Dear Leilani,

We have decided that we need another house...one to keep all your stuff in. Over the Christmas period you have amassed a LOT more toys, and we don't quite know what to do with everything!

Christmas was busy, but very fun. You met Santa three times (one was a lady Santa...) but you didn't scream at all this year. You had various Christmas parties at playgroups and Tiny Talk, and a Secret Santa party with all your little chums. And then when all our activities wound to a close for the year you and I went off on our travels, leaving Poppa to 'work' at home. We went to Nanna and Grandad's first where we had an early Christmas with them. You 'helped' set up their Wii Fit (you're good at the hula hoop one), you played with your new doctor's set giving all the toys, and all of us, injection after injection. Grandad took us to see a house with some pretty Christmas lights and tried to show us the donkeys but they'd gone to bed. You played on Nanna's harp, sang your entire repertoire of songs, and spent a lot of time putting all the toys into the 'barfreen' (bathroom) whenever they were naughty as that's what I use as your 'naughty step'. (You sometimes try to send Poppa to the barfreen if he does anything to annoy you...)

Then it was on to Auntie Karen and Uncle Alan's house where you spent hours playing with your new best friend, Annie. She showed you her guinea pig, Henry, and you tried to pick him up saying 'come here Guinea Pig', we fed the ducks, got attacked by the geese, ate far too much chocolate, slept in mommy's bed quite a bit - you wriggle and kick a lot, and one long night, after waking around 10.30pm, you wouldn't go back to sleep until one in the morning as you were lying next to me chattering away about everything you'd been doing and seeing. We went to Auntie Karen's allotment where you did watering and digging and met the chickens. We went to carols on the green where you sang along to the carols with words of your own making. You cried for Annie when we left on Christmas Eve, and you kept crying almost all the way to MahMah and YehYeh's house saying 'Back to Annie...back to Annie!' 

So then it was Christmas all over again at their house, another Wii Fit to set up, more presents to open, and you stuffed yourself silly with sausages. You've started to say 'yeah' rather than 'yes' in a casual teenager kind of way. I expect it's my fault. Poppa has tried to break you of the habit but it's not going in so we've given up for now. I taught you the sign for fantastic and you do it very energetically and shout 'fantacticks' as you do so. Last night you were sitting eating dinner and you counted 'eight...three....on-er (one)....fantacticks!' Counting is your current stumbling block. It's like colours all over again. I hear you countdown to running races saying 'four...eight....four....RUN!' If you're all ready to go out and I'm still doing odds and ends you'll stand at the door and shout 'Come on Mommy!' You loved all the Christmas lights ('beautiful pretty'), and enjoyed your nativity storybook with the angels, shepherds and the 'baby cheese' who apparently didn't receive gold, frankincense and myrrh but actually a pair of socks because in the picture baby Jesus is wearing no socks and this worried you. So when I said the wise men brought him presents you told me it was socks. 

So, now it's almost 2009 and your third Christmas is over. I hope you enjoyed it too little one. Stay healthy and happy this year.

I love you.

Mommy

xxx

Dear Leilani,

I can't believe that tomorrow morning we'll be eating the first chocolate from the advent calendar Uncle Jonty bought you.  This year has gone by too fast, and this month you seem to be doing something new every day...

You've decided that you will wear your welly boots now, perhaps thanks to Peppa Pig who wears hers to jump in muddy puddles.  It is also thanks to Peppa Pig that you finally put on the red trainers we bought you over in Boston, as Peppa goes shoe shopping one day and gets some new red shoes.  I'm holding out hope for an episode where Peppa and George eat all their vegetables.  Happily.  With yummy noises.  Watching 'pig' is a daily activity and it's almost as popular as your first love, Justin.  Poppa likes to shout 'din-saur' like George does and it drives you crazy as you start shouting 'No shout din-saur Poppa' back at him!  You're talking more and more.  I noticed today you're saying 'careful' quite a bit so that must be a new one.  Tonight you asked us how to sign 'dirty', and you're saying and signing 'where' and 'sorry' a lot recently.  One day you came home from nursery and sang 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' in full (well, quite a few words were made up, but we knew what it was) and it made me cry!  Just one of those emotional Mommy moments I guess...Oh, and you rode a bike!  Well, a trike, but still, I practically screamed across the hall for Sarah to look at what you were doing as I was so proud.

