Saturday, February 12, 2011

Dear William (18 months)

Dear William,

Today you are 18 months old!!

You can do so many things on your own these days.  You feed yourself with a spoon or fork, all on your own.  You still love rice and beans.  That is the only thing you will eat for dinner.  You still love your waffle(s) for breakfast.  When I am getting your waffle ready and it pops up out of the toaster, you get soooooo excited... waving your hands and saying "MMmmmm!"  Sometimes when you finish your waffle, you say "Mo waaaah..." which pretty clearly means "More waffle."  Here is a picture of you smugly eating the second waffle you requested for breakfast yesterday:

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William, we had a snow day this month.  St. Louis got about 8 inches of snow, and right before that, we got several inches of ice that turned to rain.  It was awful.  That was 12 days ago, and the whole city is still covered with snow and ice; it has been frigid ever since then.  On the day that we got all the snow, Wash U closed down for the first time in like, forever, and your daycare was closed.  You stayed at home with me, and we played all day long.  It was exhausting for us both.  I made you home-made play-dough on our snow day, and you hated it.  You touched it once and shuddered.  I was so hoping that you would like it.  My Grandma Florence used to bring home-made play-dough sometimes when she came to our house early on a Saturday morning for my mother do to her hair.  It would still be warm when she arrived, and I loved playing with it.  Maybe someday you will like home-made play-dough too, but not this time.  You had a lot of fun in the kitchen on our snow day.  You were thrilled to open and close the cabinets, take everything out of the cabinets, bang pots and pans together, etc.  And you and I colored pictures, read books, stacked/knocked over blocks, and ran around in circles giggling.  We had a lot of fun together.  It made me excited for this summer, when I am off of work and you and I will just get to play, play, play every day.

William, you've been sick a time or two this month.  Not really badly sick, just a bit of an upset stomach.  It makes me so sad and scared when you aren't feeling well.  You like to sleep in the big bed with mommy and daddy during times like that.  I love cuddling with you, but sometimes you take up the whole bed.

King for a day

You got your left upper canine this month too, and that ordeal also required that you scream at night and sleep in the big bed with us.  It must have hurt a lot.  Oh well, only 3 more of those to go.  And then 4 more molars.  We'll get through it.

I tried to teach you a few things this month.  One thing I taught you was where your nose is.  I thought you ought to know.  We're still working on head, shoulders, knees, and toes, but the nose you've got down pat.  If I say, "William, where is your nose?" you grin and point to your nose.  And if I say "Where is Mommy's nose?" or "Where is Daddy's nose?" you can point to those too (although, only if you are in the mood to cooperate).  It is pretty cute.  Even though you haven't said "nose" yet, I know you know what the word means.  One of those rough nights when you were sleeping with us, I woke up and you were sitting on top of me giggling and putting your little pointer finger on my nose.

Another thing I taught you this month was the word "kiss."  Every time I kissed you I would say "kiss, kiss."  Every once and a while, you decide to reciprocate with the kisses, except you do so with your mouth open and your tongue out, so it is really more like I am getting slimed than kissed.  It is a little bit gross, but actually, you are so cute and sweet that I don't care about getting your slobber all over me.  Sometimes you will kiss me if I ask you, "Come here and give mommy a kiss," but usually you are more aloof and kiss only when you choose to do so.  A lot of times when I am trying to put you to bed, you put both of your hands on my face and giggle as you give me giant, wet, slobbery kisses.

I think I am pretty sure that we are going to stop nursing this month.  I am a little bit sad about it, but at this point I think you will be okay without it.  You are so busy playing most of the time that you don't really care to stop and nurse.  If I don't bring it up, you are fine, but if I say, "William, do you want to nurse," you generally stop whatever you are doing and zoom over to me, grinning, and saying , "Nayyy, nayyy," which I have come to understand is your word for nurse.  The other night though, when I asked you if you wanted to nurse, you ran over to me and pulled your own shirt up, as though you thought I had suggested that we reverse our roles.  Hmmm.

Last night after you nursed you did the sweetest thing.  Well, you started giggling while you were nursing, and so I unhooked you and set you down to play, but the instant I did that you began fussing and saying "Maah, Maah, Maah..." which is generally what you say when you want more of something or when you are just generally frustrated (it might be your way of saying "more" or "mama" or both, I'm not really sure).  You were reaching your hands up to me too, so I assumed you had decided that you weren't done nursing and wanted some more.  I picked you up, and instead of going in to nurse some more, you put both of your hands on my face, smiled lovingly at me, and then puckered your lips and gave me a great big kiss right on my mouth.  It was so sweet that I cried.  And also, it was nice that you'd actually figured out how to give kisses without so much slobber.  You are great, William.

You still do cry sometimes, even when you are wearing adorable jammies:

Enough's enough

And you are still cute in the bath:

There he is!

Hopefully you aren't too embarrassed by all the cute little things I wrote about you doing.  You are just growing up so fast that I need to write them down so that I don't forget about them all.

Happy 18-month "birthday" and happy Valentine's!

Love,

Your mom

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

William is a beautiful child ... and it's wonderful that you're capturing such precious memories as he is growing up and learning so many new things! I love reading about him. hugs, auntie

Anonymous said...

WILLIAM you are such a JOY to all of us. We love reading about all your new tricks and fun things you are doing!!! What a busy 18 months it has been for all of you!!! We'll be watching for new pictures and new stories as grow and change~~~ LOVE YOU SO MUCH.. grama and pawpaw rags