Dear Graham,
Every
night when we say prayers together before I put you down to sleep I
thank God for the joy that you bring to our lives. This month, I added
to it a prayer for those times that aren’t as joyful too. Yes, during
the last month you have decided you have an opinion. And you usually
voice that opinion with a “no,” even if you don’t know what it means or
what’s being asked or if you just won the lottery. Because of this new
trait, I have placed a hold on several library books that talk about
parenting for toddlers. Hopefully they get in soon.
But
with that opinion of yours has come a whole new world of discovery. I
can share with you all kinds of things from trees to flowers to bugs to
sports and here’s the kicker: you actually remember what I shared with
you the next day. Or the next week. It’s exciting to see how your little
brain has expanded to include the ability to recall more and more. It
also means I can no longer let you do something “just one time” because
you’ll know and want to do it a thousand more times.
This
recall ability has also impacted your memorization of songs, the
alphabet, books and numbers. You complete the last word of many of the
pages of your books and you can count to 15, but still skipping the
numbers 6 and 7 just to get to 8 a bit faster. You love singing and
music and when I ask you if you want to sing a song you’ll say yes, but
then when I start to sing a song that apparently isn’t the one you want,
you quickly say “no.” And I never pick the right song to sing first. So
our little conversation typically goes like this:
Me: “Twinkle, twinkle?”
You: “No.”
Me: “Old MacDonald had a farm?”
You: “No.”
Me, “Row, row, row your boat?”
You: “No.”
Me: “B-I-N-G-O?”
You: “No.”
Me: “Itsy, bitsy spider?”
You: “No.”
Me: “Wheels on the bus?"
You: “No.”
Me: (Starting to wonder how many kids songs are left in the universe) “Where is thumbkin?”
You: “YES!”
Except
you say it in this way that’s like “Duh, mom! Of course I want Where is
thumbkin, why didn’t you know that and we could have been saved from the
last 5 minutes of conversation.” But the next time when you want to
sing and I start with Where is thumbkin that’s not the song you want, so
the above conservation ensues again.
We traveled to Florida again during your 22nd
month to celebrate your Uncle Troy’s college graduation from a school
that’s not quite as good as Florida State. Fortunately though, mommy’s
best friend from growing up lives in the same town as the aforementioned
school and kindly volunteered for us to stay with her and to watch you
during the ceremony. She has two little boys and you had so much fun
joining right in to play with them. Aside from a few times that you
wondered where your mommy had gone, you were great and loved playing. In
fact, when we left the next day and flew back to Houston, you would say
Noah and Asher’s names and then say “bye-bye.”
You
now comprehend that your daddy flies airplanes and so every airplane
you see you say “daddy.” You also point to the pilots in your airport
book (which is one of your favorites) and say daddy. During your 22nd
month you also started to understand the concept of “on.” As in I want
to get “on” the airplane or “on” the bus or “on”
[insertanythingthatmoveshere]. So, when we drive to school in the
morning and see a bus, you say “on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on,
on, on.” So I say, “Do you want to get on the bus, Graham?” And you say “yeah.” Then you do it again.
This
was cute for about the first 1,000 times. But when we’re stuck in
traffic on a 10 lane road surrounded by things you want to get “on,”
let’s just say it gets a bit repetitive.
You
continue to be such a boy through and through. You love your cars,
trains, bugs, sports of any kind on TV (which is fascinating to me), any
type of roughhousing and being put up on daddy’s shoulders.
I love seeing you on your daddy’s shoulders the most…my two favorite people holding onto one another.
Love,
Mommy
