Dear William (20 months)

Dear William,

Today you are 20 months old!  You are so much fun.  You just keep getting funner and funner.

You have been really good this month.  It is hard to believe you used to be a little baby that just cried and cried all the time!!  Now you are a very happy little boy.  You are even getting a tooth right now (your last canine!), and it hasn't bothered you one bit*.  You do get mad sometimes, and if I try to pick you up when you do not want me to or if I take something away from you that you should not be holding, you throw yourself to the ground, kicking and screaming.  It doesn't usually make me mad because it is actually kind of hilarious.  You are happy again two seconds later if I show you a book or toy, and you have forgotten all about why you were mad in the first place.

You say a lot of things that are very cute.  You said blueberry this month.  You say up and down, shoes and socks.  Milk and juice.  Hi and bye.  You can make animal sounds.  You have this farm puzzle (that you can put together all by yourself), and when I ask you, for instance, what sound the cow makes, you say moo.  The other night I was trying to get you to get ready for bed and I told you, "We need to go upstairs and take a bath now," and you said, "We do?"

You love climbing up and down the stairs.  Instead of crawling like you used to, you hold onto the railing and walk.  Your legs are still very little and it is hard for you, so you like to hold onto somebody's hand too.

We have quite a nice bedtime routine these days.  We give you a bath, then dry you off, put you in your jammies, and make an attempt to brush your teeth.  Then we read you your favorite story, I Love You Through and Through, and give you Blue Seahorse and your little bitty blankie to hold.  We have you help us turn out the hall light, and then you help us turn out the light in your room.  We tell you nigh nigh and lay you down in your bed.  Sometimes you sit up and read your book again for a while, and sometimes you fall right to sleep.  But either way, you do not cry and need us to rock you to sleep anymore.  I am so proud of you.

You sometimes will give me great giant wonderful kisses.  You sometimes will stop whatever you are doing and run over to me and give me a hug just because you want to.  Hugs and kisses from you are the best thing ever.

You are definitely done nursing now; it's been more than a month since you last nursed.  You don't seem to miss it at all.

This past weekend your daddy was out of town so it was just you and me having fun.  We went to the art museum to look at the ancient Maya exhibit; we went to a Pow Wow on campus (you loved the dancing and drums!), and we went to watch the St. Louis marathon, which went right by our house.  We read a zillion books.  We watched Sesame Street.  It was the first time that you had ever watched Sesame Street.  You loved it.  You pointed to the screen and laughed.  You looked at me and grabbed my arm, to make sure I had seen the same hilarious thing you just saw.  And when they played music, you smiled and bobbed your head.

We go on real, actual walks sometimes, hand in hand.  I love that.  You like to walk, and you can walk for a long time without getting tired.  You have so much energy.  You have a really good sense of direction, too.  You have father's sense of direction, which makes me glad.  If we have been walking in the neighborhood, for instance, and we are on our way back home, you recognize our house.  I think you are really smart and if you want to, you can go to college someday.

We have had so much fun this month, William.  I am looking forward to each and every day!

* Addendum: About the tooth, I spoke too soon.  Today you got sent home from daycare with a fever.  That tooth is certainly bothering you now! But you are being a real trooper about it.

You have no idea who Spiderman is, but you like to wear the jammies.

 

Strutting up the driveway

 

Having a bit of breakfast

Drinking with just your diaper on.

What happened to this hat? I think you threw it down somewhere because I cannot find it anymore.

Out for a walk

We love you very much.