Since it's important to be truthful in all things, I should also mention that there were some days (it felt like many, many days) when you were almost unbearable to live with.  You were sick with a really bad cold, and waking every hour at night at the worst point, which left me ragged and short on patience for you moaning all day long.  We think you're last molars are also starting to come through which wasn't helping.  Well, we survived, and it made me see again how lovely you are most of the time normally.  I hope you don't get sick again this winter.  Poppa and I both have it now, but you seem to be bouncing with health.

On one of my Mondays off I went further away from you than I've ever been before as I had training in Birmingham for the day for the book reviewing that I'm going to be doing.  That was a fun day.  I left the house before you and Poppa were awake, so he had to do your breakfast (that I left prepared in a bowl since I think he'd only every given you breakfast once before in your life!) and then take you to nursery.  He said you were a really good girl and totally accepted that I had gone to 'Mommy school'.

We went to Addy's birthday party and you helped him blow out his candles.  We went to Abi's party and you had to be restrained from blowing out her candles.  You often point to the candles on the mantlepiece and talk about birthday cake.  You love to play with play doh, you still like to take your pushchair to the park but it's no longer the total obsession it was before.  You like to draw.  You still love robots and you specifically requested we buy a 'bobot' book with your birthday money.  When the girls write in your 'what you did today' book at nursery the food section usually reads 'snack: some, lunch: some, pudding: all'.  Poppa says you cry a bit still when he leaves you but that you run off to the 'lady' without looking back at him, and they say you're not crying for long and you seem to be enjoying your 'school'.  You talk about 'Yeh Yeh' (Grandad Ng) sometimes.  You can play the mouth organ like him, right down to the wobbly hand to give it some vibrato! 

And one evening as Poppa took you out of the bath he was saying 'Are you beautiful Leilani?' and you looked at me and said 'Beautiful Mommy'...not nearly as beautiful as you, my precious one, but thank you.

I love you, baby girl.

Mommy xx

Dear Leilani Baby,

Happy Birthday baby girl! You're two whole years old, and to celebrate I've packed you off to nursery for the day! You had your birthday at the weekend really, since that's when your party was. You woke up on Saturday morning and it was, finally, pushchair day! Poppa had made you a countdown chart and over the last few weeks you've been colouring in a box every day, counting down to your birthday (though you also coloured in the wall underneath too...oops! We both went to get you up on Saturday morning and gave you your little dolly pushchair. You were inseparable from it all day...you even fell asleep for your nap holding tightly to the handle, held it folded up in the car on the way to your party, and spent the whole party pushing it round and round and round...Your party was lots of fun, with balloons and music and play doh and stickers and cakes and toys and all your little friends. I think my favourite part was when we sang you 'Happy birthday' and you clapped heartily at the end and then blew out your candles beautifully (which shouldn't be a surprise since you've been practising with imaginary birthday cake for weeks).

It's been quite a month. You did lots of settling in sessions at nursery, and last week started going properly for one full day a week. You seem to be enjoying it, and as much as I love you, little one, it is *wonderful* to have a little time to be Ruth again rather than constantly being Mommy. It means our weeks are very busy now, with something happening every day, but that's how we like it. I always mean to jot down the new things you say to try and keep track, but it's happening so fast now that I forget really quickly. You do make me laugh though when you fart as you announce 'Bart', and if it's someone else who farted you have no qualms about announcing their fart too, and saying who did it. You're starting to sing a tiny bit, mostly 'baa baa baa baa' and then I have to fill in the rest, or we sing 'Miss Molly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick' and you will sing and sign most of the song. Oh, and you've made up your own little song that goes something like 'ee ee ee, oh oh oh, ee ee ee, oh oh oh'...you kind of hum it to yourself when you're just pottering around the house or walking to the shops with me.

