This has been another amazing month for both of you. There is always something new and exciting for each of you, and this month has been no exception.
Emily, you've started talking to us quite a bit this past month. This is what we've been waiting for, because if you didn't start talking, it meant that you probably weren't hearing very much. But you've been gurgling, cooing, and making all kinds of wonderful baby noises. You also have started laughing at silly things we do. It's so much fun to make you smile and laugh, and sometimes you'll just lay there and laugh and talk to yourself.
You're using your hands a lot more now, and you'll grab your own hands, grab at your head, and the other day, you finally grabbed your bottle by yourself. You are eating less often, but more each time...currently, we're feeding you about 8 ounces of formula every 5 hours. Give or take.
With all that food, you're getting big really quickly. We went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago because your eye was all red, and when they weighed you, you were over 13 pounds. You'd gained over a pound since your last visit.
You still are working on keeping your head up. It will wobble from time to time, but you're really good at keeping it up to look around. We've been working with you on "tummy time" too, to help you get your neck stronger. A lot of the time, you're perfectly happy to just lay there and not pick up your head at all. You're such a snuggler, that whenever you have a chance to lay your head on something and just snuggle in, you do it.
We finally got you on a schedule this month, too. You've been sleeping through the night for the past few weeks, but over the last few days, you've decided that 4 AM is a great time to wake up. I don't know what caused the change, but we're hoping you go back to sleeping until we wake you up soon. Of course, with the time change tomorrow, you're going to be all screwed up again.
Rachel, you've been pretending a lot this month. It seems like every time we talk, you're pretending to do this, or pretending to do that. You came home from school a few weeks ago and told Mommy that you'd gone to the nurse. When she sounded surprised (because neither of us had gotten a call that you'd been to the nurse) you very quickly clarified, "The pretend nurse, Mommy!"
You've been working a lot at school on your writing, and it's really paying off. Last weekend, you were coloring, and you told me that you were going to draw an "A." In the past, you've just drawn a couple of lines on the paper and told us what letter it was. This time, when I looked at your paper, you sure enough had made and "A." I was so excited, and I asked you to do it again just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. I gave you a big hug and a high five, and pretty soon, your whole paper was filled with "A's," each one requiring a hug and a high five.
You've been obsessed with Halloween ever since the month started. You asked us how long until Halloween starting at the beginning of the month when you got the lunch calendar and it was decorated in Halloween colors. When we went to pick out costumes earlier this month, you decided that you wanted to be Ariel, the little Mermaid. You've never even seen the movie, but she's one of the princesses on your princess stuff, and you're totally sold on the whole Disney princess empire. You refuse to wear any underwear that doesn't have a princess on it.
So Ariel it was, and you were all about what princesses wear every time we put it on. "Do princesses wear shoes?" "Do princesses have pony tails?" "Does my costume have legs?" And when it ended up being a little cool tonight for trick-or-treating, you had a fit when I tried to make you wear a shirt under your Ariel dress. "Princesses don't wear shirts under their dress!"
You've been walking around the house for the past couple of weeks saying the Pledge of Allegiance, for both the US and Texas flags, which you say at school every day. It's funny to see how the 3 year old mind puts things together, and how you get stuck in a loop because you mix them up. The US pledge comes first, and we all know how that goes, but immediately after comes the Texas pledge, and it goes like this:
Honor the Texas flag.
I pledge allegiance to the, Texas.
One state, under God.
One and indivisible.
Except that you mix it up with the US pledge, as 3 year olds are prone to doing, and when you get to the "One state" part, you say, "One state, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Then, because you've just said the last part of the US pledge, you immediately launch into the Texas pledge, which you screw up with the US pledge, and then go into the Texas pledge again. And over, and over, and over, until we stop you.
You have also become a puzzle freak. You love doing puzzles, and according to your mother, you have this ability to see where pieces are supposed to go that she claims you get from me and my mother. You'll ask us to do a puzzle with you, and you'll just pick up random pieces and put them in the right sopt.
You're such a good big sister, too, and you love to watch and imitate what we do with Emily. You'll even repeat things that we say to her, often right after we say them, which is annoying, and we're trying to break you of that. But you'll also get your dolls and put them in Emily's bouncy chair, or have tummy time with them. You do a great job of being a mommy to your dolls.
We only have one more month before Nana and Dodd come down for the winter. We're all very excited to see them, and as always, your mother and I can't wait to see what this next month brings for the both of you. We love you very much.
Love,
Daddy
