Bye bye boobins

Hi Luthien,

Okay, I hope the title of this post does not embarrass you too much when you're older. It almost embarrasses me except for the fact that I am not a very "modest" person for lack of a better word. So, yes, for some odd reason, ever since you've been very young, I've referred to my breasts as "boobins" to you. I have no idea where this came from, and although we continue to use that word since you know and understand it, I have also been teaching you the correct terminology. This month we finally stopped nursing altogether. I had always planned on nursing you until at least the age of two, but I believe that my working full-time for so long interrupted this process. You became so accustomed to not needing "boobins" to go down for a nap, etc. since I was gone throughout the day, that when I was around to nurse you on weekends, it seemed to interfere with the routine you had developed and messed up your sleep schedule, among other things. So, by 13 months you were only nursing twice per day. By 16 months you were down to once a day, in the mornings only. I also became pregnant with your little brother or sister when you turned 1, and from that point on I became much more sensitive to your routine biting (I know you never meant to bite, you've just had a mouthful of teeth-molars and all- since you were fairly young and they just started getting in the way!). I also became fatigued and hungry very easily from nursing.

But it wasn't my being pregnant, the pain, or even my working that led to saying bye bye to the boobins. Every morning when you would wake up, I would pick you up and bring you to our bed to lay and nurse for awhile. As you got older I had a love/hate relationship with this, because although it meant I got to rest a bit longer (which is important because you wake up pretty consistently at 6:15 and I never get to bed before 11 or 12), you had begun to bite me so hard, which meant I was wide awake the whole time. But nevertheless, it was dark, quiet, and I was laying down. But for about a week straight, right around the time you turned 19 months old, I would bring you into our room and you started saying "no, no." I have to admit this was very hard to hear. After a week of continuing to try, we finally said "bye bye" to the boobins. Literally. I could see no point in trying to force it since at this point you weren't really getting much nutrition from nursing, and considering you would likely have to give it up when the new baby arrives. We also have discussed how the boobins belong to the baby in my tummy now, and so far you're okay with this. I'm sure there will be some jealousy when he/she arrives, but we'll see.

There are many other noteworthy changes that have occurred in the past month. I took you to your 18-month check up and you were actually ON the chart for your weight!! So this calmed down the doctor a little bit and got me out of having to explain myself yet again. As of the past couple weeks you are starting to combine words. You now consistently say "all done." You can also say "thank you," "one more," and a few other 2-word combos if you're repeating. I think you are about to really start talking more because you've been "jargoning" a lot lately. You say full sentences with appropriate prosody but they are either complete nonsense, or you start out with a real word and the rest is jargon. It's very cute, and like I said, I can tell it's leading to another milestone. You can now say all your colors too! Colors like "red" and "orange" would be a little difficult for a stranger to understand, but you are very consistent with your productions and the way you say them again indicates to me that you are a perfectionist. You don't want to just say "wed" for "red." You draw out the "r" sound to try to practice saying it correctly- and sometimes it's really close! You do tend to leave off most final consonants, which is a very typical pattern but it's interesting for me to observe. You continue to love animals, and always want to color and have me draw a puppy, kitty, or turtle. You love putting legos (or anything) together.

Well, that's it for now. I'll have to share pictures next time. We really haven't taken very many lately, so this is a good reminder.

I love you!

Mama

p.s. I almost forgot to say that this is my first week as an official stay-at-home mom. I'm so excited to have these next couple months with you before the new baby comes. I still am too perfectionistic about the whole thing (there's no question where you acquired that trait), but I'm working on it, and loving every minute (well, almost every minute) of being home with you! I'm learning to find joy in even the hard moments :). I hope you can be patient with me as I learn to be a mommy on a whole new level!