s a great game to play as long as I’m not holding the leashes of two dogs.

You still have the biggest & brightest smile I’ve ever seen, and you don’t hesitate to share it with those you love. You literally smile all day long. Except when you’re crying. Your crying is fake about 80% of the time – you’ve inherited a dramatic gene from somewhere – and is over when you either get what you want or get distracted and start laughing. If it weren’t so cute it would surely be annoying, but we’re not there yet. It’s so darn cute. You’ve also got the “furrowed brow” thing going on and use it whenever someone talks to you and you don’t feel like answering. It reminds Daddy of the pictures of me when I was a little girl, so I guess you come by it honestly!

You are following in your brother’s footsteps and already talk like you’re a year older than you are. There’s no way I can list the words you say anymore because you’re up to four word sentences. Things like “More mango please, Mommy” and “Go see Daddy doing?” are usual for you. You pick up the phone any time you see it and say “Hi Damma! Hi Damma Betty! Go Damma house?” You adore Grandma and when we’re with her, you aren’t really very concerned with me at all. You love all of your grandparents and also your aunts & uncle & cousins, and are a very lucky little girl to have so many people who love you right back.

I love you from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the sky, and all the way around the world!
Mommy
xoxo

A few pics from the three months since her last letter: