21 Months Old

Better late than never, right?!

Our biggest update for the last quarter is that you are now in the Early Preschool classroom at school! The whole story is actually a bit of a mess. You were loving life in Ms. Jasmine's classroom, and then everything turned upside down when they did a mass move-up at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year in August. Move-ups are always hard, but they're an inevitable part of school that's necessary for your development. This one was different. Nearly everyone else was moving up, and we were asked to keep you behind. Chronologically, you were one of the younger kids in Ms. Jasmine's class, but developmentally, you were the most advanced. The feedback we got for your teacher was that we needed to push to have you moved up. Unfortunately, this became a logistical problem, as there simply wasn't enough room in the older toddler class! Your teacher, the school director, and a few other people worked with Mommy and Daddy until we found a class that would work better for you. You actually hopped around for about a week or so, and then you ended up in Ms. LaTeefah's early preschool class. Your school was so wonderful about it, and they monitored you closely. You were now the youngest by far in your class, and we were worried the other kids would baby you or bulldoze you. Neither happened, and you fit right in perfectly. You're now very loved in that classroom, and we really think being around all of these older kids has helped you grow in so many ways. We've been told that you'll most likely be with Ms. LaTeefha until you're at least three, so we're excited to get to spend a lot of time in a situation that has really worked out beautifully.

Our other big update is that you are now absolutely 100% obsessed with princesses! You know all of their names, and you can recognize specific "princess music." Some days, you insist on wearing your Princess Anna dress after school, and you really like playing dress-up with tutus and fairy wings. I don't think you really have a favorite princess; you like different things about different ones, like Belle's love of books, and the fact that Ariel is a mermaid. We talk a lot about how princesses are kind and brave.

We had a very fun summer and, even though we didn't travel much, we spent a lot of time exploring our own city. You had your first visit to the Fox Theatre for a Sound of Music singalong, and you really loved running around the long carpeted hallways. You made friends with all of the bathroom attendants and climbed on all the pretty vanity furniture in the powder room. You also went to your second-ever Braves game (we're down to one per season so far) with your friend GG. GG's grandfather has some friends who work with Turner Field, so we got to sit in a special box with lots of delicious food and sit right behind home plate. You were even on tv for a minute! You and GG weren't really feeling the game much, so we wandered around for a while and left before it was over. Hopefully next year we can go on a day that's not so hot, but that can be tricky during baseball season in Atlanta!

Your personality has become a bit more shy lately, I think because you have a new classroom to get comfortable in and new friends to get to know, but you are still very active and busy. You can go up and down stairs now while holding onto a handrail, and you even took a gymnastics class this summer! You know so many more words now than you did last quarter (like the names of all the princesses!), but you're definitely still signing more than talking. This is absolutely okay, especially because your new teacher knows a lot of signs too! Your fine motor skills have really developed a lot recently, and you really like to color. You're really good at doing anything involving two hands, which I credit to the fact that you crawled for so long!

I'm so glad we had a fun summer together. Since this is such a delayed post, I can tell you that the next three months weren't as great. In hindsight, I'm sad that wonderful summer was over so quickly, but seeing your joy in playing outside and in exploring our city just reminds me of how much we have to look forward to as you grow. I think summer at age 2 1/2 is going to be even better!