Dear Nate,
Today you are 21 months old. In just three months you'll be two years old! But right now you are so much fun that there's no need to look forward.
The most exciting thing right now is seeing what words you're learning. It seems like you have new words every day. Just this week alone, you started saying soon, milk, coffee, sleeves, Gamma (grandma), color, night-night, and off. You roar when you see a lion in a book and say cock-a-doodle-doo when you see a rooster. And you're learning how to express yourself better, too. You negate things by adding "no." When you can't find or see something, it's "no see." When it's something you're not supposed to eat (like crayons, ahem), it's "no eat." When you didn't want me to go to work the other day, it was, "Mama, no go away." (Broke my heart.) It's so exciting to see you put together new words, to see the look in your eyes as you put together what they mean and realize you're effectively communicating something to us.
You also still love to give hugs and kisses. You still love Curious George and Thomas the Tank Engine. But Grammy and Pop-Pop bought you a little Percy train, and he is your new love. When you misplaced him that same day, you whined, "Percy! Percy! Percy!" for half an hour until we found him - and we didn't even know you knew Percy's name or how to say it! You have always surprised us and continue to do so.
What's no surprise but a continual source of entertainment and delight is how you love to be physically active. Every night you run laps around the kitchen island after dinner. You love to hide, although when I ask you if you're hiding, you peek out and say, "No" so there's a bit of learning still to do there, but I laugh every time. You love to crash things together, so you often run your shopping cart around and slam it into other toys, chairs, walls - or even us... basically whatever's in your way. I think the day we can finally take you on some real bumper cars is going to be the highlight of your early life.
You are giving us a little preview - well, okay, a substantial preview - of the infamous Terrible Twos. When you aren't happy about having to do something, you immediately throw yourself on the floor, roll on your back and say, "Owww." But you haven't really hurt yourself because you actually lay yourself down quite gingerly, which is hysterical. You also throw things when you're angry, which is extra difficult at dinnertime as your dinner hits the floor. But dinnertime is already difficult because, man, are you a strange, picky eater right now. You often refuse some of your favorite foods, or you'll love a food one day and then not the next. Or you'll refuse it at lunchtime but then eat it at dinnertime. I know the picky eating won't last forever, but right now it is the hardest thing we have to deal with because it's so hard to plan meals, never knowing if you'll eat it or fling it on the floor. But I've found that if I just sit back calmly and ignore your antics while you refuse to eat, eventually (at least half the time) you'll taste the food and then end up eating most of it. Tonight you threw a huge handful of noodles on the floor before going on to eat the rest of them as well as a whole pork chop. So maybe you're just trying to exercise portion control? But you're eating enough and you get good nutrients every day, so I'm not stressing about it.
And you're not struggling to grow, so that's not a worry. You're still in 2T shirts and pants, although a few of those 2T shirts are starting to get a little small. You're wearing size 6 diapers and show very few signs of interest in potty training. You're still in size 7 sneakers, though they're getting small. Size 8 might be on the horizon.
Every day with you is so exciting. Every day I am so anxious to come home and spend time with you, running around the kitchen, hiding behind chairs, and trying to get you to help clean up (work in progress). Regardless of what we're doing, you are a delight and every day is more joyful than the last.
We love you, Peanut!
Love,
Mommy
