Months Seventeen and Eighteen

March 09, 2017

Noah,

If last month was moving your feet, this month has been moving your mouth. Not that you have slowed down your feet by any means, but your vocabulary has expanded by leaps and bounds. From “book” to animal noises, to “nigh nigh” to “water!”, you’re just adding new words each and every day. Experiencing the joy you show as your world expands is a wonderful blessing to us as well as to you. Mommy has a theory that half of the terrible twos comes from an inability to communicate what it is that your little mind has going on.

This month is bringing new heights as well, from climbing up into your high chair yourself, to climbing up onto the table. You can’t resist following your brother into all sorts of things, including raiding snacks out of the pantry. Now it’s both of you, over-under on the shelves. You can pick him out of a crowd of preschoolers, and are so excited to see “brudda!” every morning. Seth loves you right back, and keeps a close eye on you to make sure you’re being safe when you’re playing in the basement or outside. He also helps to get you dressed and ready to go.

All the little motor skills are taking shape as well, from practicing drinking from every object in the bathtub that will hold water, to blowing on your fingers to signify that something is hot and feeding yourself with a spoon. Doorhandles are a known quantity now, as you look at them and rotate your wrist. It’s really just a question of which ones you can reach now. The same goes for light switches. Each day brings you closer to the countertops and excitement for Daddy and Mommy.

This wasn’t your first Christmas with the family, but there’s such a big difference from five months old to 17 months and toddling around with the presents, cousins, and family. We bought you a soft, fuzzy blanket for the crib now. You haven’t had a blanket before, but now you have to have that blanket with you to sleep. We know you’re a tired little bear when we look at the monitor after putting you down and you haven’t moved at all from under the blanket.

It’s clear that you know pretty much exactly what we’re saying, so you’ve reached the point where you have to make decisions each time on whether you’d like to listen. 17 months means you’re old enough to sleep through the night and not get up to eat. Consequently, Mommy’s started giving you a little “pep talk” each night before bed, that you’re going to sleep all night and not get up. It’s working five nights out of seven, so that’s something. It’s the nights the question, “are you going to sleep through the night?” brings a shake of your little head that things generally get interesting. Up to and including staying awake for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Not to sound callous, but the second time around on parenting means we know what we can sleep through.

You want to be a little big helper, from trying to put on your diaper and socks, to putting your babies back in your crib, to putting away toys in the bins. Not that you can’t make a mess faster than a windstorm in a paper factory, but you do like to clean it up afterwards, when asked.

Animal sounds are all the rage, especially monkeys (OOH OOH OOH) and ducks. Your “duck” and “quack” are remarkably similar, but you can pick them out of the sky. Also, we’ve been informed that “Dog go woo woo woof!”, which we regard as critical information, as far as I’m concerned. Also, your farm sounds book makes simple grunting sounds for the pigs, which you duplicate with wholehearted glee. We cherish each and every one of your sounds and words as you learn them (oh, and constantly encourage more noises).

Your independent and exploring personality is coming out more and more, as you wander off to see exactly what it is that’s around you, with no regard for where your parents are. Fortunately, our job is to keep track of you as you strive to get into all sorts of things. Mostly, though, we are just happy to see you venturing into the wide wide world, as long as you continue to get the same huge smile and half-run toddle over to bury your face in our legs when you see us again.

You are loved very much, little one.

Daddy and Mommy