Dear Mackenzie: Merry Christmas, Darlin’

Dear Mackenzie,

What better time for us to be enjoying your 25th month of life than over Christmas. We got you all dressed up for Christmas Eve, as we prepared to unwrap gifts and celebrate with your Oma & Opa. You couldn’t have looked cuter in your new dress from Grand Dale — so mature and just adorable in your “tute dress.” And you once again experienced an overload of presents from family and friends…but we were a bit smarter about the unwrapping process this time and just let you unwrap at your own speed over a couple of days.

One of your favorite presents this year was the new table and chairs set you got from your Oma and Opa. When you came in the room and saw that table, you knew immediately that it was for you. You sat at it all evening on Christmas eve, and as soon as our Christmas tree is out of the kitchen, I think you’ll enjoy sitting at that table all day long while mommy works in the kitchen.

You are chattering away more and more…and play so nicely by yourself. You enjoy having our interaction at times, but are usually just as amused to play on your own, especially with your new Duplo farm that you got for Christmas. I think that it with the tractor and farm animals might even be a bigger hit than the airport you got for your birthday. Watching you play is so amusing — way better than any movie. And I can’t hide the fact that I love how much you enjoy cleaning up after yourself.

But you do still find yourself in frustrating moments when toys don’t do what you want them to do and you tend to bite those things that step out of line. Thankfully you haven’t tried to bite any humans, though, and biting toys is definitely preferred over throwing yourself on the floor.

You’re starting to figure out how to use the phone although you still prefer to use pretend phones where no one is actually talking to you on the other end. I’m sure that it won’t be too long before you demand to have the phone to talk to people and just ramble on in your own language.

You had your first evening alone with a babysitter…and never even knew she was here with you alone. Mommy and daddy put you to bed and you went to sleep just like usual, while we went out and had a nice dinner among adults. We missed you, of course, but it was really nice to get out of the house for a change.

You still love riding on the front of your stroller instead of in the stroller…you call it “walk front” and say “bicycle” when you’re sitting on there which makes me think it reminds you of our bike rides this past summer. With all the snow we’ve had lately, though, you’ve spent a lot more time riding in the sled or tromping through the snow yourself.

You rarely fall down in the snow which is a good thing because you don’t like touching the icy cold white stuff. Unfortunately you’re also still not much of a fan of your gloves but at least you will let us know when your fingers start getting really cold so we can put your gloves on. And you love it when we come home and I help you warm up your cold little fingers again.

If you had it your way, every house would have a snow man in front of it because those are apparently just fascinating. During one recent walk we took with Ayla, we discovered that one family down the street had built a huge snow man and you decided about 5 minutes into the walk that we had to turn around and go back to the snow man to see if it was still there.

You already know a bunch of colors and have started learning to count with your own number system…you can count from one 1 to 4 but still sometimes think it makes more sense if the numbers went 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 7, 14.

You’ve gotten really picky about food and have no problem expressing your opinions to us about what you want to wear, eat or do. You’re also still not really using that nap time to its fullest extent but you at least still seem to enjoy a bit of private time to yourself, telling your “hase” all about what you’ve done that morning, identifying everything you know the words for in your room and just playing quietly.

You’re getting so big and are such a little girlie girl already. It won’t be long before you can really help in the kitchen and you’re already a pro at wiping down windows and tables. I do appreciate all your help, and you sure do make house work a whole lot more fun. As long as what we’re using isn’t loud, you’re a happy munchkin. Loud stuff is still apparently pretty scary and causes a lot of ear covering and clinging to mama or papa. Not that we don’t enjoy the extra moments to cuddle you!

We’re looking forward to spending the next week with you at home while daddy is on vacation. Maybe the snow will stick around long enough for us to build a snow man together…

My love,

Mommy