Dear Harper,

The best part of any morning is stepping into your room, turning on the light and saying Good morning Bunny Rabbit and seeing your bright and beautiful smile.  You turned 18 months on Friday – happy one and a half years. my precious one. Every morning you hand me your stuffed animals one by one.  Good morning Lion, good morning Piggy, good morning Miss Mermaid.  Each one gets two kisses – mwah, mwah and go on the change table.  Then we search for the soother somewhere in your bed or on the floor.  You pop it in your mouth until breakfast is served and then you take it out and set it on the table (where I whisk it away and out of sight until nap time).  At breakfast Bubby sips away at her coffee.  We never get tired of touching my cup and saying Ow! (cause it is hot and hilarious). After breakfast you often watch some Peppa Pig in your wee arm chair but soon you are up and at ‘em.  

You still love the Swiffer and mopping the floors (several times a day).  While at Bubby’s you picked up a new habit of shaking the mats.  Housework is so satisfying and so much fun.  Now you like to stand on a stool in the kitchen and help with cooking or washing dishes. You especially enjoy washing your hands with the movable faucet. In the morning I make your bed and if I don’t – you remind me by pointing at the blankets and you prefer they are laid out flat and not turned down at the corner.  You will straighten yourself if I try to be creative.

It’s been quite a month- Bubby’s eye had a problem and I had to stay in bed for 12 days laying on my right side and I didn’t see you.  Pooh!  I missed you so much.  We were so grateful that Auntie Paula could be with you instead and Daddy took some days off too.  Grandma stepped in too coming every afternoon.  Wow!!!  What a village of love you have, Kitten.

We had a Chanukah sleepover this week and got to share it with Auntie Raya, Uncle Ben and Oscar on a video chat.  We were supposed to go to London for the whole weekend but we couldn’t because of the pandemic.  Anyway – we ate latkes, oven fried chicken and coleslaw with Sufganiot for dessert.  That’s our family tradition and we had the same meal last year when Mommy was still here.  Mommy made the chicken, Auntie Raya made the sufganiot and she helped Bubby make the latkes.  We opened our presents together and lit our candles.  Not quite like being together but it made Bubby’s heart feel really good!! 

You love my little bedroom – we sit on the bed and find so many fun things.  You especially like the back scratcher and although you enjoy a little scratch on your back you much prefer to give.  You look at me and point at my shirt and signal me to lift it up so you can get busy scratching my back.  Lucky me!!!  This time we got into all the necklaces I have hanging – many are mine and many were your Moms.  You put on a few and then kept pointing for more….more….more until you had the perfect number.  A girl needs to accessorize.  We had a hilarious game of peek a boo with you hiding behind your Chanukah Elmo book (both Daddy and I bought you one).  You laughed so hard and it makes me laugh every time I watch the video of you.

I took a lot of videos of you this month – the photos and the videos help me remember what to tell you and everyday I send them to Auntie Raya, Daddy and Grandma.  You’ve got a lot of words now and you can tell me what it is you want or don’t want by gesturing and a few words here and there. 

You love playing in your playroom and we spend a lot of time there each day.  You love to colour, to paint or to use markers.  You concentrate very hard on your work but your first love is books.  You have a good sized library already and you can sit and read on your own and when you ask me to read to you, it can easily be 6 books at time.  You know what books you want and you will point until I find the right one – nodding or shaking your head.  Fortunately most of your books are on lower shelves that give you easy access.

You also love your rocking horse, your fancy red car (getting in and out, putting on the seat belt, pretending to drive), your plastic groceries, and your little kitchen.  You cook by stirring things up and then pretending to be eating. Yummmm.

Oh Harper you love music and I know it is a big part of who you are.  Mommy loved music – she loved to sing and to dance and to lip sync and to go to concerts.  We have listened to a lot of different music this month.  You love calypso and reggae, classical, opera and ballet.  But you really love the tunes from your music class (Music Together) and you insist every bath that I play Babv Shark on the phone.  You point at the phone and holding a toy shark say Doo doo.

Classical music always makes you stop and look for a moment.  Calypso has you dancing and usually asking Bubby to pick you up to dance.

We can’t talk about this past month without mentioning the great outdoors and your first snow.  Grandma took you out and you were not too impressed.  There was even a little snowman.  You have grown to appreciate it and snow is one of your words.  You like to hold a snowball.  You love all your mittens that have ears and they make you laugh a little.  We’ve been walking in the alley with all the murals.  Wow! So many with pictures of moose, trees, flowers, butterflies and more.  You point them out to me now.   You like to collect sticks, stones and even snow balls and put them into your wagon or car (usually in the storage at the front).  In your backyard you insist on climbing (with help) to the top of your playset where you always have a big laugh and smile as you peer out the windows.  Then down the slide you go (with help).  We could probably do that repeatedly but Bubby runs out of energy pretty fast. I always say ask Daddy later (teehee).

Your street is being paved this week and Bubby couldn’t park near the house so we had to transfer things using my bundle buggy. You decided to take a ride rather than push it. When you came to sleep over you insisted on helping to carry all the bags. You also felt wearing a mask was important to being a good citizen.

Auntie Paula and I dressed you up in several of your magnificent party dresses and had a photo shoot.  You were mostly on the run but we got some good photos.  We won’t be going to many parties for a while but doesn’t mean we can’t dress up fancy!!! 

What a month as 2020 comes to an end. I don’t think we can ever really explain this year and all that has happened but we know we love you. Kisses sweet love.