Letter to Samuel: 23 Months

Hey, kiddo!

It’s hard to believe you are just one month shy of your second birthday! You are so full of life, and your personality is about ten times the size of your toddler frame.

Not a day goes by that you don’t have me bursting with laughter — or counting to ten while I channel just one more ounce of patience. Yes, the days are sometimes long, but the years are oh so short.

This month brought with it many changes — and a few challenges. But it has also been my favorite month yet. You are feisty and opinionated. You are energetic and imaginative, and you rarely stop moving and running and jumping and playing. You are thoughtful and affectionate. You are my sweet, silly, adorable Sam.

You now insist on choosing your outfits every morning and typically try to dress yourself. You often end up with both legs in one pants hole and a shirt sleeve stretched over your head. You also prefer to wear your cousin Sean’s old shoes that are at least three sizes too big. And accessories? You love them. Goggles, headbands, mittens, bracelets, belts … and bandaids.

You have figured out zippers, which makes packing suitcases loads of fun. And you thoroughly enjoy tugging Daddy’s ties off the rack and pulling out every piece of clothing from your dresser drawers.

Your vocabulary has grown immensely this month, and we now understand about 80% of what you say. Sometimes you surprise us with words like towel and pocket (pock) and moon and helmet (hel-muh). Lawn mower (maw-lower) is still a favorite, along with hot dog (for Mickey’s hot dog dance) and sit down. You now tell Lucy to sit down and offer her a treat (tree), and it’s pretty darn cute. You also call her dog (daw). Not Lucy, just daw. And you try to take her for walks while holding her leash, but she’s still better at walking you.

Blue is your favorite color. In fact, everything is boo. Which means you were just a bit disappointed to see pink balloons pop out of the big cardboard box a few weeks ago. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t already in love with your little sister. When you hear the heartbeat on your sound machine, you say baby and touch your heart. And you felt her kicks for the first time last week. You had the biggest grin on your face, and you were totally mesmerized. Then you insisted that momma leave her shirt up so baby could hear me read your bedtime books.

You say ABC when you see a series of letters and can count one, two — usually followed set, go. You will typically answer one to “how old are you?” And two to “how old are you going to be?” You say oh yeah and oh no and whoa. And ummm while standing in front of the open refrigerator looking for something to eat.

Your favorite books are moon (Goodnight Moon), choo-choo (Chugga Chugga Choo Choo), piggy (This Little Piggy), and Mickey (little box of board books). And your favorite TV shows are Mickey (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), Doc (Doc McStuffins), and Choo Choo (Chuggington). You usually get to watch one show in the morning and another before bed, and sometimes a third during dinner prep.

Your favorite foods are cheesesticks (chee), blueberries (boo boo), eggs, turkey burgers, and tacos. And you now request that your cereal is served with milk — then you drink it straight from the bowl just like Daddy.

You love to play with Daddy’s old toy train set. In fact, you spent at least 20 minutes cleaning its wheels after we pulled it out of storage. You have also recently developed an interest in matchbox cars. You learned from your buddy, Aiden, how to drive them along couch cushions and under tables. And you may have swiped a few of his cars after our Virginia visit. I found them stashed in your car seat and tucked in the pocket of our suitcase. Time to start our own collection, buddy!

You are also still obsessed with bikes and scooters and skateboards. One morning, we spent about 30 minutes watching the teenage boys at the skate park. Cheap entertainment! And water. You still can’t get enough of the water.

One of your new favorite things to do is ride your little giraffe bike around the cul de sac. (Yes, it is time to upgrade — we’re planning on getting a new bike for your birthday!) You also love to kick the soccer ball and attempt to shoot the basketball and hit the baseball off the tee. And Auntie Laura taught you how to hop-scotch (which sounds a lot like hot dog). You are quite the mini athlete!

You now refuse to ride in your stroller for evening walks. Instead, you would rather hold our hands, usually while listening to music. And then you look just like a teenager.

We are in no hurry to potty-train, but you have peed on the potty about six times — always right before or right after bath. And you almost always tell us when you have poo in your diaper.

However, the biggest milestone this month? You are now sleeping in a big boy bed! This deserves a post all of its own, but let’s just say that we followed your lead. After nearly two weeks of climbing (ever so efficiently and gracefully) out of your crib and another challenging three days of transitioning, you are now 100% comfortable with your new bed. You sleep from 9pm until 7:30am and nap for about two hours every afternoon. You sleep with four stuffed animals, two pillows, and a comforter. And sometimes I glance at you in the monitor and wonder … where has the time gone???

Love you to the moon and back.