23 Months

Eli,

Whoa. One month from today, we’ll be celebrating your second birthday. You’re going to be TWO. That is just insane to me. It’s hitting me hard, partly because our good friends, Erin and Al, had their little one a couple of days ago. They’re in the same hospital, just two doors down from where we were when we had you. It’s like de ja vu. Sort of.

This month, I’ve lost track of all of the words you’ve learned. “All gone,” “Want that,” “Wow.” You try really hard to repeat words when we say them to you. You say “bye, bye” to everything that passes us. You say “Cheese” when I point the camera at you. Mommy and Daddy have really got to watch what they say now.



One of the sweetest things you’ve started doing this month is saying “night, night.” We’ve started moving your bedtime routine upstairs each night. Usually, one of the first things you do when we get to your room is climb into your rocking chair and lay down. With your feet up in the air, you say, “night, night,” cover up with a blanket, and pretend to sleep. It’s so stinkin’ cute.

You’ve started listening to directions. We can ask you to bring us something, or throw something away, and you do it with a very enthusiastic “Yeah!” I can already tell that you’re going to be mommy’s little helper! Now, we just need to work on the No-Jumping-on-the-Couch directions.



Since we’ve had a lot of really nice days in the past few weeks, we’ve spent a lot of time outside. Mommy bought some sidewalk chalk for you to draw with out front. You usually end up covered head-to-toe in chalk dust. But, you love it. You also love moving dirt, or mulch, with your dump trucks. You go back and forth between the flower beds, transferring mulch. Man, am I glad that we have a mud room.



One afternoon, I decided to play Finding Nemo, just to see what you’d do. You were totally intrigued. It didn’t take long for you to figure out that if you bring me the DVD case and say “Mee-Moh,” we’ll put the movie on for you. You don’t usually sit down and watch it for too long. Mostly it’s just on in the background, but it’s a good thing I love that movie!

This month, you got your first black eye. Oh, man, Eli. I am not sure who it hurt more; you or me. We were watching a Yo Gabba Gabba and playing on the couch. You came hurtling toward me and just face-planted on my knee. Your eye swelled up immediately. I cried. You cried. You refused to let me put ice on it. I was so embarrassed to take you out into public right afterwards, because I was worried what people would think. Of course, you were fine.



We’ve gone on a few outings this month - the biggest being the State Fair and the Zoo. You really seemed to enjoy both places. There were a lot of “Whoa’s” and “Wows.” Daddy and I are already discussing buying a membership to the zoo next year, because you had so much fun.



You’re changing so much every day. I can’t believe how fast it’s going.

Love you,
Mommy