Dear Ian, You are 20 months old and I am waaaaay behind on telling you all about it! Quick, let's get this all chronicled before my brain forgets even more than it already has!

First, we would be remiss if we did not chronicle your first trip to the emergency room. Day care called just as we were about to get you, saying you were dancing and had hit your head on a bookcase. The doctor was closed and the urgent care wouldn't do facial sutures so we headed to the ER. It was only an hour and you were a sweetheart the whole time. We said "HI" to all the nurses and played with a ball Daddy made out of a rubber glove. Some medical grade super glue and your eyebrow was all better. Congratulations on breaking everyone else's records for youngest stitches.

This month has been one of many travels. Unfortunately, none of those travels have been for you. Daddy and I went to a library conference in New Orleans just after your 20 month birthday while you stayed home with Grandma and GrandDaddy. I called GrandDaddy the first morning we were there and his report was "everything is going swimmingly now ..." Apparently around 1am you woke up and cried for Mama for an hour.

Mamaaaaa! Mama! Maaaaaamaaaaa! Mama? Mama?!

You get the point. Grandma says that after 45 minutes or so, you stopped crying long enough to say, "Daddy?" in this hesitant voice, as if maybe Daddy would come and HE would know how to find Mama.

But after that first rough night, things smoothed out. You would grouse a bit for Mama or yogurt or shoes or other random nouns while you slept, but generally stayed put. We called that a success.

Then last week, I went to a conference by myself while you and Daddy stayed home. We considered all going as a family, but tickets were $650 a piece and Daddy could think of a lot of other things to spend $1300 on besides flying to Utah. I missed you so much that first night, I slept with one of your blankets just so I could smell you. But again, it got easier after that first night and we were able to see each other on FaceTime.

While I was glad to have your blanket for my trip, you are definitely the blanket affectionado! You have started calling it a blanket but still generally refer to it as "DIS!" and are very enthusiastic about having one with you in the car, whenever we nurse, whenever you're upset and when we all go to bed. I'm so glad I bought a ton of those blankets because we keep multiples everywhere! They're lightweight, soft and just right for snuggling.

You will grab the whole blanket into your lap and hug it like a basketball. But then when we're nursing or when you get sleepy, you search for a corner and roll it in your fingers back and forth. It's pretty adorable, particularly when you repeat the word "corner" over and over.

Corner isn't all you repeat. Daddy inadvertently taught you a naughty phrase, though it was innocent enough. He was trying to teach you how to drink out of a juice box. You kept squeezing the sides to get juice out but it would erupt everywhere. Daddy said, "Ian, you don't squeeze it. That makes a mess. You suck." to which you shouted, "YOU SUCK!" Indeed.

You're learning bits of grammar. Before it was just one word. Now it's "Mama car. Daddy car." and "Mama shirt. Daddy shirt. Ian shirt!".

We drove down to Grandma and Granddaddy's the other day to surprise them. But when I pulled into the yard, Granddaddy's car wasn't there. You said "Mamaw car. Pop car?" (Grandma is Mamaw and somehow Granddaddy or Grandpa became Pop in your dialect.)

I told you I wasn't sure where Granddaddy was but you kept saying, "Pop go?" as in "where did Pop go?" We went in the house and you took off through the rooms (as much as you can take off through their house) calling out "Pop go?". We tried looking in the backyard and finally Granddaddy made an appearance. Grandma told him as he came through the house, "there's a little boy in our yard looking for Pop" and he said "who's Pop?". Grandma said, "I think that's you, so you better go see!"

You and your Granddaddy then proceeded to trek all over the backyard in the garden, the front yard to wash off my van and up and down the sidewalk. Grandma told me as you were both playing down the street, "I think he's excited about being a Granddaddy. More than he ever thought he would be."

Trust me, everything is better than we could have imagined.

Love, Mama