Dear Mackenzie,

You’re already twenty-one months old and we just keep wondering where the time has gone. Last month you wanted to disagree with everything we said…but now you actually answer with nods a lot of the time too. At least when you want something. You select what you want to snack on in the mornings and help me pick out your clothes (although you’d usually prefer to be naked) and have just become a master of the English and German languages it seems.

You’re trying to say more and more words every day which is totally cute. Some stuff you say in German (like “nein, nein, nein” – no, no, no) and a lot of other stuff in English … and some stuff just sounds like Chinese. Or maybe a bit like Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, which is a riot. And, yes, you love hamburgers just as much as he does! In fact, if you ever see a picture of one somewhere, you scream out “bur-sher”, much like he does. 🙂

You’re picking up new signs all the time also and using them…like help, please (you actually said please a few days ago for the first time), music — it’s just so awesome to be able to communicate with you so much already.

You are just learning so many new things every day and you absolutely love looking through books and catalogs to find the things you’re familiar with. If you see something in there that you recognize, you yell out the name or start making the sign…it’s awesome. Balloons are still definitely one of your favorite things to check out in there…and balls!

Going back to music, you absolutely LOVE it. For a while we only had the music CD from your music group and we must have listened to those 10 songs 100 times over the course of a week. I couldn’t take it anymore. Thankfully we’ve added a few more songs to our repertoire already — and hopefully will be adding a bunch more in a few weeks. A lot of the songs are the same as when I was a kid but I honestly can’t remember most of what I used to listen to. So it’s taking me a while to compose a really good collection for you that we can all enjoy.

You still give the best monkey hugs…and it seems like your legs are closer to wrapping completely around my waist every day. You just cling to us for dear life every morning and I can’t think of a nicer way to start off the day.

Your daddy’s vacation finally ended at you miss him now that he’s back at work all day. But you seem to understand that someone has to go off to work for us to survive. And you still get to see him every evening, even if it means you’re totally exhausted by the time he gets here. And those evening times are crazy ones because you are totally wired and almost delirious with your sleepiness. We’re actually trying to move your bedtime back just a little bit now to 8pm because it will give you a little more time with daddy and maybe you won’t start melting down right when he walks in the door because you think it’s already time for bed.

You are officially moving in 24-month-sized clothing, although most of the pants are way too huge in the waist. While I’ll be sad to see some of the 18-month stuff go, it’s also a relief to finally be taking some things out of your very fully closet. I just hope you can wear a few more of the summer things next year still or that we have a few more summery days here so we can try a few more cute dresses on. Not that you are a fan of dresses anyway — you’re already a tomboy like your mama it seems. We’ve blown through the size 4 shoes and seem to be moving toward the 6’s now. Thankfully it’s only shoes that you’re going through so quickly.

You are an awesome helper around the house. You love cleaning stuff up and especially putting trash in its place. I was re-potting some plants the other day and when I emptied the bag of soil and set it aside, you grabbed the bag and took it right over to the trash can. It was too cute.

Your Oma and Opa were here a few weeks ago and you convinced them right off the bat that you need to have your sand box set up. You really love sand…and so far you’ve played with it for at least a few minutes almost every day. Unless it’s raining and then I don’t usually let you. I know, I’m just so mean. You also had your first trial run away from us which meant you spent almost the whole morning with your Oma & Opa with absolutely no sign of me or your papa. You passed the test with flying colors and I think all the adults were more nervous about how you’d react than you actually were. And since things went so well, it means you’ll officially get to spend 1 1/2 days with them all to yourself in September because your dad and I are going to Hamburg for the weekend. I’m pretty sure you’ll once again have no problem with anything…but I imagine your dad and I will probably be a nervous wreck by the time we come back. 😉

You are already very much a girl, even though you’re not such a big fan of actually putting on dresses. After we had a baby here in the house for a few days, you’ve become really obsessed with carrying your own baby dolls and other stuffed animals around with you all day. You even come over to the oven in the morning and steal my dish towels so you have a blanket to cover your babies with. You also like to make a huge pile of all the blankets and towels you can find and just sort of dive into it. I can understand the appeal.

Some of those babies MUST sleep with you every night in your crib…and the list of them is now so long that you’re not going to fit in there with them soon. And we’ve tried to let some of them sleep beside your crib or with the other toys on the floor…but no, that’s ust not good enough. You’ll usually start crying and we have to figure out exactly which of the babies is then missing. have certain dolls and toys that absolutely must be in your crib for you to be able to sleep…and stay awake for an hour or so playing

You’ve also started playing for a while in your crib before you go to sleep…I still haven’t figured out if you’re doing this because you’re not tired or because you’re overly tired. Or maybe you just miss having play time by yourself. Not that you don’t usually play on your own anyway while I work around the house or on my computer. Or maybe you’re just enjoying working on your night vision so you can become a spy kid. I really don’t even know how you manage to see what you’re doing in there most of the time.

And even though we told you a million times not to do it, you still love jumping on the couch. You did fall off once but didn’t hurt yourself too badly. I thought that would be the end of it but you still do it when you get really tired…it’s when your inner daredevil really comes out. But you are more reserved about the jumping wildness now and we all appreciate that.

You’ve also now become a huge fan of the television but aren’t yet obsessed with it. We watch maybe an hour a day for you (some days not at all) but you often lose interest in it after a little while. But even if you’re not actively watching it, you’re still apparently watching it — because turning it off is definitely not allowed.

Ayla is learning so much from you as well. The other day you were telling her about your two favorite yellow balls (one is actually a pellet from an air gun) and seemed to be lecturing her about something. I can only imagine that you were trying to explain to her that they were both your balls and she should therefore never try to touch either of them…nor should she sit near them where her tail might risk brushing against them. I have little doubt that the two of you are going to be getting into a whole lot of trouble soon.

I was reminded yesterday that there are many, many families around the world that are not able to have children…and my heart breaks for them just a little. For those that must struggle so hard to conceive when others make no effort at all…and sometimes don’t even want the outcome to ever be finalized. Although I was never sure I was ready to be a mom (and not even certain that I wanted to ever have kids), I am so thankful you blessed our lives.

I look forward to each and every day that we get to share together…and hope that we’ll soon be sharing even more of them with your papa too as the years progress.

All my love,

Mama