When we walk through tunnels and under bridges you like to shout, very loudly, to hear the echo. Mostly you shout 'Mommy' but sometimes you also shout 'Poppa' only recently it's been sounding more like you're saying 'Pop-eye'. You love to dance with Poppa. You like to pretend to do ballet (it's very strange- looking ballet that often involves you trying to do a headstand...we should probably send you for some lessons at some point). You love to splash in puddles but have an aversion to wearing welly boots so you don't get to do it very often. You like sunny days when we go walking through crunchy autumn leaves (me too), and sitting on the wall of the fountain at the park and dropping twigs and leaves in and watching them float away. You love climbing at the park, we hardly ever go to town without a visit to either the bookshop or the library since you start to demand 'books' as soon as we're anywhere near either of those, but obviously that's no hardship for me. Oh, and you like to find all those ride-on things in town - Bob the Builder and Thomas the tank engine and little cars...only I haven't put any money in any of them, so you don't yet know what they actually do. Hopefully we can keep it this way for as long as possible! You like to load and unload the washing machine. You like to eat peanut butter straight out of the jar with your hands. You love your dolly and duck. You like to walk, everywhere, and most especially you like to walk on any walls we pass by.

Thinking back to that day two years ago, it's hard to believe you're the same person as the fat, red-faced little person that fought her way out of me in such a rush and tumble. You've become your own little person this year, a little girl now not a baby, with your own thoughts and opinions. Although there are sometimes little things that I miss from my life before I was a Mommy (like sleep...) I feel incredibly blessed to have you in my life, and somehow it's as if I have always known you. You're my hardest job ever, but also my funniest. I love that we can talk to each other now, and I hope you'll always want to chat with me about everything you've done or want to do. You're beautiful, little one, and I love you. Happy birthday.

Mommy xx 

One month to go until your birthday party!  You already had a false alarm when we went round to Abi's house...as we got out of the car you started to talk about cake, and then when Monika opened the gate to let us in the garden you started saying 'appy, appy' which is how you refer to birthdays, and then Monika brought out Abi's dolly pushchair for you to play with, knowing your obsession with these things, and you cried out 'pushchair' so happily that I began to realise that for some reason you thought *this* was your birthday.  Your friends were there, there was a possibility of cake, and someone had handed you a pushchair (which we've told you you're getting for your birthday)!  Poor Leilani!  Not long now until the real thing...

We went on holiday this month to Boston.  In future years you will come to realise just how brave this was of Mommy and Poppa to take a transatlantic flight with a toddler!  Even before we took off there was excitement.  There was a fire alert at Heathrow and we had to evacuate the departures lounge, then our flight was delayed over three hours...you made friends with a little boy and played with all the bears in Harrods...then once we got to Boston we had to wait forever for our hire car, there were road works on the highway, Walmart was shut so no food supplies, we couldn't find the house and were tramping through the sand...in the end we arrived at the house at what was around 5 a.m. UK time. You were very good even with the jet lag, and it was totally worth it because it was a wonderful holiday.  Our house was right on the beach.  You got up that first morning and walked to the patio doors that looked out onto the deck and said 'Wow, sea!'  We spent a lot of time on the beach, digging in the sand, collecting stones, shells, sea glass, drawing in the sand, paddling, finding crabs and star fish and sea weed.  Poppa and I had lots and lots of lobster, and you lived on Frosties, chicken dinosaurs, apple juice and ding dongs!  None of us wanted to come home...

Whilst we were away you suddenly seemed to grow up a lot, talking in little sentences ('Momma sit there....Poppa sit there...') and just being more grown up about things.  New words crop up often now.  Yesterday I took you out to Belle's house, and as you knew where we were going you spent almost the whole way talking about Belle, Belle's door, feeding the ducks some bread with Belle...then you were just chattering nonsense away to yourself when suddenly you said 'I like babies!'  'You like babies do you?' I said.  'Yes' you replied!

You've expanded your acceptable foods again to now include little sausages.  You attempted some peas the other night but they came back out again :)  I keep trying to get you to sing songs with me but whenever I say 'you sing it Lani' you give me the cutest little smile as if to say 'i'm far too shy and I don't really want to!'  You have a new obsession with doing the 'oke koki' (I have no idea how to spell that!) and you love to 'row your boat'.

