Twenty Months

June 12, 2013

Seth,

“What are these?” “Keys!” “What are they for?” “Mail..box!” “And what do we do at the mail box?” “No fit!”. Finished taking the mail out of the box, which he loves doing. Closed up the mailbox and prepared to walk back to the house, which he doesn’t love doing so much. He took a deep breath in as if to cry, and then said “No..fit!”

This month is really all about more complete sentences. Each day you’re stringing more words together, and more thoughts. All these new words you learn from us, and quickly fill in the meanings. On seeing a picture of yourself: “Cute baby!” You now come over, pull on our hands, and ask that we “come with you” to play with your toys, open up the sandbox, or anything else you want to do, including spinning in my desk chair or getting on the big swings at the park, which you want to “do self”.

Among the things that we never expected to say: “please keep your elbow out of the ketchup” and “we don’t run with power tools.” At the same time, there’s a whole set of things we never expected you to say, either. Halfway through a bowl of noodles you decided weren’t up to par, you picked up the bowl, held it out to us, and said, “Trash can.” It makes perfect sense, of course, that if you don’t want it, it should go in the trash. Even more descriptive of your awareness of the world, you noticed a new pair of mommy’s flip-flops, and asked if they were “Miss Connie’s shoes?” Miss Connie had just babysat a few nights earlier. In a wonderful display of this,we had a dinner that involved rice with broccoli. You decided you didn’t like the broccoli and started eating around it. You then refused each following bite from Mommy until she verbally confirmed that it, in fact, contained no broccoli. A few nights later, we had another dinner with rice. When you didn’t want to eat that dinner, you refused it by saying “no broccoli”. Quite the little thinker.

Not only speaking, but this month has brought singing. You love songs, from Jesus Loves Me, to Twinkle, Twinkle, to Itsy Bitsy Spider, and we just sit in the front seat of the car looking at each other and smiling as your little voice sings ever so quietly from the back seat.

Still, one of my most cherished times is bedtime. I now give you the chance to “snuggle or tuck in” after we finish reading, and I get a little voice that says “tuck..in”. Alternately, if you’re not quite ready, it’s a more fun dialog as you pop your head up off my shoulder:
“Balloons!”
“Nope, no balloons, it’s time to go night-night.”
“Toys?”
“We played with toys earlier, it’s time to go night-night.”
Pauses for a second, “storytime?”
“We just read stories, time for night-night”.
Another pause. “Bath?”
“You don’t need a bath tonight. You can have snuggle time, though.”
You put your head on my shoulder and snuggle.

It’s amazing to see you put abstract thoughts and concepts together, connecting ideas and words to things that you already know. This, I guess, is life with a little one. It’s a series of individual events that together make up a tapestry of your life. Each individual event is isolated and easily forgettable, but together they make this wonderful life we call being a parent. And finally, as night closes in and it’s time to put you to bed, we gather to pray. As Mommy and I approach, you throw one arm around each of our necks for a family cuddle time and say “hug!” Each day is a blessing with you, Seth. We love you more each day.