Dear Little Brother Z,
Today, my littlest boy, you are 18 months old. One and a half years. Time is flying by and we are enjoying every minute of watching you grow into the little boy you are sure to become.
You have a wonderful sense of adventure and a desire for exploration. You are curious about the world around you and want to know how all of it works. When you have a question, you raise your hands as though to ask where something is.
You are learning new words every day. I love hearing you repeat the words we say and make the connection between the word and the object. You just said your name a few days ago. So you will point to me and say mama, to your daddy and say dada, to your brother and say his name, and now you point to your chest and say your name. It's so cute!
Here you are, getting your very first haircut, right here in our kitchen! You were starting to sport a comb over, so I needed to trim the top up just a bit.
You really love food. You eat a variety of things but certainly have your favorites. Grapes, apples, oranges, any fruit, really. Peas, broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots. You don't eat much meat, but I can get you to eat hotdogs, some chicken if it has ranch or ketchup on it, and your all time favorite foods are breads and crackers. You are a carb lover!
You also love milk. I still give you a bottle at the end of the night right before bed. You skipped last night and the night before, but tonight you asked for the bottle again and sucked it down. I'm not sure why you skipped those days, perhaps you are getting ready to wean.
One of your very favorite things to do is to color and draw. You spend 20-30 minutes making all kinds of marks and lines and colors. You also love to take the crayons in and out of the container they are in. You also love to stack blocks and have even made a tower taller than you!
You sure have a special place in your heart for your daddy. You and I are close, and you only want me during the night, but just about any other time of the day is yours and your daddy's. I love watching the two of you together.
You have a sweet tooth too, just like your brother and me. You have the sweetest sign for more...you hold out your left hand and point to your palm and say "mo, mo, mo!"
It is hard to keep you busy while I am cooking dinner, especially during the week when we all get home from school. You don't want to miss a thing, and while you usually want me to hold you in the sling, you will keep yourself busy getting all of the pans out as well as the cans of food that are in another cabinet nearby.
I had to buy you a new teething necklace, and you still wear it 24/7 besides in the bath tub. It is really, really rough on you when you are teething. You are fine during the day, but you wake up crying so hard. It makes me feel so sad for you because you are obviously in pain. And it takes us a long time to help you settle down. You usually only want me when it's bad, and I sometimes have to bring you in bed with us so you will go back to sleep. Oh well, we'll all sleep again one day!
This is your first real haircut at a real hair salon! It's a place designed for kids that I thought was overpriced, but since your brother struggles with fear of the salon, we decided to make appointments for both of you. You did great! You sat still and didn't wiggle or cry at all. It went so well in fact that I tried taking you to a typical hair salon not designed for kids and you were NOT happy about it. I didn't even bring toys with me! I said I thought the place was overpriced, but it is worth every penny!
It's amazing how much you love to play with your brother's legos. You never really put them into your mouth, so I don't worry about that. You can even put the hair on the head of the minifigures. You've got some good fine motor skills developing!
This was one morning when you woke up a lot throughout the night. Your fuzzy hair is to die for! I love that it is always fuzzy, no matter how I have it cut!
You still love bath time. You used to go running to the tub when I asked if you were ready of your bath, but now you don't want to miss a thing! Once you get there you love it. This day, you insisted on bringing your apple in with you, and I saw no reason to deny you.
You have the sweetest little concentrating face :)
Oh, how you love to be outside! We haven't had many nice days this winter, so we are so looking forward to spring! You love walks, the playground, and especially our yard. It's so fun to watch you and your brother explore the yard, just as I imagined you would when we bought our home.
Oh my sweet Luther-Lu, I just love you so much! You have such a sweet way about you. Your teachers report that you love to share your toys with your friends. You love to help around the house by throwing things in the trash, dusting after you see me do it, bring your brother his shoes when it is time to go, and all kinds of other little Lu things. You have my heart, my littlest one.
Love,
Mommy.
