20 months

Dear Sena,

Two weeks ago you turned 20 months old, and your vocabulary is expanding beyond your crazy piglatin hillbilly speech.  Here are some words you now say with regularity.

Baby Sena (sounds like babee sheenah)
No!
Bee
Water (waadah)
Shoe
Huh?
Uffdah!  (you even used it properly, after you fell down)
Blue
Yellow (yehyo)
More!  (mwooaah)
UhOh!
Eye
Choo-choo
Bye!
Hi!
Mama
Daddy
Kitty

Plus, there's a whole lot of other words you understand now.  But you will not say, "Yes."  Nope.  I don't think it's going to happen.

Because of this ridiculous heat wave we are having we have been spending a lot of time at the pool.  You sure do love the water, Sena, which of course makes me happy yet nervous.  I foresee many swimming lessons in your future, and maybe in a few years you will want to start doing triathlons with your mommy.  Lord knows your daddy isn't going to.

You also love to color with your crayons and build gigantic towers with your Legos, which you then proceed to knock over and laugh like a maniac.

Celebrating the fourth of July in LaCrosse

Daddy and Sena by the St. James Hotel in Red Wing, MN

First carousel ride at the Como Zoo.

So summer is already half over, but we are having so much fun, and I feel so lucky to spend all my free time with you.  You are growing fast and it's a privilege to watch it.  Life can be difficult, painful, and sad, but it is also beautiful and amazing.  You've only been in my life for 20 short months, but being with you is like being Dorothy when she steps out of her house into the land of Oz, going from black and white to color.  That's what having a child is like.  Going from black and white to Technicolor.  Two dimensions to three.  Amazing but impossible to explain because how can you explain the color orange to someone who can only see gray?

I'm glad I can now see the color orange.

I love you, Sena.

Love,
Mommy