I am sure I will say this every year but I can’t believe you are 2. It seems like yesterday that I was welcoming you into this world and just looking at you in amazement. Well, I still look at you often in amazement. I’m not sure how I got to be so lucky. We have a wonderful family. It’s an honor to be your Mommy. Sometimes, when we are out doing to most mundane things like errands or going on a walk, I will just look around, and think life is very good because I have you and your Daddy and Wally. I love coming home to you. I love to turn around and look at you in the car and to hear you say, “Hi Momma.” I love that you are excited to see me, most of the time, and equally so with your Daddo.
I’m not sure where to start but over the last year, we’ve had a lot of fun. This year has gone by fast! You’ve haven’t had so many firsts like your first year of life, but you are enjoying all the fun times so much more and really getting to take everything in for the first time. Some say that the toddler years aren’t their favorite but I would disagree. You are soaking up everything. I never know what you will do or say next. I have to keep a close eye on you though because you often are doing things that are a tad bit dangerous. I wouldn’t exactly say you have no fear as you do tend to be a little cautious but it seems that you continue to try to test how far you can go. For example, once getting on the couch was no big deal, you decided that jumping or climbing up on the top of the couch would be much more fun. I’m afraid I’m going to turn around to see you standing or jumping from the back of the couch.
You’ve managed to turn into a good sleeper over the last year (for the most part)! Your Daddo and I weren’t sure we would ever get there. There were many sleepless nights during that first year and I still haven’t forgotten how foggy my mind felt during that time, which may be one of several reasons you don’t have a little brother or sister. However, when you wake up at night, you aren’t that easy child that I can go in and console by rocking for 5 minutes and put back. We have learned that if you do wake up at night, we have to take the no hands approach. If we break, we will end up holding you or you will end up crying for an hour, easily! You don’t give up easy (more later on that determination)! You are consistently sleeping from about 8pm-6:30am with and 1.5 hour nap. Sometimes, I get more and honestly, most of the time I think you need more but you don’t always do it. Oh, and you have started trying to climb out of the crib. However, Daddo and I don’t find it the slightest bit amusing so we are taking a stern approach so STOP right now!
You are all boy in the sense that you love anythink that moves (i.e. construction vehicle, cars, trucks, buses, trains, helicopters, and airplanes). You love balls of any sort.You love to kick them and are pretty good at kicking and throwing.You like to try to catch balls but aren’t too good at that yet. You also love animals but you tend to be a little rough with them if they let you touch them. I think that's because Wally lets you do whatever you want to him. You are a mess.
I can’t count on you to stay clean 5 minutes past getting out of the bath. You are such a messy eater and I’m afraid that I have taken on feeding you more than I should to avoid you making such a mess. (You are so easy going that you love to sit and let me feed you.) You run and jump hard and rough and you love to tumble. You are pretty good at jumping these days and actually can bring both feet off the ground at the same time. You love to wear hats and especially your baseball cap.
You are a pretty good talker. You are making out sentences and can really spill 5-6 words off with that tongue pretty quickly, making your Aunts (both speech pathologists) very proud. These days, you are like a parrot. We have to be careful that we remember that you are often listening and ready to repeat whatever we say. You are often shy and more reserved when you get in a group of people. You continue to say new words and are so cute and sweet. You can whine if we let you but most of the time if you start whining and remind you to use your words, you will stop and just tell us what you need/want. You say your name very well and you find it very funny that your Mommy and Daddy have the same last name. You know it though and you will say that Mommy’s name is “Momma Wheawill” or “Stephie Wheawill”and Daddo’s name is either “Daddo Wheawill” or “Matt Wheawill.” You still call your Daddo, “Daddo”. I don’t know where you came up with it. Sometimes, I will say Daddy but I haven’t ever heard you say it. Whenever you say you want something, I seem to always say “You do?” and consistently for the last 6-8 months, you respond “Do”. Most of the time, you refer to yourself in third person. You also say, you instead of me. So, you say "Hold you" when you want to be held. I try to correct you by saying, "No, it's hold me" then you will say "Hold you me". You sing all the time. Sometimes you mix up your songs when you sing. Just yesterday, you started out singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, then went into the middle of the alphabet, then into counting and finally to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star all in one song. It’s pretty cute. Your favorite song is The Wheels on the Bus. You pretty much want us to sing anytime we are in the car with you. Well, anytime we are in the car with you and you aren’t eating fruit snacks.
In addition to hearing you and your speech development, I love to watch your mannerisms as you talk. You can get so excited and just throw your hands up and squeal so quickly. You clap too often. You have already, unfortunately, picked up my eye rolling.
You love your friends. I hear about you and your friends from your teachers at school. You even gave you best friend at school, Chase a little nickname of “Chasey”. Mommy and Daddy are lucky to have a lot of friends that have children around your age and you love to play with them. You are busy right now enjoying swim lessons with Hailey. However, right now, you are fascinated with Wyatt. You took a bath with Wyatt way back in December and ever since, it made quite an impression. You often want Wyatt to come over a take a bath with you. You boys are wild in the bath tub together, splashing and laughing which is why I think it's become so memorable. Wyatt came over a couple of weeks ago to play for a while and even took a bath with you and you loved it! Since Mommy is best friends with his Mommy, I think you chose a good friend.
