Ryan,
Your 18 month birthday is tomorrow. Since I'm not keeping a baby book anymore, I though you might like to know what the last six months have been like. And let's face it. It was a miracle that I kept up with your book for the first 12, so not getting any more info about your childhood until 18 months is pretty standard for me.
You're walking. A lot. Sometimes you're running. You've been walking since Halloween. You were almost 14 months when you started really well. You've been doing it so long now, that I can't remember what it was like when you couldn't. You are smart about when to walk...you know it's faster if your dad or I carries you to the park than if you walk yourself. Don't get me wrong. You're not lazy about things, just judicial about when to use your steps.
You're talking. A little. You have a nice little vocabulary (momma, dadda, more, yes, shoes, fish, ball, bath, bubble, meow, this, that, thank you). You sign more than you talk, though. You can sign "more" and "all done" and "diaper"and "flag". You are very expressive with your face and tend to get very frustrated when we don't understand you. Recently, we started involving you in saying the blessing before you eat. You insist upon holding our hands and babbling and signing "amen" before we start eating. It is just about the sweetest thing I have ever seen.
When we sit down together to eat, in all likelihood you have let us know exactly what you wanted out of the fridge and pantry. You're perfectly willing to eat whatever we're having, as long as there are no vegetables other than corn, but you prefer to choose your own meal. It often consists of turkey hot dogs, veggie meatballs, goldfish, corn, peanut butter, and/or some kind of fruit. You can put away some fruit! I don't think I've found one yet that you don't like. It should be noted, however, that your former love of bananas is fading. You now only really like them when we're in the store, and I can't give them to you because they have to be weighed before you buy/eat them (I've told you this about a million times and you still cry every.single.time I put the bananas in the basket).
You love to go shopping. You HATE to sit in the cart. Your dad doesn't like to go grocery shopping with us because you end up wanting out of the cart within five minutes of getting into the store. Also, you know and remember from visit to visit where all of the free samples are. I have to start on the other end of the store and hope you don't remember so I can get things done before we start visiting all of the fruit, cheese, and lunchmeat areas. Speaking of shopping, we took you to Toys R Us last weekend when the weather was really bad. You wanted to go play at the park so badly, but it was too cold and rainy. We decided to find you a new toy to play with inside. You ended up with a ballpopper that you literally napped with that afternoon. You held it from the moment we got it down off of the rack until you went to bed that night. You wouldn't even take a bath (and you love your bath). You just had to get back out to play with your popper. I sure do love seeing you that happy!
Like I said, you normally LOVE to take a bath. You love bubbles. You love bath crayons. You love spilling water everyone. Here lately, you love squirting your dad with your toys. You find it hilarious. You also love to pretend to eat the bubbles while your dad and I yell "ewwwwwwwww". You get this huge grin and this awesome bubble Santa Claus beard. You laugh so hard when you get tickled with yourself. It is so funny!
You still love to read, but prefer to do so with your dad on the iPad. We've had to put passcodes on our phones, because you know how to undo the slidelock on your own. You accidentally called your grandaddy about 5:30 one morning. Also, in the last week or so you have decided the the Ingrid Michaelson video "Maybe" is your very favorite thing to help you fall asleep. You literally watched it 6 times in a row the other night.
I think the most impressive thing about the last six months has been watching you learn. You remember EVERYTHING from day to day. It seems like you only have to do something twice before it becomes your routine. You mimic us like crazy and look so silly when you do it. You have individualized activities that you do with each of us. It's really important to you to eat your waffle in the mornings with your daddy while you watch "Morning Joe". You will bring us the remote to tell us it's time to turn on the TV if we forget. On that note--you love to watch sports on television. No matter the sport, you yell "BAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL" at the TV and stand as close as possible to watch the ball move. You also love to watch Wheel of Fortune and Little Einsteins. You're still on the fence about Elmo, but you like some of the YouTube videos we've found for you.
When you wake up in the mornings, you really love to come cuddle with me. You make such awesome cooing noises and you scrunch into me and spoon as close as you can get. It's a magical feeling. You're so much better at sleeping now than you used to be. It turns out, we created the vicious cycle we were in. About a month after your first birthday, we moved your crib into your room. I was so nervous about having to get up and down every three hours like usual with you at the other end of the apartment. You slept the whole night all by yourself on the very first night. I'm still kicking myself for not having moved you earlier.
You're making friends with your pets and think that Tonks is just about as cool as it gets. Especially when she'll let you lay on her. You LOVE that. Anytime you hear the word cat or see a picture of a cat or hear a cat noise, you point to Luna or Tonks. Your ability to associate things that are the same is really neat to watch unfold.
I can't forget to write about Cloey. She was with you in your Infant II class at Children's World. You recently (March 1) moved up to the Toddler 2 class. You actually skipped the first toddler class altogether. They tell me it's because you were being moved to catch up with the other kids your age, but I think it's because you are too smart for the other class. Anyway. Cloey. She is this beautiful, fierce redheaded little girl with bright blue eyes. She hugs you and tells you bye everyday. One day I watched her kiss you on the face. So, I'm sorry son. I was there for your first kiss.
The daycare has taught you to blow kisses when you say goodbye to someone. You even do this at night if you're saying good night to one of us before going to bed. I'm telling you...that "muah" can melt a heart.
You love keys. You know that my keyless entry will set off the alarm to my car, and when you accidentally hit the button, you throw the remote to me or your dad so we can fix it for you. You are fascinated by buttons in general. In the car, in the house, on the remote, on the phone, on the DVR. You love to press buttons!
You know that the car takes you places you want to go. You know when we're supposed to turn to go into our apartment parking and what happens when we don't turn. You know the park is straight and the building is to the right and if we start to turn and you want to go play, you fuss. A lot. Sometimes we have to take you down to take the trash just to get you out of the house, because you love to be outside so much. You never ever ever want to have to come in.
Geez. This is really really long. Anything else I want to tell you about 18 months, I'll put in another letter.
I love you, buddy!
Momma