I'm really excited about your birthday coming, little one.  Even though it means you'll be TWO!  I love you baby girl.

Mommy xx

Happy almost birthday to you....!  I'm getting very excited at the thought of your birthday coming up next month.  On my things to do list is booking the hall for a party, and making a card to send to Cbeebies.  We know what we're getting you for a present and you will LOVE it so it's all very exciting!

In the meantime you've been busy as ever.  You're learning to put your trousers on yourself (often with both legs in one hole), and also your shoes.  Mostly you like to wear Poppa's shoes to clomp around the house though.  You're into robots in a big way - you still love Wall-E but also now ask to see the end of Short Circuit...you go very quiet when the robot gets blown up, you say 'ahhh' when the lady is crying and the man hugs her, and you shout 'BOBOT!' when Number 5 appears in the van at the end!  I never knew there were so many robots around - you seem to spot them everywhere.  And pirates too!

Dolly and duck are still your favourites sleep/outing companions.  But you also have a thing for Postman Pat who you call Po-pat.  I like Postman Pat myself actually, though these new episodes where he's married and everything are a bit weird...You like Bob the Builder too, or at least the opening song to it, and Brum.  There's a Brum car you can ride on in Mothercare but although you always ask to go in to see it you're very wary of getting too close!  Not so for the Bob the Builder & Noddy rides that are around town.  You love to climb on those and so far I've managed to avoid putting any money in them since you don't know that's what they're really for!

We took you to Chessington World of Adventures (which features in one of your favourite episodes of 'Something Special') and you had a lot of fun going on the big wheel, the tiny trucks, the boat rides etc.  I think you would've liked to go on the log flume...maybe when you're bigger...for now we have little video clips of you on everything that you like to watch again, and again, and again.

I like it when Poppa gets you up from a nap and you start up a chant of 'Momma gin, Momma gin' (Mommy again, mommy again).  You do the same for Poppa when he's out or at work.  You have a new game you like to play called 'under the bed' where we have to go in our bed and lie down under the duvet and pretend to sleep and then sit up and shout 'boo'...I think you could play that all day.  I'd prefer it without the jumping up and shouting boo bit to be honest.

Stay happy, little one.  I love you.

Mommy xx

Dear Leilani,

This month, I liked it when you watched the gymnastics on the Olympics, then bent over on the floor as if to do a forward roll, followed by much spinning around on the floor.  I also liked it when you learnt to say balloon...only what you actually say is 'Balawoooooo' which is just about the cutest thing ever.  You run up and down shouting 'go, go, go!' and 'stop', and if you're looking for something or someone you'll shout 'Poppa?  Ooooo?'  (Are you French?  You still have a French accent and now you're shouting 'where' in French).

Your range of foods has increased by 2, since you'll now eat popcorn chicken and Birds Eye seaside fish shapes.  The fish shapes have peas in, but you haven't noticed yet.

Sometimes you sleep all night, sometimes you don't.  We go out a lot as you're such an outdoors girl.  Anywhere is good... the park, the library, just walking round town (as long as you get to go in the bookshop - that's my girl!)  The local shopping centre set up a big sand pit for the summer so we go down there to play a lot.  You get upset if other children take your bucket or spade, and haven't yet got tough enough to keep hold of it when they try.

You know your little friend Isabel, and call her 'Belle', calling for her sometimes when she runs off which is sweet.  Most of your other friends can now say 'Lani', but you still refer to yourself by pointing to yourself, though I have heard you say something that sounds like Lan just occassionally when you're riding on your car.

You love Dolly and Duck now and often take Dolly out and about with you as well as to bed.  You also like to play with your baby, putting on a nappy, putting her to bed, telling me her teeth hurt so we give her some medicine.  I love watching you play now, even if your imaginary games don't yet last very long (well, not long enough for me to sit down and read a bit!)

Days are fun, we have a good time together, and I think you're happy baby girl.

