Dear Moe (23 Months)

My dear, sweet boy. What are we going to do with you? In another month, you'll be two years old. In some ways, I can't believe it and in others it feels like you've been two for a long time.

It's been quite a month. Of course, the biggest thing that happened was Christmas, and it was fantastic. It was a crazy few days that involved a LOT of gifts, getting to know and love your extended family, a lot of hard core playing and quite a bit of magic. It was a busy, busy time with a lot of visiting and family dinners, and you did super well. On the first day after the chaos was over, you had a four hour nap, which is a personal record.

You loved playing with Aunt Natalie and Uncle Darin. You enjoyed piling all your cars into their hands until they couldn't hold them all, and then you would knock the cars out of their hands and onto the ground in great glee. You connected really strongly with your cousin Isabel – you even let her colour with you in your colouring book, which at the time was a pretty honking big deal. You had a fantastic time with your Tio Rodrigo, who was always able to make you laugh. But you totally fell in love with Tia Reiko. You learned her name really quickly, and by the end of their visit, you would wake up from a nap or in the morning and call for her. It was very sweet. We were also lucky enough to get a visit from your Grandpa Will, Grandma Anne, Aunt Heather and Uncle David. It was very special to have us all together for the first time. You were showered with love. 

And you were showered with gifts. Santa Claus brought you an awesome toy recycling truck – the same one you love playing with so much at Robin's. It was certainly the hit of the holiday. You also love your new Hot Wheels storage box (you like taking the cars out more than putting the cars in), you've gotten great use out of your new table and chairs and great pleasure out of your new puzzles, and we had a great time test driving your new plasma car in the tunnels at Carleton. You were very excited to receive your new ride on toy (a pirate ship!) from Uncle Mark and Aunt Janine. It's still a little tall for you, so you have been known to sit on your old, smaller ride on car and pull the ship from behind.

Your vocabulary has exploded recently. You babble constantly, and have many new words. “Mommy” is one of your favourites. You love calling for me, and for a while, “Mommy” was your go-to word for whenever you were the least bit unhappy, whether I was around or not. You also say “tiss,” and give me a kiss goodbye through the gate every day. It's the best part of my day. I'll say, “I'm leaving now! Where's my kiss?” and you come running down the hall saying, “Tiss! Tiss!” It's fantastic. (Another of your favourite words is “mine”. This is less fantastic, but perfectly normal, and we continue our work on sharing.)

We've had some wonderful moments together this month. Daddy started a fire in the fireplace one evening, and you liked it so much that the next day you pointed to the empty fireplace and said, “More?” You are your Daddy's son. We've had several fires since, and in fact, ran out of wood. You watched an episode of Little Bear which involved puddle jumping, and started jumping through imaginary puddles in the living room. Aunt Kimmy came by with Caleb and Noah and they gave you a Duplo set of Lightning McQueen and his truck Mac. As you unwrapped the gift, you caught sight of Mac and got so excited. You said, “Ooooh! Oooooh!” and pointed eagerly. It was adorable.

You both gained and lost teeth this month. There were a few days where you were being very difficult. You were easily frustrated, generally cranky, sleeping poorly and not yourself at all. Then suddenly you had eye teeth and it all made sense. Then last week, you got too excited and tripped and fell in the living room and your tooth made contact with a Hot Wheels and it broke. (The tooth, not the car.) It's your left front tooth, and the chip is pretty significant. We're off to the dentist next week to make sure there's nothing to worry about. It's just such a shame – you work so hard to get your teeth and you've already lost one! On the bright side, you look a little bit like Chris Neil.

Baby, I know I say you get sick every month, but holy cow, this month it was bad. One night you woke up with a croupy cough – you sounded like a barking seal. We immediately canceled our plans for the next day and Uncle Mark and Aunt Janine came over for a play date, as croup isn't dangerous to adults. Well, it turns out you had more than croup, and they are lucky they didn't get sick. You had RSV (with a bonus ear infection) and boy, were you prolific. Despite the fact that we kept you out of day care from the moment we saw you weren't well, you managed to give it to three of the kids at day care and Robin. And even though you were already on antibiotics when she took care of you for the day, you gave it to Grandma. You had a terrible fever, a horrible cough (the croupy cough was replaced by a deep, phlegmy cough that came from your toes), and were obviously miserable. You didn't eat for three days. It got difficult to keep you hydrated. (We eventually had to finally let the juice genie out of the bottle – and once it's out, you can't put it back in. So you get juice now, watered down, once a day. And you're pretty happy about it.) 

You are almost back to 100% now, and we're very happy about it. We're looking forward to this next month as your vocabulary continues to grow, you continue to be a sweet, amazing little boy who makes us laugh, fills our hearts, and brightens our days.

Pooks, just after you were born, I sang you a very special song to tell you how happy we were that you had finally come into our lives after so many years of looking for you. This past week, the woman who made that song famous passed away. So today, we listened to it several times and danced together. I'll put the lyrics here. Because they are so, so very true.

At last, my love has come along,
My lonely days are over,
And life is like a song.
Oh, yeah, at last
The skies above are blue.
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you.
I found a dream that I could speak to,
A dream that I can call my own.
I found a thrill to rest my cheek to,
A thrill that I have never known.
Oh, yeah when you smile, you smile,
Oh, and then the spell was cast.
And here we are in heaven,
For you are mine
At last.