Dear Gray: Month Fifteen (9 days late!)

My best boy,

I'm sorry that this month's post is more of a fifteen-and-a-half month post, but things have been mighty hectic around here lately! Your cousin Kelly came to visit, we've had both bathrooms worked on in the last week and Charlie had an allergic reaction to some vaccines. So it's been a little crazy and I've not had the time to sit and think about what magnificent things you've been doing this month.

And you are magnificent. You, my child, amaze me all the time. Your vocabulary is just incredible and grows every day. You continue to be the boy who wants to be outside ALL THE TIME. You love sticks, rocks, bubbles, cars, rain, trees, your dogs and anything else found outside our house. You are so content to be wandering around the yard with your wagon, lawnmower or just a handful of rocks and sticks. For a while there, you were trapped on the porch since you didn't know how to get off. Now, you have two strategies: one is to hold out your hand to me and say "walk, walk, walk!" and the other is to sit down a foot or so from the edge and do this very intricate manuever where you slowly edge your way off the porch. Sometimes you will employ a third means of getting off the porch and that is just trying to step off into the grass. More often than not you end up on your face but I have to give you some credit for knowing to only try this technique where there's grass to fall on. Once you are off the porch you will say "bye!" and head off to the yard.

This has definitely been the month of "no." No is inevitably the answer to any question we ask you and it's often accompanied by this snotty little head turn. I have no idea where you got it but it was funny the first hundred times. Now we are striving to teach you to say "yes." No luck, so far.

We have finally gotten you off the bottle, which is a bit of a relief. Now I just have 100 sippy cups to clean every day. School seems to be moving along well enough. The Sickness still comes around on a semi-regular basis and your teachers lament your constant thumb-sucking as the source of all the germs. Somehow this month you went from 12 month clothing to 24 month clothing with barely a passing glance at 18 months. You continue to be a fantastic eater and I love seeing you wander over to me to eat whatever I'm eating. Tonight you emphatically indicated that you were "all done" with your dinner only to cuddle up in my lap and eat half of my plate. To Cut or Not To Cut is a discussion we have about your hair every day. It is just wildly curly and there is so much of it!

I have to apologize for the amount of times you've heard "your mama is so tired, Gray" this month. Pregnancy is not kind to me and aside from being tired my memory stinks. I'm sure you've done all sorts of other fabulous things lately that I am forgetting. But you better not forget this: we have had such an amazing time learning to be your parents so far. I cannot wait to meet this new baby in December, because if you are any indication of the quality of babies that we make, we are in for another good one!

Love,
Mama