20 months

Dear Patrick: You are 20 months today!



I'm afraid it's been a few months since I've written. The demands of daily life took over, and you just kept growing up despite my lack of official documentation. And your changes come on so minutely, and I forget your babyhood isn't static and unchanging. Until I look closely one day and I realize you have all these new skills that blossomed all at once.


Daddy and I are truly loving your ever-increasing communication skills. While you don't have lots of obvious words yet, we are able to understand each other most of the time. You can tell us (or show us) who you want, what you want to eat (cheese, crackers or marshmellows mostly), what we should read, what body part has an owie and needs kissing, and that you are ready for your crib. "Da" is still an all purpose work, but the occasional "no" had entered your vocabulary. And I'm sure I heard you say "firetruck" the other day.


And that leads me to another huge interest: trucks, trains and buses. The only way you could be more of a male stereotype is if you started watching football every Sunday. Lord knows you already want to hog the remote. But you love you some buses. Whenever you start fussing in the car I start asking you to look for a bus. Luckily, there are lots in Tacoma! They always get a big response. We also took you on the LINK light rail downtown, which you found quite exciting.


The way you play with your toys has also become much more sophisticated. You like to put your tracks together for your trains, drive your matchbox cars up and down the hallway, and crash your variety of dumptrucks. You play "Hide the Remote" where you shove it into the couch cushions, look at use, shrug your shoulders and say what I'm sure is "Where is it? I don't know" but is rather hard to tell. We also play a version of Hide-and-Seek where I throw a blanket over you, run to some obvious hiding spot (like behind the stroller), and you come and find me. The puzzles that were once too hard you now complete independantly. We can ask you to get the green one, or the square, or the giraffe, and you get the right one....about half the time. You also seem to understand when we say "That's right!" or "Nope, try again."

I'm hoping the day will come when I'm not obsessed with your sleeping and nursing habits. But we've had some ups and downs here. I try not to go overboard with your sleeping. We stick to a good nap/bedtime routine, but sometimes life just gets in the way. Or illnesses. Or molars. Or nightmares. Or Daddy thumping around the kitchen before work. Or Freya barking at air. 19 months was a rough stretch. You started getting up consistantly at 4:30am, and you would be UP. Out of bed, down the stairs, and into your high chair for a snack UP. This was painful. I don't know if anything we did made a difference, but it's not so bad anymore. Sometimes you will even sleep past 7am. This is a good day. I've also been slowly weaning you, a process that has gone much better than I would have anticipated. Other than a few protests, you've adapted nicely. This tells me that I should give you more of a chance to grow from these changes.


Here's a situation where I can learn from your Daddy. I got out of the habit of being on the computer with you. You just wanted to push all the buttons, pound on the keyboard, and play with the mouse. "No no" I'd say, and you'd ignore me. I'd get the same look from the dogs, the "I don't speak English dog." Until I came home one day to find Kevin merrily typing away and you playing on the floor with toys like an angel. "I just kept telling him no and he learned," Daddy said. Grrrr. I've been played! It was a good reminder to be consistant with discipline, and not just give in out of ease. As you get older, it's a lesson I remind myself over and over again. Better to do it now then when you are fifteen.

You are a joy and blessing to us. We love being your Mommy and Daddy. Now could you just say "Mama" already?
Love,
Mommy