Newsletter: Month 19 — Genie Alisa

Dear Ian, This weekend you turned 19 months old and you've started making sentences! Well, they're more like catch phrases than anything involving grammar, but we're still moving beyond grunts and pointing in many ways.

If you drop things you'll say "It's a mess!" though it sounds more like "Essa mess!" Many items also elicit an "oh what's that?" that sounds like "oh wassat?" It's kind of like living with a very small Jar Jar Binks.

We've all been sleeping much better these days and I'm incredibly grateful. Even if you do wake up in the middle of the night, there's no screaming but just some "Mama?" and then we're all back to bed. I could do this forever.

Tonight we got to try out the pool and thankfully no one drowned. I told your Grandma and GrandDaddy they better have swimsuits because if they babysit you, they're gonna have to get in the pool. You would swim around in my arms and then says "down!" I kept trying to explain that down would only lead to a lot more water that you were ready for but you just kept asking. I'm still not sure what you thought would happen, but we did some floating and splashing and you would occasionally squeal out "BUBBLES!" like it was the best bathtub you had ever seen.

We went up to Maryland this past weekend so you could wish Megan happy birthday. I just can't get over how you are such a little boy now. Whenever you see another toddler, you call out "baby!" Anyone who is your size or smaller is obviously a baby. There was another little boy and you had a "baby!" off calling back and forth to each other.

But you're a big boy. When we go to restaurants they ask if we want a high chair and we have to explain that high chairs are for babies and we obviously don't have a baby anymore. I just bought a new pack of bibs only to find out that bibs are also for babies. We sat at dinner tonight and you ate meatloaf, homemade mac & cheese and fruit all with your little fork. As you took the fork from my plate and masterfully navigated noodles to your mouth, I realized we're in a whole new world now. And it's amazing.

Love, Mama