I love you,

Mommy

Dear Leilani,

I'm writing this late this month as you've been my poorly girl recently.  We thought you were just teething, alot, but it turned out to be an ear infection.  In both ears.  Poor baby.  It's been a bit of a bad month really, what with one thing or another.  That lady crashed into our car in Krazy Kidz but is denying liability (you'll understand all this when you get bigger), then whilst we had the hire care someone raced up our street and smashed the wing mirror off that.

And Nan died.  She was very poorly by the end, so it's better she didn't suffer for a long time, but I miss her enormously, every day.  I'm really glad she got to meet you though, and spend time with you.  She loved you very much, my sweet Leilani.  You have your name because of her.  Sometimes there's a flash of her features that comes over your face too.  We went to her funeral, it was a beautiful sunny day.  Laura had organised lots of coloured balloons and we all took one and then let them float away into the sky at the same time.  It was a special way to say goodbye to Nan.  You enjoyed it so much you wanted to do it again!  And you like to watch the video clip we have of us all releasing the balloons.

Anyway, there were lots of other little things that went wrong last month, and Poppa was sick, and you were sick.  Hopefully July is going to be much better for all of us.

I wrote down a list the other day of all the words you can say and sign.  I'll put it on the end of this letter so you can see in the future because there are LOTS!  I don't think I'd realised quite how much you can communicate with us now, and recently it seems like there are new words or signs appearing all the time.

I hope you stay well now, little one.  I promise I'll write you a better letter next month.

I love you.

Mommy

Leilani says…

Leilani signs…

Dear Leilani,

Do you think you might be a comedian when you grow up?You’re very funny you know.Last night we tried to teach you how to spit after cleaning your teeth which left you breathless from giggling.There was water splurting out of your mouth at the end but I think that was because you were laughing so hard!

I always forget the little things you do that make me smile, and I really should jot them down because you won’t always do them.For ages you’ve been making the noise of the microwave in the morning as it cooks your porridge. ‘mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm barp barp barp’.You also copy me a lot and I see you trying to push drawers closed with your foot, or turn things on using your foot (see, when I have to carry you all the time I become resourceful with my body parts!)A recent new word is ‘push’ which, once again, you say with a French accent for some reason.You also attempted ‘farmer’ the other day, accompanied by the sign for farmer, though both the speaking and the signing were a bit wonky so it took me a while to figure it out.

You’re obsessed with bubbles.Every time I open Poppa’s noodle cupboard you start up a chant of bubbles bubbles bubbles!It’s a popular game to play when you’re friends come round and keeps you all content.For a couple of minutes anyway!We went to visit Great Nan again and took her for a walk in the park.Nan was in her wheel chair, and you were in your pushchair, and you both looked across at each other in a knowing way!

We started a new playgroup and you played with your first play doh, and did some sticking and colouring too making a mask, which I forgot to bring home with us.We made a new friend, we went to various events as part of the Children’s Festival in town.You had a balloon, burst it, and sat in your pushchair holding the balloon’s stick with just a floppy rag-end of balloon on the top looking terribly cute and sorry for yourself!We went to soft play several times.We even took Poppa there one weekend when it was rainy.And we’ve been to London again, this time to the Science Museum (you liked the cars) and the Diana memorial playground (it rained…you still wanted to go on everything though!)

When we do drawing now you ask me to do ‘poppa’ and ‘momma’ and I draw you a P or an M.We just introduced L for Leilani as well, and you try to say your name when I write the L but it comes out as a very cute bler ler lah sort of sound.I want to video you doing it, but whenever I get the camera out you want to be behind it taking the pictures…

Oh, and you said a sentence the other day at Krazy Kidz when you demanded ‘Momma get up’ after losing patience waiting for me to finish my coffee because you wanted to go and play!Unfortunately that was also the day we had a car crash in the Krazy Kidz car park!Fortunately nobody got hurt, but our car is poorly sick.

So, you’re getting bigger and funnier and smarter and cuter.It’s a good job since you’re also not sleeping again (more teeth?!)

I love you pumpkin pie.

Momma xx

Dear Leilani,

So, it only took you eighteen months, but you finally call me 'Momma'!  It required some intensive training on Rich's part but you managed in the end.  I notice, however, that you still whisper 'Poppa' but can quite heartily shout 'Momma'!

