Wow, you're my one and a half year old boy! That is A-MAA-ZING! How did the time fly? How could all that cuddling, giggling, wiping, learning and not sleeping take up that much time already?! You've become our little kid. Our little kid that has likes and dislikes?! Your opinions and attitudes are so obvious now. How is that possible when just two short years ago we had just learned to brace ourselves for your arrival? Your arrival into our lives and into kid-o-hood is ah-mah-zing.
You continue to love your library visits. One has a guinea pig that you get excited about the minute we mention it. For some reason, J calls it both a mouse and a guinea pig (He's making mouse into a whole category of animal - ). So you usually will alternate between the signs and noises... squeak, oink - poking your mouse sign and pulling up your nose to pretend you're a pig. You are using words more often than signs now, which seems to be just a natural transition. Although your little girlfriend at Gymboree still signs with you. Your buddy Tyler just looks at you funny when you sign, but he does understand when you shout his name when you get to Gymboree. I guess you miss him when he isn't there and you'll wander a bit repeating "friend" until Rebecca explains that he isn't there.
You are still considered a lap child on airplanes even though I think that you are quickly outgrowing my lap. I think we're going to have to get you your own ticket that says something other than "Infant Brennan" in the coming months. On both flights we flew together this month, you were an angel, and when I say that I mean the kind that sits in clouds and smiles like care bears. You were cuddly and the only occasional upset was when you couldn't quite get the light to turn off for you. You only slept about a quarter of the time on both flights, but the time flew with all our books and the SkyMall catalog to keep us busy. You sipped Mommy's apple juice a little bit, but mostly you oohed and aahed out the window and pretended your arm was an airplane.
You've taken to try to identify numbers (even numbers especially, not sure why), letters (A, B, C, D, F, R and T - not sure why), or colors (all, except you think grey is blue) unprompted. At the beginning of the month, your default letter was B and your default number when asked how many was twoooo. Your dad and I are sometimes in disbelief when you are able to come up with the right letter... it's hard to believe how quickly you absorb things. (My default is to think that your nanny rocks and I get crazy already thinking about your next childcare step - which at this point I'm hoping you will get into this Montessori program we've heard good things about...) We think you like B so much because your dad wears his Brown sweatshirt so you ask which letter it is every time you see it.
Just as often as we're in disbelief with how much you are learning, we are in disbelief in how quickly your mood can change. You can go from happy to squirmy to sad back to happy in under a minute. You went through about a two week period where you would scream as loud as you could for attention. We tried to quiet your little screaming jags with some silent cheering with our arms (which was a trick that only works for certain people, not mama). If I try to shush, you have learned to put your finger up and shush back at me. I'm just glad that little phase passed fairly quickly. We're ready for the next challenge without an easy solution.
If we ask you a question you have taken to putting your little finger to your lips and saying uummm, before sweetly saying a quick no or suddenly cheering a big yessss! You are big on saying "stuck" when you need help, although you are learning to say "elp" instead. It's funny if you're waiting for help up a big step saying "I'm stuck"... Your other new favorite if you throw something when you aren't supposed to or hear a loud noise is "uuuh, oh".... My favorite is when you want to sing If You're Happy and You Know It just so you can shout "hooo-ray" and throw your arms in the air.
You've really enjoyed talking on the phone lately, sometimes too much. On mornings when I may have left the house before you wake up, you will point at the phone and ask for mama. Your daddy will dial the number and hand it over, and when I answer you immediately giggle "hiii, mama" and start with your babbly talk with real words thrown in occasionally. It is the cutest thing and I swear it gets me through even the most boring pile of work. You had an oopsie about half way through the month where your new sharp tooth and molar teamed up to try to cut through your skin below your lip. Rebecca called me and I figured we should come home to check it out since she said that it wouldn't stop bleeding. We were all prepared to take you to the doctor, but it hadn't quite cut through and it seemed to be healing over by the time we got home. You were so excited to see mom and dad in the middle of the day, I think you could barely contain your excitement. It was nice to see your happy face instead of taking a trip for stitches.
When we say "away" (like "the bunny went away"), you immediately pretend you have thumbkin in your hand and put your arm behind your back. You are really picking up some funny tricks from all those library lapsit rhyme time games. Your little hand games are funny to watch. Your little uncoordinated attempts at a thumbs up and twinkles are so darn cute. Although you have become a marker ninja getting the caps on so quickly. One of your favorite games lately is fast chicken/slow chicken where you speed up and slow down flapping your arms. I think you mostly just like laughing at mama while she does it.
You've extended your favorite little "this is my mama, this is my dada" game to including "and I'm the baby" It reminds me of that Dinosaurs TV show from when I was little where the baby would always say "not the mama" - does anyone remember that? Seems like they would have that on DVD now...wonder if it would be fun or annoying to watch? We tried another throw back to J's childhood this month, when we thought that you might like to see the little plastic pill dissolve revealing a little foamy dinosaur. Not quite patient enough yet was the verdict on that, because you lost interest before it dissolved and didn't quite get that the foamy thing came from that little pill.
We left your snack trap at a restaurant in Chicago, so when we got to Ohio your smarty pants Auntie Lizzy made you one out of a snack pack teddy grahams container. It actually works and you are able to pack in more cereal and you are less likely to dump them all out over your head (which is something you only do when you know we are distracted like when we gave you a bag of crackers in the airport security line and just as we were going to take you out of your stroller you dumped them over your head).
You started sleeping in your big boy queen bed (our old bed) this month. Since you can climb on and off the bed safely and you've always been a crib hater, we decided to take the leap. You even tuck your little books into the little pockets on the side bed rail. Continuing your big boy streak, you also insist on us giving you big pieces of food (soft things only with close supervision), so you had your first burger (with loose turkey meat). I have a feeling that will be one of many this summer. We plan to spend more time this upcoming month running in circles around the patio furniture. Yay, for one and a half year old wearing little man shorts running in the sun...big Yay for summer!Love, Ma
