20 Months

My dearest Will,
You are 20 months old today! Can you believe it? I sure can't. In just four short months, you will be two years old. Two! You seem pretty amazed, as well:


These last 20 months have gone by so fast. It seems like it should be just yesterday that you were a tiny baby being placed in my arms for the first time. But it wasn't yesterday. And now there is another (sort of) tiny baby in our house. You are a big brother!
You seem pretty interested in the little squeaky being that has come into our house. When you hear him cry, you look at me and say "Baby?" (with a big souther drawl) and often go and look at him. Sometimes you try to shove a pacifier in his mouth. If his hands are where you can reach them, you give him a fist bump. You like to put your head next to his and give him a 'hug' and sometimes you want to hold him. You often greet him and say "Hey Ree! Hey bebe!". When I am holding him, you will bring me the boppy pillow if I don't already have it and you often bring me his blankets, pacifiers and bottles. You usually offer to throw his diaper away when I am changing him. You come stand beside me, point and say "trah?". If you pick up some of his clothes, you hold them up and say "Awe. Koot (cute)." You are a good big brother (most of the time). Sometimes I catch you snatching Reed's blanket or hat off of him or taking his pacifier. And sometimes you let your sweet head patting become a hit. The other day I had to stop you from stepping on his head while he was on his playmat. But I still think you are a good big brother, you are just a mischief maker!

I have enjoyed being at home with you these last several weeks. I enjoy playing with you and hearing you laugh and watch you be silly. There are days when you test my patience. You have been quite a monkey this past week! Yesterday, while I was nursing Reed, I thought you were sweetly playing in your room. When I came to check on you, this is what I found:

You little stinker! I should have known it was only a matter of time before you discovered the pictures I had stored in your closet. Our house isn't very big and since we have no guest room or office and we have a very small closet in our master bedroom, I thought I could borrow some of your extra closet space. I thought wrong!

While I was writing this post, I heard you in the kitchen and when I went in there, I found you standing on the chair next to the table. You were messing with a jar of ornaments on the table and had just broken the lid to the jar yesterday. You are very into climbing these days.

And you seem to have a slight obsession with A&D ointment. You LOVE to get a tube and squeeze it! You usually get them out of diaper bags (which I now have to put out of reach when we come home), but the other day you took it to a new level and stole it off the top of Reed's changing table. (You are getting so tall and are able to reach so much! And now we keep your brother's door closed.) After I finished up feeding Reed, (why do you always take advantage of that time?) I found you hiding in a corner just covered in A&D:

Sadly, I wasn't able to get the greasy stains out of your pants or your shirt. I really loved that shirt on you, so we may still wear it anyway. It isn't so bad, but the pants are done for.

You have gotten really good at feeding yourself. You prefer it most of the time. Sometimes you gesture with your spoon or fork and want me to feed you (feeling left out because of the baby?). You really like yogurt and though your shirt ALWAYS has to be washed after eating yogurt (why won't you leave your bib on anymore?), you usually do pretty well with it. Last week I had a doctor's appointment and we needed to leave by 9:00. While I was bathing Reed at the kitchen sink, you were happily eating your breakfast. But then I looked over and saw you running your yogurt hands all through your hair. Which was previously clean. Sigh. So you got a quick shower. I guess in a pinch, yobaby would make for some decent hair gel. That hair wasn't going anywhere.

You are a really funny little guy. Probably your most favorite thing in the world is a vacuum. But you call it a "bike" for some reason. You get SO excited when we vacuum and you often throw a tantrum when we turn it off and put it up. Daddy and I decided you needed one of your own. You know how to turn this on and off, release the bottom so it will lean back and you can take the canister off. When you take it off, you go to the trash can and beat the canister twice against the can, then come back try (sometimes successfully!) to put it back on. The dogs aren't too fond of it, though.

You are such a smart boy! You recently started putting your puzzles back together. You used to try but were unable to get them just right. You know where the power button is on the cable box and like to go and push it while we are watching tv. You understand so much and are saying so much! You like to say "Nigh nigh" or "bye" to everyone and everything whether you are going to bed or just for a diaper change (unless we ask you to say bye to someone, then you absolutely will not!). We usually hear "Bye jake, bye dada, bye light, bye baby, bye bike." when you leave the room.

You like to sing and two of your favorite songs are "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "ABC's". You don't say all the words, but you like to say "how I" and "now I know". You still won't say "Poppy" but we think you call him "Pop". It is confusing because you also call my dad "Pop". You have also started saying "Gigi" as gee-gee instead of jee-jee. You ask for milk and more. You make the 'more' sign and it is quite cute. You also started saying giraffe as "waffe". You say so many words now, it is hard to keep up!

I have given you some chocolate recently and boy do you love it! You will always eat anything cheese and most of the time will eat chicken nuggets or pasta. We can often get you to eat mandarin oranges or a peach parfait cup, but your fruit and veggie taste buds are lacking. We will keep trying, though! You obviously are getting enough to eat, because you weigh about 34 lbs now!

Daddy and I love you so much and are so proud to have you as our son. You are so much fun and even though you keep us on our toes, I wouldn't have it any other way. Once you look at us with those big blue eyes and smile, the frustration goes away. We adore you. You are such a gift and we are so thankful for you.

Love,

Mommy