I'm a bit late writing this, so last month seems like an eon ago.  We went away on holiday for a week, down to the Forest of Dean to stay in a lovely old farmhouse.  There was a duck that would come to the door to visit, and sheep in the fields outside that we heard you baa-ing to in the mornings from your cot.  And best of all, there was a great big climbing frame on which we discovered you could climb ladders and go down slides on your own!  We had a few day trips out.  The butterfly farm was the surprisingly fun one, since there was a funny butterfly that tried to get into Poppa's brain via his nose, and then you had a tussle with a butterfly that wouldn't get off your arm!  We went to Bristol Zoo as well on the way home, where you thought most of the animals were cows…

We spent a day in London to go to Karin's housewarming.  You were very grumpy and not much fun at all unfortunately, though you did enjoy the slide in Hyde Park as well as nosing out of Karin's window (she's living on Portobello Road).  Then we went to London again to meet Beck and Freddie at the Natural History Museum.  You thought the big dinosaur was a doggy, and had a great time chasing Fred around the exhibits before zonking out in your pushchair.

Nanna and Granddad came to visit one day.  You were a bit poorly, but they enjoyed spending time with you, watching 'Something Special' and learning all the signs.  You fell asleep on Nanna watching Justin.  Incidentally, 'Something Special' is now your programme of choice at every opportunity rather than 'In the Night Garden'…you sign for Mr Tumble when you want to watch it.  You've seen Ma-Mah and Yeh-yeh as well as we took you there this weekend and left you for the afternoon.  We went to play golf, and you went to the park with them.  Apparently you didn't ask for us once.  Charming!

There have been lots of teething troubles this month, and exzema because of that, and you've also started to throw yourself on the floor and bang your head if you don't get your way.  That's something we could do without, as well as the whiney crying.  But on the upside we've had lots of fun together in lots of different parks, doing yet more drawing, singing, and listening to your funny chatter.  And you've been sleeping nicely too – hooray!

It seems incredible to me that you're a toddler now and not my tiny baby, the time is just flying by.  Only six more months and you'll be two!

I love you, baby girl.

Dear Leilani,

My signing baby, you've gone signing crazy!  You can do lots of animals now: cow, dog, pig, sheep, cat, elephant and you attempted horse yesterday but it's quite tricky.  And you sign jelly now too.  Your spoken words are coming along nicely too, still 'open' mostly, but also up, down, hot, ball, cheese and, cutest of all, Poppa.  Rich, of course, doesn't believe me that you're saying Poppa, but you do say it all the time.  Today when we got home from Tiny Talk you wanted to go upstairs and you were whispering 'Poppa, Poppa' over and over as we climbed the stairs.  It was a big let down when you discovered he wasn't upstairs.

This month I've been mean Mommy because I've finally been weaning you.  It was definitely NOT fun, but we have you down to just the bedtime feed now and you hardly ever ask for Mommy milk in the day now.  There were moments when I thought you might never stop crying, and sometimes you'd be signing for milk so furiously it was like you were shouting it at me!

We've started going to story time at the library.  Marjorie the singing librarian does story time as well, and you've been very good so far.  You're not really listening to full stories yet, but you very much enjoy sitting on the little baby chairs, like a grown up, and Marjorie always says how good you've been at the end.

Drawing is still a very popular activity.  If you see a pen, even a glimpse of a pen out of the corner of your eye, you become obsessed and demand paper!  Poppa thinks your pictures are rubbish at the moment, but I've put one on the kitchen cupboard anyway.

We went to see Great Nan for Easter.  You had a lovely day, playing with Annie's dolly and pram, and her little teapot that makes a pouring noise.  You were a very good girl all day, and we came home with lots of chocolate.  Mmmmmm!  We also went to Odds Farm Park.  It was a very cold day, but you loved seeing all the animals and you were very brave, stroking them and saying hello.

Anyway, I hope you start saying Mommy soon.  It would be nice if you called me something other than doo doo.

I love you, pinky ponk.

Mommy