Dear Eliot: Sixteen Months

Dear Eliot,

You are now a year and four months old!  Sixteen months!

I love watching you grow and learn.  It has become apparent that you know a lot more of what I am saying than I have previously realized.  The other day, we dumped all of your animal toys on the floor.  We asked you to bring us certain ones.  The horse...  The pig...  The lion...  The elephant...  While you don't say these words yet, you brought us the right one each time!

You love books still and are interacting with them more every day.  Your dad bought you a book with paintings by Rousseau.  There is a painting in it with monkeys.  When you see it, you make a monkey sound.  Then when you get to a painting with a tiger, you growl.  One of your favorite paintings is one with some men playing with a ball; you point and say, "A ball!"

You have also learned the cutest trick.  When we ask you if you are a monkey, you pat your chest or tummy and say, "Ooo ooo ah ah!"  It is adorable.  I can't get enough of it.  In fact, that is how we got you to smile in this photo.

You love to run around, pick up sticks, and throw rocks.  Because of this, we take you to parks with places to run instead of play equipment sometimes.  You are growing more brave with the water, though, and want to touch it instead of just throwing rocks to make a splash.

You are definitely all toddler and all boy these days when we try to go shopping.  Somehow--no matter how tight the straps are--you manage to STAND UP in shopping carts!  You want to explore so badly that you shout.  We don't know what to do with you!

While a bit difficult, this also makes trips to Toys'R'Us more fun.  Before, you would only get excited to play with a ball, but your eyes lit up with most every toy during our last visit.  We don't go that often; this time we went to pick out a sandbox.  You fell in love with the train table, so we will probably buy one for you for Christmas (or in the fall if I just can't wait, which is likely).  This adventure happened to be on Mother's Day.  Your dad bought me flowers, wrote a nice note in a card, and offered again and again to take me out to eat--breakfast, lunch, dinner, or all three!  However, I was so satisfied and felt so blessed just watching you have fun in a toy store.  And maybe that is what being a mother is all about--rejoicing more when your children are blessed than when you are.

As you can see, you have started to love trains even more.  One day in attempts to clean up, I put your trains in a box that I then slid under the chair in the den.  The next day, you kept pointing to the chair and babbling to your dad like you wanted something.  He didn't get it, but then I told him that your trains were there.  You remembered!  As soon as he brought them out, your face lit up.  You call them "cars" for now, which is fine.  I can see how that would be confusing.  You love cars too.  You make them go "vroom" and drive them around--sometimes on the floor, other times over my legs, and then frequently over the pets' backs.  I showed you how to line them up for races.  I would count them down and push them across the floor.  After a couple of times, you started saying, "Buh.  Buh.  Buh.  GOO!" and sent them sliding across the room too!  It took me just a moment that you were trying to count down.  You're so smart, Eliot! And so much fun!  I love playing trains and racing cars with you.

 

You are continuing to grow in height and remain slim.  You are 75 percentile for height and 10th for weight.  Our string bean.  I was so small as a baby that I was rarely even on the chart, so we aren't worried at all.  Lately, food for you is hit or miss.  All four of your molars are in and I think your canines are slowly coming in, so sometimes you just don't want to eat the hard stuff.  You do drink lots of smoothies, though, with fruit and vegetables.  You are getting plenty of good stuff.  This month, your shoe size went up too!  You are now a size FIVE!  Those shoes look so big!

You also got your first haircut this month!  I trimmed up the back a little because you were getting a bit of a mullet!  I think I need to give you another one soon.

Just like every month, your love for sports and playing ball continues to grow.  You do the funniest thing with a football now....  When you get your hands on a football, you spread your legs and squat a little.  You start shouting like you are setting up a play.  Then you take off running around a little before throwing the ball to me or your dad or Abed-nego (our dog) or anyone around.  I swear you get it somehow even though football season ended a few months ago.

Did I write to you about our first adventures on the golf course?  I don't think I did....  Well, we were on a walk with you in the jog stroller.  You love to ride in it.  We walked up to a golf course, the first time you had even been on one.  Suddenly, you started yelling and crying to get out.  You have never, ever done this in your jog stroller, so I was curious to see what you wanted.  You must have somehow remembered watching The Masters with your dad because you ran onto the green while yelling, "A ball!  A ball!"  There was no ball around, but you say this whenever you see something related to sports--someone in a base ball or basket ball uniform, a basket ball goal, a golf club, or anything used for sports.  I just can't believe the stuff you remember and the connections you make, Eliot!

Eliot Thomas, you are a maker of messes...

...a great explorer...

...a lover of animals...

...and my sweet boy. 

So.  It has been sixteen months, huh?  I try to drink up every second of every day with you.  I try to appreciate all of our time together, even when I'm tried and you are not.  Every day, your dad tells me that he is so thankful for both of us in his life.  Friends come and go.  School and jobs are important, but they are only a small part of life.  In the end, God and family are what counts.  You are my family, and I promise you that I think of you every second of every day.  All that I do, whether it is determining the order in which I make our lunches or when I plan to shower, is centered around trying to make sure you get the best that I have.  And I promise that won't change.