18 Months

Dear Jared,

Today marks your half birthday.  I think I am going to make you a cake for this one.  Now since you are a pro at feeding yourself, maybe you will want to eat your cake this time, since at your 1st birthday you didn’t seem to care so much about it.

A lot has changed since you turned 1.  The biggest and best part was that you learned to walk at 13 1/2 months.  There was no stopping you once you learned.  Sometimes though, your brain works faster than your feet, and you try and run, and fall face first into the ground.  You rally pretty well and get up and laugh about it. 

At 15 months and 5 days, you became a Big Brother.  You loved Jakey from the beginning.  You constantly try and stick a binky in his mouth, and you are fantastic at pointing out his nose, ears, eyes and mouth.  Jake has finally learned to deal with you and he barely ever cries when you poke him.  My favorite part is watching you give him kisses. 

You and Daddy are buddies.  You are  his shadow.  Wherever he goes, you are right on his heels.  You beg to go outside, and you can get one shoe on, then walk through the house with a limp until mama comes and puts on your other shoe.  That is the sign that you MUST go outside or a temper tantrum will ensue. You LOVE to be outside.  You first run over to the gate and scream “Oggie, Oggie.”  We have to let you Sammy the Doggy for you two to play.  You and her are bestest friends.  You sit on her bed and drink your milk.  You love letting her clean your hands and eat up all the food you drop from your high chair. 

You love to run through the sprinklers, but realize it’s cold and then start crying.  Daddy has taught you to go to our tree in the front yard and shake it so all the leaves fall.  It’s your favorite thing to do. 

You love phones.  You think everything is a phone.  Anything  you can, you put up to your ear and start talking.  When the phone is for us, you hold it up to our ears so we can talk.  I have even found you holding the phone up to Jakey and Sammy’s ears to talk.  And I’ll tell you, I thought it was the cutest thing ever.  It made me melt to see you play with Jakey and make sure he got a chance to talk on the phone. 

You love books.  I can ask you to go get a book and you run around, find one and come sit on my lap and we read.  You don’t last too long, but you get up and find another book for us to read.  We are working on recognizing the pictures and what the animals say. 

You love Skype.  We set it up recently so Grama and Grampa can see you and Jake.  Every time I am at the computer you run over and say HI so you can talk to someone.  It’s so much fun. 

You can say a lot more words these days.  Some of the common ones are:

Mama (my fave), Dada, Jakey, A Choo, Cheese, milk, nose, Papa, kitty, and doggie.  You say a whole bunch of other stuff but we have no idea what it is.  I am sure one day you will fill us in.

You have the most contagious laugh.  I love making you laugh.  When I get home from work, I lay on the floor with you and make you laugh and laugh.  It is the best end to my busy days.

You have 6 teeth right now.  The 4 front, one molar (eater tooth) and another one on the other side, but it’s not all the way through yet.  You are learning what your teeth are supposed to do. Mostly you use it to hold your bottle in your mouth so you can use both hands to play.

We love you tons and tons.

Mama gives you 8 million kisses.

Love, Mama and Daddy