Thursday, 11/16/2017

6:06am

Dear Azzie,

Yesterday you turned 22 months old. You are two months short of TWO YEARS. Where has the time gone?

This time last year we were able to fit you into a carved pumpkin.

This year you sat in your high chair, decorated your own pumpkin, and sang Moana songs.

Uncle and I have recently decided to start cooking real food once a week. Tuesdays are the lucky evenings because that’s when we have the most time in the evenings. At the end of October we sat down and made a list of meals we like and picked four to make; one for every week in November.

This past Tuesday, you, your mama, and Tutu came over for dinner. We were making Sausage Alfredo. I was kinda nervous because it was a recipe I’d torn out of a magazine years ago when Uncle and I were dating. We’d never made it. Also, Uncle’s not a big fan of Alfredo sauce.

 

But! it was hit. Turns out you love sausage and noodles and the sauce wasn’t cheesy at all for Uncle Anthony. #winning (Will hashtag’s still be a thing when you’re a teenager?)

I might be biased (or ignorant of children because you’re pretty much the only almost two year old I hang out), but you are so smart.

Your maneuverability skills are amazing!

Auntie (and Uncle currently) both work at day programs for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and some of the clients I work with who can walk can’t maneuver in between a chair and a wall without the possibility of tripping because they don’t have the spatial awareness (??) to look where their feet are going. Is it really in the second year, that tiny humans start learning this.

You know that my cat Edward is currently living at Papa and Tutu’s house. Every time you saw Moochy and Alphonse you would yell, “Edward!” and we say “Mooch!” Then you’d point to Alphonse and yell “Edward!” and we would say “Alphonse!” But, to your credit, you can say Mooch and you call Alphonse “Alpha.”

All the things you know how to say floor me. You repeat EVERYTHING. You know how to say, “Where Moana?” after you buried her under the blankets and red-checkered pillow on my couch. When Mommy went into the kitchen to talk to Daddy on his lunch break, you looked at us, SHRUGGED (!!!), and asked, “Where Mommy?”

Some of your favorite songs are from Moana: “How Far I’ll Go,” “You’re Welcome,” and the Grandma song.

You can quote so many lines from Open Season. (You prayed for Elliot and Boog a few weeks ago.) This is what your mom and I grew up doing! Granted, we weren’t doing it from our second year of life (at least that I’m aware of). If I’m remembering correctly, we didn’t start quoting movies until our famous Harry Potter days.

We spent the majority of Tuesday dancing and singing with you. You have the cutest dance moves and the best laugh.

You chase the laser pointer dot.

Towards the end of the night, Uncle was sitting at his desk. You pointed to his computer and said, “What does the fox say.” I asked your mom if they’d every watched that with you. Nope, never. The only time we’ve watched that with you was at the end of September when you, Mommy, Daddy, and Tutu came up to the Meadow Vista house to help us pack. So you must be connecting Uncle and his chair and his computer with a song we watched one time. That’s so cool.

This feels kinda wandering now, but I wanted something different to commemorate your visit on Tuesday than just an Instagram photo.

Here’s to mirror selfies, belly laughs, and funny faces. Love you, Az 🙂

Love, Auntie.