Daniel - 18 Months Old!

Dear Daniel,

Hello to the most amazing year and a half old little boy I know! First of all, Mommy can hardly believe that you are already at this milestone in your little life! Why, it seems like just yesterday when we were celebrating your 1st birthday! How can that have already been 6 months ago, and you are already 6 months away from your 2nd birthday?! You are at such a big point of your little toddler life right now... every day you seem to be learning something new and growing, growing, growing! :o) You amaze me every day by how much you now know and how sweet you are and how much your personality is shining forth! Some days when I think back on when I was pregnant with you and how nervous I was when I thought about you being a boy - because I wasn't even sure where to begin to think about raising a son - I think about today and can't imagine not having you as our son to raise every day! You have made our lives so rich and full and Daddy and I seriously couldn't imagine our lives without you in it!



This month has been such a big month of exciting times! First of all, just in the past week or two I have been noticing more and more how far along your vocabulary has grown! It is still hard to understand everything you say, but we are picking out more words every day... For example, today you said "nice" as you held your friend Jaxon's hand for a few seconds after lunch, and earlier this week you said "sweet" when you were with your little sister and you are also finally saying "thank you" almost all the time when we give you something even without us having to tell you to, and you are saying "please" for often, too! There have been many other words, also, but I'm not remembering them all now! The main excitement for me, though, is that I can finally pick up different words you say when you are talking on and on about something, so I actually sort of know what you are talking about! That is SO exciting to me and makes me even more excited for when you will be able to really share what you are thinking and we can talk about things! :o)

The main thing that you and I have been doing this month has been many, many activities together! Mommy has been trying to focus on having a lot of one-on-one time with you doing various activities to help you with learning! Just a few of the activities we've done together has been puzzles (which you are amazing at after just the first time - you match SO well), painting (oh, you LOVE art time!), coloring, gluing pasta to pages, putting spaghetti pasta into the holes of a spice container (you were awesome at that from the beginning!), putting coins into a piggy bank, playing with magnets, etc. It has been so much fun doing things with you and seeing as you start figuring out how to do them! You are such a smart little guy and we are so proud of all you have been learning!



One of your new favorites to do is all the actions in an ABC Animal Action book that we have! We have been reading it to you for a few weeks now fairly consistently, and just a week or two ago I started doing the actions with you as we read each letter and action and looked at the animals doing the actions in the book! The other night I mentioned some of the letters and actions while we were at your Aunt Lelia's and Uncle Wayne's house and you totally did almost all the actions for us as I said each one without the book in front of you at all! It was amazing and you had so much fun! Some of the actions are A for Arch, B for Balance (up on one foot), C for Charge (you LOVE this one), F for Flap (you fly like a bird), M for March (like the penguins), P for Peek (you have always loved peek-a-boo), R for Ride (on Mommy or Daddy's back), S for Stretch (you stretch like crazy), and Y for Yawn! So much fun!

We went as a family to the pumpkin patch in town last week and you had such a great time running all over the place and picking out your pumpkin! You kept running to various pumpkins and trying to pick them up until you finally found the perfect one and we got that for you! You LOVE the country and having lots of acreage to run around on... one day we would LOVE to be able to live in the country to give you a big place to run and play!





Yesterday your friends, Connor and Jaxon, with their moms came over to hang out and play with you! You are so enjoying times with your friends lately! You played and played and played the entire time they were here and actually didn't go down for your first and only nap of the day until almost 3 pm! It was crazy but you just weren't tired! :o) That's another thing Mommy has been very thankful for... you are finally down to a consistent one nap a day, which has been SO nice for me to have more of a schedule again! You usually go down between 11 and 1 and nap anywhere between 2 and 3 hours, which is awesome!

We love you lots and lots, little man! Excited to see what new things you learn and do this next month!

Love,
Mommy