Alphabet Love

As many of you know, for the last few months, Buddy has manifested a true passion for letters. It started with him recognizing and subsequently falling in love with the letter "o". Since that moment, it has blossomed into something quite impressive.

Robbie, 20 months

By about 18 months of age, Buddy was able to recognize and pronounce almost every letter of the alphabet. At that point, I purchased him some magnetic letters for the fridge, thinking that he would get tired of them eventually (just like he does with all of the toys I buy for him). Did he tire of them? Nope. Now, at 20 months of age, he still plays with them every day.

Also on a daily basis, he enjoys his set of alphabet cards, blocks, a variety of ABC books as well as his brand new alphabet poster. He loves to request the alphabet song, so we've had to learn multiple versions, just to mix it up. I so enjoy his sweet request of "abc's?" which can mean he wants one of us to sing the song or that he is demanding to play an alphabet game we found online.

Over the last few weeks, he has begun learning the sounds the letters make. He can now do almost all of the letter sounds. It's amazing to see him pick these things up and how much fun he has doing it. I love the way my mother-in-law put it, "He acts like the letters are his good friends."

We've been trying to get a good video to showcase his talent. D took this video tonight. Enjoy!

Waiting for Baby

When I was pregnant with Buddy, I had all the time in the world to anticipate and to get anxious over his impending birth. I had quiet moments to talk and sing softly to my baby boy and to dream about all of the fun things we'd do together.

I've noticed, this second time around, that I haven't had a whole lot of time to do those things. Except for noting the aches and pains of pregnancy and lamenting my perpetual lack of sleep, I find myself feeling a little guilty that I spend large portions of the day not even thinking about the little girl I'm carrying. In fact, I've noticed that I spend time purposely NOT thinking about how I'm going to manage with two children, just trusting that things will fall into place.

When I do have some time to myself, however, I try to picture my little girl and I wonder what she will be like. I confess that I hope to see some reflection of myself in her (a mini-me), all the while expecting her to be a complete handful and quite possibly the polar opposite of her big brother. In those quiet moments, when I feel her little baby feet kicking, I do find myself getting excited to meet her and hoping that she and her big brother will be good friends.

Approx. 5 weeks to go. We're in the home stretch!