22 Months Old

Dear Charlie,

Here are some things that happened this month.

-- You cut about 8 teeth all at once. You came to the U.S. with three. You now have fourteen.

-- You spoke your first sentence: "Who's that?" (You said this when you saw Tom Hanks on TV for the first time.)



-- You had an 8-night streak wherein you went straight to sleep upon being placed into your crib. Normally, we have to make several visits to your room before you will settle down and fall asleep. Tonight is Daddy's night to supervise bedtime. He just got his new John Madden football video game in the mail today, and you are absolutely torturing him with your inability to go to bed. He has been to your room FOUR TIMES, and you are still talking up a storm. It's times like these when you say every word you know, point to all of your body parts on cue, and dole out kisses like there is no tomorrow.



-- We've been going to church as regularly as we can so that you might get used to the nursery. So far, though, Daddy has had to stay with you every time. He volunteered for this job. While Mommy needs her spiritual batteries charged, Daddy is Zen enough to go months on end without enlightenment.



-- Bonnie, my friend who worked with me for a short time but stayed my friend for a much longer time, came to visit you with her husband David. They were so happy to meet you. They brought presents and took pictures, and Bonnie even wrote a post all about you on her blog.



-- We went to Henry's 6th birthday party, and you ate a bite of cake without spitting it out. You also ate chicken salad, cheese, crackers, grapes, strawberries, cantelope, watermelon, blueberries, chips, pretzels, teeny weenies, patio potatoes, as well as countless sippy cups of water and juice. Biggest baddest diaper results I've ever seen. We're hoping this is the all-time record, because the record-breaker would be unfathomable.



-- Your friend Dalton from the Semey Baby House Bird Room came to visit along with his Mom Shauna. The two of you picked up right where you left off -- fighting over toys. Except now, you are both also able to gesticulate wildly and babble what seem to be fighting words. At one point, Dalton got into your toy truck. You didn't like that, so you crawled in too -- right on top of him.





-- You have started to push us here and there and pull us to and fro.

-- You are a maniac about watching TV. Maybe there IS something to be said for the kids whose parents don't let them watch any TV until they are older. Too late for our family!



-- You now wear a size 18-month shirt, 12-month pant, and 24-month onesie -- unless we go shopping at Kohl's and then you are a 2T shirt and an 18-month pant. It's just that simple.



-- If I sing the tune "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" with ba-ba-ba-ba replacing the real lyrics, you will ba-ba-ba-ba back to me, and you seem quite capable of carrying a tune! If I sing the phrase, "Old MacDonald had a farm," you laugh hysterically but refuse to E-I-E-I-O.

-- At bath time, you lie down in the tub and kick your feet like you are swimming.