One and a half

My sweet boy,

You are now 18 months old - the same age Anika was when we brought you home.

You toddle around the house, playground, and just about any other place with alternate grins and looks of concentration. You love your daddy, and walk around the house all day asking, "daddy?" or if we are in the car and pass by his office you say, hopeful, "daddy?" You need your mama to be thisclose to you in every situation, unless of course you're running away from mom and grandma at the Sears photo center and you end up at the top of the up escalator, and when I chase after you, giggle and take off for the exit and make it out of the store and around the corner before I can catch you. You need your sister to be your friend and rival, and greet her with a huge smile and a giggle when she comes into the kitchen in the morning.

You are an extreme early bird, usually waking for the day between 4 and 5 a.m., and it's a challenge to keep you quietly entertained until the rest of the household is awake. You love eggs and often get the pan yourself, present it to me, and say, "Make eggs. Hot!" You've usually finished your eggs long before your sister wakes up. You are hard to put to sleep at night, wanting snuggles and snuggles and more snuggles and perhaps some time to get up and play a bit.

Everything strikes you as funny (well, nearly everything - you don't think your sister's frequent physical attacks on you are so humorous). But you're always smiling and laughing, making it difficult to ever stay angry at you, no matter how many crayons you eat and smear all over the patio windows or how far you fling your food or how much it sticks to the walls and stains the carpet.

You get frustrated easily lately, however, because it's just unfair to you how you can understand us perfectly and we have such a hard time getting what it is that YOU want. When we do guess correctly, however, you reward us with an eye-twinkling, body-lighting smile and your loud, happy, "YEEEEEESS!"

You are very aware. You know where your sister's school is and point it out every time we drive by. You point out your daddy's office, you remember the children's store and ask for a Tootsie Pop ("sucker? sucker!") every time we go or even if we're just walking by on the way to the stores next door. You decided a few weeks ago that you were going to eat with a bowl and spoon, and so far you're doing really well with it (and you are very proud of yourself for it, too). You call a spoon "mocha" for some reason, though, but we all think it's pretty cute. You saw me light a candle once, and when daddy let you hold the child-proof lighter for a moment, you walked on over to the shelf where the candle was sitting and held up the lighter, asking to light the candle yourself. If a TV show stops, or something falls off of a toy, you look up and say, "uh-oh! Broke?"

You are one tough dude - you take spills often (either sister-induced or growing-too-fast or going-too-fast induced) and usually pick yourself right back up without so much as a whimper. You love climbing things and have catapulted off of our bed and the couch a few times already. You especially love to climb onto chairs and bounce on them, or climb into the shopping cart and make it move back and forth as you shake like a tambourine inside the basket.

You are also quite agile. You can put the top back on the little applesauce packets you like, and the covers onto your sippy cups. You can throw and kick a ball pretty well, and you open and close doors like a pro.

We love you more than words can say, Mr. Ren-man.