A Letter to Carter at 22 Months

Little Mister Carter here we are just months away from your 2nd birthday.  You are becoming more and more independent by the day and are still the sweetest little boy I've ever met.  You are constantly amazing me with the new skills you pick up as well as your kind heart.  Thankfully for me you still love to snuggle and some days when you wake up from your nap you just want to sit and rock with me for a while.  Having you in my arms continues to be the best feeling.  I love holding you close and smelling your hair.  In so many ways you are still my little baby, but you are definitely all toddler.  You love to run, jump, talk, and be wild.

Right now you repeat so much of what we say and even repeat sentences.  Sometimes you repeat what we say right after we say it.  Other times you say something you hear us say all the time before we get the chance.  One day we were leaving the house and Quinn was visiting.  I always tell the dogs good bye as we leave.  Before I said anything you turned around and yelled back at the dogs, "Bye, be good doggies!"  It was the cutest!  When we were visiting Gma and Gpa you made a birthday cake for Gpa with Gma's help.  I whispered to you to go in and tell Gpa happy birthday.  You walked right into the living room where he was and said very distinctly, "Happy Birthday!"  It was adorable.  You are finally getting please down and understand it's power.  You say "more please" all the time and when you want something you'll look at me and say, "peese!"  For a while you were constantly chanting "more cheese" throughout the day whether you'd even had any cheese or not!  You ask "what's this?" a lot and are very curious and inquisitive.  I keep forgetting to put in your monthly posts that you call monkeys Bobo because of the book "Hug" by Jez Alborough.  I took a video of the tiger roaring when we were at the zoo.  I showed you the video and you loved it.  You would come to me saying "tiger peese" asking to watch the video again.  You also say "busy" especially when you want to play with someone, but they can't right then.  You'll say "busy?"  You also say "daddy busy" while he's at work.  All that came from me telling you that daddy was busy and couldn't talk to you right then once.  When something falls down you'll say, "all down!"

You understand so much of what we say now and are really good at following directions.  I can give you multiple step directions and you are able to follow them.  You even help with Jake when he's here.  One time you were closer to Jake than I was and he was putting sidewalk chalk in his mouth so I asked you to take it from him and bring it to me.  You grabbed it and very carefully carried it to me.  When he is here you are such a helper for me!  You also know that daddy's name is Ty.  When I say something about Ty to one of your uncies you immediately yell "daddy!" very excitedly.  I'm pretty sure you still have no idea that I have a name other than mommy and that's fine by me.   

Food is still a favorite for you.  Mealtime is always serious business for you and we never have trouble with you wanting to take off or play rather than eat.  You love food so much that when you see me getting your food, you'll yell "yay!" and start laughing.  There are certain foods you get more excited for than others.  Cheese is an ultimate favorite and right now you are obsessed with "amals" or apples.  You ask for them constantly and steal them out of the fruit basket.  You'll go to get a new apple when you still have half an apple sitting on the table.  Sometimes I put peanut butter on your apple and that also gets you quite excited.  Today you even ate an entire sweet potato with your spaghetti at lunch!

Just recently you started carrying a step stool around the house to reach things too high for you.  You also use it to wash your hands and jump off onto furniture.  Jumping is a new skill you are super proud of!  It is so cute to watch you jump off the small step on our porch.  You also like to hop and are decent at skipping.  Running is pretty non-stop around here.  You love to run up and down the hall.  You also love to chase Quinn when she comes to visit because she always runs away.  When Jake is here you like to crawl with him and I figure it's good to use those muscles in a different way by practicing that skill.  One day you rolled across the living room which brought back all kinds of memories!  You like putting things where they belong whether I ask you to or not.  You also love helping to clean up the house as well as put away your bath toys.  You are getting pretty good at dressing and undressing yourself.  You can put your shirt on and take it off with very minimal help.  You still need a little bit of help putting your pants on and you can pull them part of the way down on your own but have a hard time getting them all the way off.  Socks are still a mystery to you and you love wearing your rain boots because you can put them on by yourself.  Your 4 canine teeth are all popping through so now we just have your 2nd molars left.

We announced on the blog this month that you are going to be a big brother.  In about a week we find out if you will have a little brother or little sister.  We talk it up a lot to you even though you don't quite understand.  You love babies and anytime you see a baby you want to go over and watch him/her.  Having Jake around a couple days a week has been great practice for you.  You are getting used to sharing mommy and being a big helper!  At first you were really jealous and when I fed Jake bottles you wanted to be snuggled up to my chest and would scream.  Now you either sit beside us on the chair or just continue playing on your own.  You give Jake hugs and kisses and get so excited when he arrives in the morning and when he wakes up from naps.  When he's here I can't rock you before naptime like I normally would and you do a great job of putting yourself to sleep.  You understand that I'm busy with Jake and can't rock you.  When he's not here, you expect to be rocked just like normal.  You are so smart!  You have gotten much better at sharing and if you take a toy away from Jake and I ask you to give it back you will.  I know it's hard to learn these things, but you are doing a great job!  I know you are going to be an amazing big brother and I'm so excited to see you fill that roll!

Carter, I love you so much.  You are the light in my life and the smile to my days.  I can think of no greater way to spend my days than with you.  Every day you make me laugh so hard and smile so much.  You are the funniest little guy with the greatest dance moves and happiest personality.  I can't get enough of you!  When you go to bed for a nap or bedtime I sit and look at pictures and videos of you because I miss you already.  I love you, big boy!  Even though it's hard for me to see you becoming so big and independent, keep on growing!

Now on to daddy:

It seems that you now understand almost everything we say. Even if you don't, you put a lot of thought into trying to figure it out. It amazes me that you are so good at figuring new things and words out. You are a very helpful little boy, always happy to help your momma or me pick up a room or make a meal. Melts our hearts!

I cannot wait to see how you interact with your new baby sister or brother! You will be such a good big brother, helping them learn the ways of the world!

Halloween is just around the corner and you and I will be conductors in your stroller/engine and I cannot wait! We will have a blast!