Sixteen Months

February 07, 2013

Seth,

We have more balls in the house than a sports club. We can’t keep anything on a surface lower than 3 feet, as there’s little fingers in everything. A little voice stringing together two- and three-word phrases. Snuggle time, especially when you don’t want to go to bed. Snuggling with your blanket and animals when it’s time to sleep. A mouthful of soap, when you found the bath bar. The mental and physical skills you demonstrate expand at a rate that astounds us. Not that we have a standard of comparison for raising a son, but watching your little mind expand and learn has been an incomparable joy this month. On multiple occasions, you’ve informed us that you’re “tinky”, and sure enough, it’s time for a diaper change, especially after naptime.

One of your favorite games right now is to invite one of us into your tent. We come in, and then you have to have Molly come and join us in the tent, with a “Molly, Molly!” call. She comes and lies down halfway into the tent, and you commend her with a “goo gur!”

Each day brings you new situations. You greet these encounters with a concerned eyebrow crinkle as you consider this new development, and figure out how best to get into trouble. You went down for a nap with just a diaper and shirt on. We found you a couple hours later running around your crib with no diaper. You put your blanket in the hamper because it was wet and needed to be washed. Can’t imagine how it got wet…

You now make sure that we never forget to pray at mealtimes, even if you’ve already eaten. You run over to the table and say “pray!”, ending with an enthusiastic “Amen”. It’s not 100%, as your answer to “how do we end a prayer?” was “all done!” Finally, to win the month, you told Mommy “lub you!” for the first time. While we know that a lot of what you’re saying and doing is mimicking what you see us doing, it’s so apparent that you’re grasping concepts like “love you”, and it’s more dear that we know how to say. Each night you give mommy a kiss and say “lub you” on the way up the stairs to bed. We love you, too, little man. May you continue to have a heart to pray and to love your parents and others as you continue to grow and learn.