Letter to our 22 month old

Dear William,

On October 8, 2013, you turned 22 months old.

STATS/TEETH:
I’ve noticed that you’re slimming down this month, your diapers have been fitting you differently. The scale and ruler are true to my observations — you weigh 32 pounds 10 ounces. You are 37 inches tall. You wear size 3T in most everything, except footed jammies — in those you wear size 4T or 5T, depending on the brand.

On 9/28, your two year molars started claiming the landscape of your gums, starting with your lower left side (one point has come through), and your upper left side is a bump on the horizon. They must be a doozy, because you are not normally one who drools, but I’ve noticed you drooling a few times… and your cheeks turn bright red and you get a rash on your bottom.

NURSING/FOOD:
You love to nurse and I love to nurse you. You are a very well-mannered nursling, so we’ll continue our special relationship for as long as you need. This month, you have started to request “switch sides!” You’re so sweet about it, and always request it with a smile. You love all your nursing toys that I keep downstairs in the pocket of the nursing pillow and, while nursing, you fling your hand back to request each one until they’re all out, either in your hand, on the armrest above your head, or sitting on your cheek while you nurse. It’s quite a show! You hum to me while we nurse and we’re working with glisses and holding notes, and humming duets… my heart melts every time we do that. When I nurse you to sleep at night, you request Froggy and when I finally latch you and hand you Froggy, your eyes immediately start to close. Despite what you eat or don’t eat, since you’ll always nurse, I feel reassured that you’re at least getting the nutrients you need, custom tailored to your needs.

You continue to do well with table food… some days are hit and miss, though, and you display a definite preference via specific requests for the things you want to eat. For example, this past weekend, we went to Target which is in the same shopping center as Chick-Fil-A. You recognized this (you recognize where we’re at much of the time), “I want chicken nuggets, please!” and I promised them to you, only to realize as we drove over there that it was Sunday and Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays. You in tears and me in desperation, we went to McDonald’s for a lame substitute… you only ate one of their chicken nuggets. Clearly McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets are inferior compared to Chick-Fil-A’s.

It is with some chagrin that I share when we were in Hawaii, we were driving to Haleakala and you started saying, “I want pancakes! Pancakes!” I realized we had driven past a Jack In The box, you father didn’t even know it was there. It was notable because YOU recognized the Jack in the Box sign and correlated that with your pancakes. Since we were all hungry, it made sense to turn around and get breakfast there and pancakes for you.

THINGS YOU SAY:

Speech development is such a funny thing to watch develop.   The other thing I’ve noticed is you will sometimes speak your own language when you’re being silly, usually it’s if you’re playing with other kids… like on the airplane when we returned from Hawaii, you were turned around “talking” to them and just saying nonsense stuff.  Yet, you’ll turn and look at me or your father and speak English clear as day to us, and then go back to your “Williamism” language, and laugh hysterically at yourself.  You do it to your friend/neighbor, Josh, too.  He says, “What?” over and over again, and the more he does that, the more you laugh about it.

Words you used to say perfectly or will say perfectly if specifically requested, you now have developed a “Williamism” version of it.  I want to write them here, because I know as you get older and grow out of them, I’ll miss them.  “Wi-are” is water.  “Balicious” is delicious. “Watermeldon” is watermelon.  “Dingbell” is doorbell.  “Kank-you” is thank you.

SLEEP:
Since I’ve night weaned myself from nursing you, you’ve had some really good, long, uninterrupted nights of sleep. I, however, no longer sleep through the night. I still wake up and go in your room and check the temperature, adjust the windows and drapes and sit for a moment and listen to you breathe. Although, now that your two year molars are moving in, we’ve returned to nursing in the middle of the night, at your request, though. And while I’m tired, because it’s harder for me to be awakened in the middle of my sleep cycle, I recognize that this is but a short time in your life. I want you to know I will always be there for you — now, while you’re a child, and in the future, when you’re an adult — no matter what the clock reads or what anyone says.

THINGS WE DID/PLACES WE WENT:
09/14/2013 – Legoland. You recognized where we were the second we pulled into the parking lot. You really love LegoLand!
09/15/2013 – Church with your daddy. You held your Grandma H.’s hand when leaving and when she knelt to talk to you, you knelt down too.
Wednesdays are Library storytime… a different, bigger library. One that I’ve been informed by you has a “castle!”
09/21/2013 – Disneyland. You saw Mickey Mouse, Goofy, a firetruck, rode the monorail, Pirates of the Carribean, and the train.
09/28/2013 – we went to the mountain cabin for the weekend
10/05/2013 – visited Fire Station #19 Open House
10/05/2013 – we had a mom/son date at Yogurtland and then visited the newly opened PetCo

PLAYTIME AND CHILDREN INTERACTION:
09/22/2013 – we hung out with your cousins for Huck’s birthday
10/06/2013 – Saw your cousins at their house — you were amazed at their “LegoLand” (they have lots of Legos)
Library Story Time — Monday mornings and Wednesday mornings with Grandma D., park time afterwards.
Gymnastics and Music Class — we’ve discontinued those for the time being due to budgetary limitations.

THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER:

How sweet you are when you don’t want us to leave the room, you cry out, “Be right back!” One evening, I needed to go upstairs, so I asked you if you wanted to stay downstairs and play with your toys or come upstairs while I changed. You replied, “Stay downstairs, please.” And you did and continued to peacefully play with your toys. How I’ve started doing the countdown to something, like putting your toys away… you didn’t get the connection the first time I did it, “One, two…” You interrupted me with a happy, “THREE!!” and then realized that it was a trick. I felt kind of bad. How whenever you walk backwards, you say, “Beep Beep Beep Beep” because that’s what big vehicles do when they’re backing up. How whenever I pick a booger out of your nose, you say, “That’s a booger… don’t eat it!” Same thing for flowers, you say, “That’s a flower…. don’t eat it!” How you still love sniffing lotions and candles, and you accompany that with, *Sniff* “Mmmm, smell good.” Also, if I turn a fan on and you feel the breeze, you said, “That feels good!”

This past month you’ve started going up and down a stair or two without needing to hold on to anything. When facing a flight of stairs, however, you still reach for my hand or a rail.

How after we finish nursing in the morning, you tell me you wanna “Go see Daddy!” “Go see Mickey Mouse!” and then when I stand up, you tell me, “Put Froggy to bed… mommy carry me.” Then you tuck your head under my chin and we go find either Daddy or Mickey Mouse, sometimes they’re one and the same.

How obsessed you are with your Hot Wheels and you keep them all in a plastic basket. We limit you to only taking 2 when we go somewhere, otherwise you grab as many as you can fit in your hands and then you leave a sad trail of Hot Wheels that you can’t carry. This past Saturday we were headed out to Fire Station #19, and I requested that you pick a toy and let’s get going… and I walked out to the garage. You followed after a moment, and when I turned to look at you, you had a huge grin on your face and were carrying “one toy” “Got my basket?”… yep, you had the basket full of Hot Wheels. Now you haul your “basket” with you whenever we go somewhere.

How you love to hold your Hot Wheels out to your side and shake them around and then tell me that “They’re dancing!”

How you love saying “thank you” to people. You practice your gratefulness every chance you get. You love saying “thank you for… ” and you look around and take inventory of everything in your immediate vicinity.  You will tell yourself thank you, if I ask you do something, when you’ve done it you say, “Thank you!” to yourself.

Your relationship with Tuggy, our cat, is progressing nicely. You have a tendency to pat a little hard sometimes, but you love him… and you TELL him, “Love you, Tuggy!” Especially after we got back from the mountains. You also have a tendency to try and use him as a pillow, so there  you are, lying on the floor with your head resting on him.  You really miss your cats when you’re away from them. You really love all cats… we went to the pet store, and you were just beside yourself with joy at all the cats they had there.  You looked inside each cage and said, “HI CAT!”   You also love dogs. And turtles. And birds.  I’m just astounded at your gentleness with other creatures, it’s amazing!

How you adore babies. There’s a new baby in the neighborhood, Abigail is her name. You walked up to her and took her tiny little hand in your toddler hand and just looked at her. Her mom was ready to arrange a marriage right then and there.

How you love to laugh, and love to make us laugh.  You have this BIG FAKE laugh that you do, and it cracks everyone up.  One morning you were playing with a Thomas Kinkade nightlight.  You were pushing on the picture part of it, and it fell out of the frame.  Half joking, I asked in a fake-horrified voice, “Did you just break that?”  You looked at me, looked back at it and replied, “Froggy broke it!”  Skeptically, I responded, “Froggy broke it?”  You replied, “Noooo-hooo-hooooo!  MUWAHAHAAA!”

In our office/guest room where Grandma D. has her computer set up. She covers it with a yellow-checkered cloth when it’s off.  You were in there playing and picked up that cloth, then looked down at it and in astonishment said, “That’s not Froggy!”  You put it back on her computer and ran into your bedroom to get Froggy and said, “This is Froggy!”

How your Grandma D. took you on a walk one day and showed you a traffic light.  Ever since then, when we’re driving along, if we come to a stop  you say, “Red light” and then when we go again, you’ll say, “Green light…  now we can go! Go Go Go!!!”

How the night of your 22 month birthday, you were playing with your “piano” that your godmother gave you. You pressed the demo key and then danced to whatever song is playing. Your father and I were being silly and we started dancing around the kitchen with each other. After watching us dance together and laughing happily at seeing us do so, you came up to me and asked me to dance. My world stood still … a sweeter moment I’ve never had, but to be asked to dance by my son. And so we danced, a rousing bouncing, twisting, silly dance full of giggles and laughter.

And how you were distracted with your DJ duties, and you would run over to check the music because you didn’t want it to end, and then come running back to me and ask me to dance again. Your bedtime loomed nearer and nearer, and I shrugged to myself, sometimes making memories is more important than bedtime.

Love forever,

Momma