Hi! - Month 18

Well here you are, a year and a half old. You are growing SO fast. So cliche I know, but seriously kid it's like I look at you sometimes and wonder what the heck happened to you overnight. Yesterday we got home from taking a ride around in the snow and you were walking away from me to the kitchen to shut the gate by the stairs and I started to cry. I'm blaming it on the fact that I'm pregnant (it's a good excuse for everything, just wait till you have a wife), but just that view of you as you were walking away hit me really hard. You were so tall, and so capable. I swear you can do anything you want to at this point. It's hard to imagine you when you were a baby and I had to carry you everywhere and do everything for you. Now you are practically my little slave. You put dishes in the sink, throw diapers in the trash, get new diapers out of your room and find your shoes. You put your hat on, you help with your coat, and you tell me when you want something. Just this morning you woke up a little upset and grumpy. I asked you what was wrong and you said "Juice." I said oh, you want some juice and you nodded your head. The small things are amazing to me.

You had your 18 month checkup last Friday. Your stats don't suprise me at all - 27 pounds 10 ounces and 33.75 inches tall. If I remember right you're in the 74th percentile for weight and 89th for height. You're a big kid! You made the doctor laugh so hard at one point. He had already been in to check on you and left to let us wait for the nurse to give you a few shots. I had asked him to give us a 90-day prescription for your vitamins to replace the 30-day one and he came back in to give it to us. You were just playing there in the middle of the room with your back to the door so when the door started to open it scared you. As he opened the door he knocked and you yelled "WHO IS IT?!?!" Holy crap you made that man laugh so hard. He had to go back out in the hall before he could come back in. I was laughing too - partly because of how hard he was laughing and partly because I knew how much he had startled you based on the volume level you had used. I had tears in my eyes as he handed me your prescription. You've never said that before (usually you say come in), so I don't know what made you do it then but you made both our days.

As far as language goes you are still learning a lot. Your grandma is better at challenging you than I am. You have a book that has raccoons in it and one day when I was reading it to you you pointed to the raccoon and said 'dog'. I figured raccoon was a little too advanced for you so I told you good job, it was a dog. Not your grandma. After she had spent the day with you last week I was reading that book to you and you pointed to the raccoon and said "rack-oon". Forgive me for underestimating you - I'll always try to remember that you are going to be way smarter than me.

I think one of the best moments of the last month was when you, your dad and I all went to Home Depot. We wandered around for a minute and decided your dad would come back in the morning to get the sheetrock and we started walking back to the door. As we were walking you stopped and said Hi! to every single person that we passed. It was the best thing ever. It's a crazy time of year and you could tell it had been a long day for a lot of the people in there. You know what I mean... it was like 8:30 on a Friday night and there is always some guy who has been working on a project all day who ran to Home Depot before it closed and just looks like he's had it? Yeah, you made that guy smile. You made the girls at the registers smile. You made pretty much everyone smile. And if they didn't hear you or see you the first time, you would stop and say it again until they looked at you and we made you keep walking. You're a good example of how we should be. Not that I think people would necessarily think it was as cute for a grown woman to stop and say HI! to every person in the store, but I could do more than I do. I could smile at someone if we happen to make eye contact or chat a little more with the person ringing me up at the register. I have a feeling that you're going to be a good example to your mom and dad for the rest of your life and I don't think anything could make me more proud than that.

Love you chubs,
Mom

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