Mommy and Mama Plus Three: Mateo's 26 month letter

Dear Mateo,

Here it is New Year's Eve and you are 26 months old today. In the couple of months since we last wrote you a letter, you have developed an amazing amount! We know it will be this way until, well, forever. We'll blink and you'll know how to do something new and then soon you'll be driving!

Anyway, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Here's what you've been up to this month. First, you have really gotten excited about imaginative play. Yesterday, for example, you arranged all your stuffed animals in a circle and told Mommy to call you Mary Beth (the name of your music class teacher) because you were about to lead a music class. Then you assigned each animal a name (Underwearra was our favorite by far - a pink bear wearing a pair of toddler briefs) and proceeded to sing the hello song to them while playing your pretend guitar.

You've spontaneously started a lot of other pretend games this month, from pretending to cook up hot meals to pretending to talk on the phone and pretending to do all sorts of other things. You really love the "kid kitchen," as you call it, that Bubby and Poppa gave you for Christmas and cook up lots of soup, milkshakes, mac and cheese, and other foods nearly every day.

In the realm of communication, you're still talking up a storm. You've started to use what we call conditional sentences, although we're really not sure if that's the right term. You'll say things like "maybe tomorrow I can have macaroni and cheese." You're also on the verge of using a simile in the correct way - you keep saying things like "That ball is sort of like..." and then you trail off, not sure how to finish the thought.

You're also working on singing and have several favorite songs (the Hello song and This Old Man are big right now). You have firm ideas of who can sing what song and if someone, say Mama, tries to sing a song that only Mary Beth the music teacher can sing, well, then you put her in her place right away by saying "NO! ONLY MARY BETH!!" Right now, the only song Mama is allowed to sing is called The Worms Crawl In, The Worms Crawl Out, which she made the mistake of teaching you around Halloween time.

You seem to be in the middle of a growth spurt and are enjoying eating. You have really started to have a huge appetite, which never ceases to amaze us. We'd gotten used to your tendency to have a few bites and be done! Now, you sometimes eat a whole adult size bowl of oatmeal and raisins in the morning, and other larger servings of food throughout the day. You are getting much better at using a fork, spoon and wiping up spills. You are also starting to use a regular cup some of the time and do fine with that.

In the arena of the potty, we think we can really say that you're potty trained now, at least during the day. It is amazing that you have been now going around in just underwear for a few months now during the day. You do have accidents here and there and are still working on letting us know when you need to use the potty, but most days you stay dry all day - at home and out and about. At night you are still in a diaper, and for the time being that is just fine.

Finally, you are really starting to play more with your sister. Today at a cafe you wanted to tell other kids, "Look that's my baby sister Talia!" You were so proud when you said this! You also like to tell other people how cute she is and give her toys to play with.

A new favorite activity recently is playing with all of your puzzles. You like your alphabet puzzle as well as other types of puzzles and are getting good at putting the pieces in. You've also been having fun with finger painting. You like to say what you have painted and have Mommy write a caption on your painting. Speaking of activities, you were also very helpful digging our car out from the snow recently...