A Wish and a Prayer...: 2014

Carter was so excited when he saw the camera this morning, he hopped right up in his chair before I even dressed him!

18 months old.

This isn’t funny anymore, Carter.
Stop growing up so fast – I mean it!

How can it be that a year and a half has gone by since we first fell in love with you?

That teeny-tiny, helpless infant has grown into a big, strong, walking, talking toddler, and now Daddy and I are just trying to keep up with you!

Here are a few words that describe our wonderful boy this month:

ACTIVE.

You never stop moving except to sleep and even then you continue to move quite a bit. The sound of your little feet pounding across the hardwood floors as you run from room to room has become so familiar that Daddy and I get concerned if a minute or two goes by without hearing it.

You are constantly running from one end of the house to the other, climbing up and down on chairs, sofas and our kitchen banquette. If we leave anything new in a room, you will climb it. You’ve been having a blast with the Rubbermaid storage containers as we’ve been decorating for Christmas. You climb on top and then stand up so I have to rush over and save you before you jump or fall off! You also like to pull all the throw pillows off the living room furniture and onto the floor and then walk on them like stepping stones.

FUN.

You are so silly that Daddy and I are in stitches most of the time we’re around you.

You love to play games with us and your favorite is still having Daddy hide and then when you find him he chases you back into the living room and tickles you and/or throws you onto the couch.
You would play that for hours if we'd let you!

Now sometimes you like to try hiding, too! It’s amusing because as you hide, you actually say the word “Hide,” and then duck behind something while we’re looking right at you. Then you jump back out and yell, “Boo!” with a huge smile on your face like you think you really scared us! We play along, of course.

TALKATIVE.

You are communicating more and more each week. You had a bit of a language explosion a couple of weeks ago and I started keeping track of your words to see how many you actually said. It was over 40 when I stopped writing them down! Now, to be fair, only about 10 of your words would be recognizable to someone other than Daddy and me, but you are able to communicate well with us and that’s the important thing.

One thing you do that I find adorable is that you tend to focus on one sound at the beginning or end of a word. For example, instead of saying “coat”, you just make a very clear and exaggerated “t” sound as you do the sign for coat. You also tend to associate words with objects and use those words instead of the actual name of the object. For example, every time you see a boat, you say, “Row, row, row.”

When you were younger, Grandma used to sing the Mickey Mouse song to you and she would imitate Donald Duck’s voice when she said his name, so to you it probably sounded like she was singing, “Mickey Mouse, quack-quack-quack, Mickey Mouse, quack-quack-quack.” So now every time you see a Mickey, your face lights up and you start quacking like a duck. It drives Daddy nuts, but I love it!

You occasionally put words together, but not often. You like to open doors, poke your head out and say, “Hi, Mommy!” and the past few nights you have said, “Night-night, Daddy.” after he says goodnight to you.

INDEPENDENT.

If you were struggling with your independence a few months ago, you have certainly made up your mind this month. You want to do everything yourself. And everything has to be your idea. You try to exert your independence as much as you possibly can.

A large part of my days consists of coming up with creative ways to accomplish the things that need to get done while somehow convincing you that they were all your ideas. Everything from what outfit I put on you to what you eat and when. And where. And if I can’t make something seem like your idea, I have to at least give you options and let you make a choice so you feel like you have some say in the matter. Otherwise, I risk facing “the wrath of Carter.” And let me tell you, it isn’t pretty.

This has been the biggest adjustment for Daddy and me as parents. Some days it feels like a series of power struggles from sun up to sun down. For the record, you are winning almost every single one. And the ones you aren’t, we only win by making you think you’re winning. Once you wise up to our tricks, we’ll be in real trouble.

AFFECTIONATE.

In between the power struggles, there are moments of sweetness

that are so precious it feels like my heart might explode.

At various times throughout the day you suddenly stop what you’re doing, walk over to me and slowly and ever-so-gently climb onto my lap. Then you put your little arms around the back of my neck and sweetly kiss me. Usually a quick peck on the lips and then lots more kisses all over my cheeks. I kiss you back and you nuzzle your face into mine and give me a big hug. Sometimes I try to pull away, but you hug me tighter and keep kissing and hugging as long as I’ll let you.

It breaks my heart to think that someday you will be too grown up to want to kiss your mommy.

So I am savoring every single one of these moments while they last.

GROWING.

At your 15-month checkup, you were in the 45^th percentile for height and you have grown a lot since then, so I expect you’ll be above the 50^th at your 18-month checkup. That’s new for you.

Since you are still on the thin side, your 12-month pants all fit you fine in the waist, but they are starting to look pretty short on you. Mary came over this month (you painted Christmas ornaments with her!) and she took one look at your jeans and said she’d better not hear that we’ve taken her Godson out of the house in floods!

NURTURING.

If your 18-month-old self is any indication, you will make a wonderful father someday. You are so loving towards your stuffed toys and dolls. You love to dress and undress them, pretend to feed them and shower them with hugs and kisses. If I’m being perfectly honest, I have caught you throwing a few of them around from time to time, too, but you are mostly sweet and kind to them!

HUNGRY.

You eat so much food, Daddy and I can’t figure out where it all goes. Many nights at dinner you eat more than either of us and you always want more. You’ve eaten almost everything we’ve ever offered you and you still love your veggies. Broccoli is probably your favorite this month.

FAMILY-ORIENTED.

You are completely fascinated by the idea of families. You say the words Mommy, Daddy and Carter about a hundred times more often than any other words. I mean that literally. As the Christmas cards have come this month, you study the pictures and instead of pointing at the kids for me to name them, you are fascinated by the fact that there are parents in some of the pictures. You point and after I tell you, “That’s Logan’s Daddy” or “That’s Ellie’s Mommy,” you will not walk past the cards without pointing out each parent and telling me whether he or she is a mommy or a daddy.

In each of your play sets that have people, you have chosen one mommy and one daddy. In your airport set, Daddy is the guy in the orange uniform that drives the luggage around and Mommy is the flight attendant wearing red. In your Noah’s Ark shape sorter, Noah is called Daddy and his wife is Mommy. Instead of gravitating toward certain animals like you used to, now you usually search for the Mommy and Daddy first.

RELIGIOUS.

Okay, maybe you’re a little young to be considered religious, but you are surprisingly well-informed on the REAL meaning of Christmas. We let you open your little people nativity on Thanksgiving morning and since then you probably average 2-3 hours per day playing with it. You also beg Daddy and me to hold you so you can look at the big nativity set on the piano over and over again.

I bought you a little board book about the Christmas story that you love to read over and over. You are able to “tell” much of the story back to me, using your nativity figures to demonstrate. You show me how Mary rode the donkey and Joseph walked next to her and you show me how the wise men rode camels and how they gave gifts to the baby Jesus (they tend to give Him lots of kisses, too!). You even act out the angel talking to Mary and the angels telling the shepherds (and sheep!) about the baby Jesus being born. I would NEVER have expected you to take such an interest in this at 18 months old.

As you tell the Christmas story or even when you are just playing with your nativity, you always refer to Mary and Joseph as “Mommy” and “Daddy”, and you call the baby “Carter”! We have corrected you every single time and we always call Him “Baby Jesus”, but you refuse to call him anything but “Carter”. In fact, any time you see a nativity anywhere or just a picture or ornament of the baby Jesus in a manger, you point and call Him “Carter”. We’re letting it slide this year since it’s so cute and you don’t know any better!