You are a growing boy. As of today, you weigh 28 lbs 14 ounces (75th%), 35.5 inches (75th %), and your head circumference is 75th% so you are very evenly distributed. You are wearing mostly 2T in everything. You appear to be tall and have big feet. You are wearing size 6 diapers and size 7 shoes. You are slimming down and looking like less of a baby and more like a little boy. You still have some pretty cute thighs though and you have my chubby cheeks. You are a pretty good eater, most of the time. Your favorite foods in no particular order are: cheese, tuna salad, ham, meat loaf, corn dogs, hot dogs, peas and carrots, broccoli, mac and cheese, oranges, strawberries, and anything sweet. You’ve started saying “Yummy” to anything that you like to eat. You also love to get treats as rewards for good behavior. Your favorite treats are M&Ms. You love M&Ms and I love to hear you say “M&M”!
You love your grandparents and aunts and they are in love with you! You used to get shy when they were around but that’s no longer the case! You get so excited when we talk about Bopa or Grammie. However, if I just say one of their names, you add in the other. They go together and I need to get that straight. You love to see them and play with them. You seemed to have not settled on a name for Bopa. It started out as Grandpa but is either Bopa or Papaw these days. The other day, your Bopa kept you when you weren’t feeling well enough to go to school. Grammie had plans for the day so she just came over to see you when she had down time. When she was getting ready to leave and you were telling her bye, you also told Bopa bye. However, since that would leave you home alone, Bopa thankfully stayed! You affectionately talk about Aunt Knee Knee. You love to go see her kitties and play with Aunt Knee Knee. You also love you Mim and Pops. You think Pops is pretty funny. You approve of his ability to play cars with you and you like to read books with him. He would like for you to sit with him more but you can’t stay still long enough to sit down. Your Mim could do no wrong. She is pretty awesome and most of the time, can do everything so much better than Mommy! You love to snuggle with Mim and play, play, play with her. She does all kinds of fun things with you like taking you to the park, Barnes and Noble, reading every book you own to you and playing whatever you request. You think your Aunt Meredith is pretty cool. I watch you and your Aunt Meredith and I see so much of you in her.
She was much more of a tumbler and climber than I was and whenever she’s around, she comes up with all kinds of fun things for you all to do together. You are going to have a lot of fun in the tent that your Aunt Meredith made you for your birthday.
You love to be outside and we are going to enjoy this summer.
You love to go on walks in your wagon or stroller. You love to play with your wheel barrow, wagon and all your sand and water toys. You also love to go to the park. You’ve started taking swimming lessons. You love the water and don’t have a lot of fear which I want to promote along with a little safety so that’s the goal of the lessons. So far, you seem to be enjoying them.
You are so sweet and affectionate. You give the best kisses ever! You are very loving and show it often by looking at picture of your Mommy, Daddy, grandparents, or aunts and giving them a kiss when they are not around. You can be pretty independent and that seems to be coming out more and more these days. I love it, but it can drive me crazy as well like when you want to go up and down the deck steps without help. Oh boy! You aren’t easy to distract and you know what you want most of the time. We say you are hardheaded which I like to blame the trait on your Daddy but I know you get that one from me. You can throw some great tantrums when we don’t do exactly what you want. While the tantrums can be hard on us all, I feel like I’m better at dealing with them than I was one year ago. Sometimes they don’t break my concentration and I can continue to keep my thoughts and just ignore you. (Sadly, I couldn’t do that last year.) I want you to continue to work on keeping that determination because I think with as much as you have, nothing will stand in your way from being successful in life!
You are so sweet and affectionate. You give the best kisses ever! You are very loving and show it often by looking at picture of your Mommy, Daddy, grandparents, or aunts and giving them a kiss when they are not around. You can be pretty independent and that seems to be coming out more and more these days. I love it, but it can drive me crazy as well like when you want to go up and down the deck steps without help. Oh boy! You aren’t easy to distract and you know what you want most of the time. We say you are hardheaded which I like to blame the trait on your Daddy but I know you get that one from me. You can throw some great tantrums when we don’t do exactly what you want. While the tantrums can be hard on us all, I feel like I’m better at dealing with them than I was one year ago. Sometimes they don’t break my concentration and I can continue to keep my thoughts and just ignore you. (Sadly, I couldn’t do that last year.) I want you to continue to work on keeping that determination because I think with as much as you have, nothing will stand in your way from being successful in life!
You are pretty much a Daddy’s boy. I will notice that you are often mocking whatever Daddy is doing.
You will have your moments for both of us though and you get so mad if we don’t listen. You like to tell us who is going to read to you at night. The other night, you were in the middle of a tantrum and I was trying to break you so I asked if Wally could read to you. I thought maybe it would distract you but you got so mad at that idea and screamed “NO.”
You love Wally. He’s the first thing you say when you walk into the house. You yell for him and if we go upstairs and he doesn’t follow. He comes quickly normally. Wally is getting older so I think you wear him out. He normally naps all day when you aren’t around and is ready for bed shortly after you go to bed.
Charlie, I’m not sure how Daddy and I got to be so fortunate to have you in our lives. We love you with every being in us. We spend a lot of time talking and thinking about you. Before you were born, I would sit in your room and think about you. I would imagine what you looked like and sit and think about what it would be like to be a Mommy of a little boy. You teach me something new every day. Mommy never knew how much love, joy, fun and laughs you would bring every day. I love you more than you’ll ever know, to the moon and back!
Mommy and Daddy love you very much! Happy Birthday sweet boy!
Love,
Mommy
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