19 Months

This month has really zoomed by, I can't believe I'm already sitting down and writing your monthly letter again. Your 19th month was filled with runny noses, airplane trips, sparkly sneakers, words, words and more words.
You're going through a big hugging phase this month. You love giving squeezy hugs for no reason, and every hug is referred to in the plural, "hugs". Whenever we talk about things (or people) you like, you always follow the word with "hugs". When I told you we were going to the zoo the other day, you said, "tiger" and then made an excited face and scrunched your fingers together like you couldn't wait and said, "hugs". At first I thought you wanted to hug a tiger, but I'm realizing now that this is just your way of saying that you love something or someone.
Speaking of things you love, you are totally and completely obsessed with 2 Sesame Street videos online right now. The first is Feist singing a revised version of 1234 with monsters, penguins and chickens. Just this week you started counting to 4 by yourself, repeating the lyrics of the song. The second is Elmo singing the ABCs with India Arie which has taught you to sing parts of the abc song by yourself and/or along with the video. If I sing the song now, you will try to sing the "now I know my abc's" by yourself by singing "Now I abc" almost in tune. Because I don't have any experience with young children I pretty much think this means you are a genius. But then again, you spent about 10 minutes the other day repeating to yourself, "tickle tickle poop." saying the "tickle tickle" part in a high pitch voice and then following it with a low and serious, "poop", which is maybe a little bit less than genius. But funny.
You are spending longer and longer periods of time talking yourself to sleep for your nap and bedtime. I hear you up there essentially repeating passages from the bedtime books we just read. My favorite is after reading "Olivia" when you say to yourself in the dark, "time out. bath. dinner. time out." over and over.

You had your first plane ride this month.
You and I took a plane to visit Katherine in LA and it was a big success.
You were the best flyer ever, which was either complete luck or a very good omen for any future travels we have. On the flight home you fell asleep in my lap while taxiing for take-off and slept the ENTIRE flight to Seattle, waking up only 5 minutes before landing. The man in the seat beside me could hardly believe his luck.

packing your plane snacks in your monkey back pack.

On the bummer side of this month, you're already on your second cold. You were sick at the start of the month (just a run of the mill drippy nose) and are now working on a cough that keeps you up at night. On the bright side, we were given the go ahead to try a reduced dose of children's Benadryl for night time and for the first time in ... EVER... you are sleeping through the night with a cold. I read the side indications to your Dad the first night with more than a hint of glee, "Marked drowsiness likely to occur!!!"
On the reading front, you are interested in reading longer books with real stories this month. Your favorites right now are the Flicka Ricka Dicka series from Sweden which I read to you like 5 bajillion times a day, The Five Star General (insisting on sporting your own star on your forehead to be more like the main character)
the Corduroy books (especially A Pocket for Corduroy), and Minnie's Rainbow. You have pieces of all of these books memorized and if I stop in the middle of a sentence when reading, you will usually say the next word without me prompting.
Your vocabulary is ever increasing and you crack me up on a daily basis with the things you repeat. Just today your Grandma said, "oh my goodness" and you repeated it back verbatim, sounding exactly like the nervous orphan in Annie. You have many 2, and some 3 word "sentences" and phrases, most of which are very bossy in nature - "take it", "find it" "fix it"... etc. Every night after I brush your teeth, I offer you a sip of water in a large glass. You always take one tiny sip and then push it towards the sink and say, "Dump it" in a super dismissive tone.

A few weeks ago we were at the library on a rainy morning. You saw another Mom sitting on the floor of the children's room, reading a story to her child and I watched you - without hesitation - walk up to her, push her arm out of the way and sit in her lap so you could hear the story. You are SO funny these days.
Sometimes I look at your little nude rump and distended belly after a bath and I'm torn equally between the desire to pick you up and squeeze your adorable guts out and needing to pick up my time-freeze gun and make you stay this age FOREVER and EVER.
Because really, I think this might be my favorite age so far; the last few months have been hilarious and awesome and I'm worried they will go away too soon.

xoxo
Mom