A letter to Luke at 17 (almost 18!) months

Wearing daddy out.

Well hello there. Before you say anything, yes, I am aware that I have somehow neglected to record ANYTHING about the last 6 months of your life. In my defense, it's not as though anything interesting happened. You didn't start walking, or having conversations, or telling us you loved us, or saying 'Amen' at the end of every prayer, or become a toddler instead of a little baby... except, sweet boy, you DID start doing all those things, and I was so busy enjoying it all that I didn't take a moment to write it all down. If you like, when you are 30 and in therapy because of all your complicated feelings, you can tell Bob ( Your therapist is named Bob. You can tell him I said so.) that this lapse of six months is where it all began.

Eating pho. It was adorable. You thought it was the bee's knees.

Enough about the past though!  Lets concentrate on what's going on right now! You are amazing. You are a living, breathing, human being with thoughts and feelings and motivations. It's an wonderful thing to see. So many times I stop and look at you and remember that squeezy baby in my arms and marvel at how far we've come. For one thing you're a speaking machine! You don't talk all the time, but you repeat the stuff we say a lot. You are constantly shocking us with words that seem to come from nowhere. The other morning I was groggily nursing you (groggily because you like to wake up at 5am) and you were excitedly taking breaks to tell me stuff. Most of it was unintelligible, but out of nowhere I hear you say: 'The seagull says 'Caw,caw!'" I almost dropped you! Just the day before we had gone to Federal Hill park with titi Kels and on the way home that's what we said to you every time we passed a seagull swooping over the water.

Playing with titi Kels at the park.

At Costco with Claire and titi Cyn.

Discovering the train table at Toys 'r' Us.

Titi Cynthia, Uncle Alex and Claire moved in upstairs from us. That means that you and Claire get to have grand adventures together every day. All I have to say is, "Do you want to play with Claire?" and you're at the door, trying to get up there Right Now. Speaking of at the door...we've had to start locking the deadbolt on our hallway door, because you kept escaping. One time grandma Muz and Uncle Steve were over and I said: "Where is Luke?" You were in the hallway trying to reach the elevator button. The scary thing was that your toys were out there, so you must have been playing there for awhile. If you're old enough to read this then you'll be aware of how distracted mommy gets when talking to people and you'll understand how this could happen.

Climbing the stairs at Federal Hill Park.

Our New Congregation is starting to feel less like Our New Congregation and more like just Our Congregation. A lot of this is because of how very much they love you. It warms our hearts to see you get cooed over, and tickled, and cuddled to your hearts content after every meeting. Service is even more fun for you. You get the undivided attention of whoever is next to you and you love it.

All the kids in our congregation.

Do you want to hear something cool? You READ. You read your first word at 15 months. I held up the word EYE and didn't say anything. You excitedly pointed to your eye!
Just this past week you revealed that you can read more than that one word. You kept pointing to where I store your bits and saying "in-doh, in-doh". The card that was facing out had the word WINDOW written on it. I asked you doubtfully  "do you mean window?" "Uh, uh, uh!" you said. (that's how you agree with things right now.) I decided to test you a little. I pulled out the card that had KISS written on it. "Luke, what is this?" You ran over to the card and planted a juicy kiss on it! I then pulled out the card that says BANANA, and brought it over to you, "Luke what does this say?" "Ba-na-na." you replied. I was in shock, I am in shock and I'll stay in shock. It is so stinking cool you can do that.

You love to sing. You worked for a month on the tune to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. You hear it a lot, because daddy uses that tune when he reads you the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? He sings the entire book and you eat it up. (It's also the tune to Baa, Baa, Black Sheep and the ABC's.) You practiced and practiced until you got it right. You just started in on a new song this week. We think that it might be The Farmer In The Dell, but it's too soon to tell. I'll let you know next month.

Playing music at the park with daddy.

You are getting very tall. At your last doctor's visit you measured in at 34 inches. you were 15 months and that is off the charts for a 15 month old. You take after your daddy, and that makes this very short mommy very happy for you.

I hope things keep going exactly the way they have been going. You have created for me my favorite life I've ever had. And I've had a very fun life. You top it all. I hope I'm giving you your favorite life too.

We love you little bear, to the moon , twice around and back again.

Love mommy and daddy.