nineteen months

Dear Noahbear~

And then, in a flash, you were nineteen months old and taking the world by storm. You simply don’t stop amazing us every single day. I think of things I want to write to you constantly, but you are keeping us so busy every second we are with you that time to sit and stop and think and write is simply not to be had. You are a whirlwind of activity, our very own energizer monkey. You run and climb and spin gleefully in circles. You get up on the coffee table and stomp and dance. Just now you came to me, face and clothes covered in yogurt (your very favorite food) and said sweetly, “Up, uppy, up!” And now, you’re lifting up my shirt, asked for “oo-ee”. (Oo-ee’s are your very favorite drink). So here I sit, nursing this incredible active, sweet, mischeivous, snuggly, and altogether brilliant toddler.

So, to update your on your abilities... Keep in mind I am way behind in chronicling this crazy journey with you, and much of this has been going on for months. Seriously. You have more words than I can begin to count, or understand, but many that I do. The favorites are “Ee-I” (Levi) and “Eye-uh” (Mariah), “Oh-uh” (Noah), “BeBe” (Bayli), “Bella” (which you say plain as day), and Grammie you simply call “E” (or occasionally “Mammie”). Great Gramma Lea moved in and she is “Mamma”-- she asks you for hugs and kisses everytime she sees you and you run to her and squeeze her and pucker up-- you are so quick to dish out your sugar. I can’t possibly list all your words because you talk constantly now. We hear about your friends at school (“Datty” and “Eye-la”, Kathy and Lila), and just about everything you see as you look around. You point out all the animals, trees, flowers, birds, moon and stars and airplanes. You just pulled away from nursing to look out the window and are whispering to me about your observations. We love your sweet voice and your delight when we smile at your expressions or rave at your awesome animal sounds. You are proud and joyful and not afraid to clap for yourself.

You also understand just about everything we say. A couple months ago-- soon after I wrote you last letter-- I think you were right around 16 months. You went into Grammie’s pantry and got out her cordless vacuum, turned it on and started cleaning her kitchen floor. You were quite pleased with yourself and did this for a few minutes, then got bored and decided to move on. You dropped the vacuum to the floor, left it running and toddled away. Not wanting to get up and take care of it, I jokingly said, “Hey, Noah. If you’re done with that, you’d better go back and turn it off.” You stopped, looked right at me, turned around and went back to it, and stepped down hard on the power button, then looked up at me and smiled.

You love music and dancing and are now requesting your favorite songs for me to sing: “Bo Boat!” (Row your Boat), “Bye-der” (The Itsy Bitsy Spider), and “Dow” (almost rhymes with ‘cow’, Twinkle little star). And just lately, you’ve begun to sing along which is absolutely beyond priceless. You’re also loving books-- both bringing us ones to read and asking “boot, peas”, or sitting on your own, flipping through them and “reading” them aloud to yourself. You’ve wriggled out of my lap now and into the other room, but I can hear your commentary and know exactly where you are at, dragging your nerf bat and headed for the bookshelf, “Dee dee, dee dee, dah dee, oh....”

Today, I realized quite unexpectedly that you already know how to count! I’ve hardly done much with numbers with you at all. Then this afternoon I snuggled with you through most of your nap, and as we woke up and began chatting I decided to count your toes as you played with them. “One... two...” I started, and you responded, “dee... doh... die...” and later I heard “date... die... den....” Did Kathy teach you that???

I could go on and on, but now you’re in there messing with the tv and probably getting yogurt in the buttons. I love you, my sweet cuddlebear, always and forever.

xoxo
Mama