Dear Elliott,
Today you turn twenty four months old. TWENTY FOUR! I can’t believe you are a 2 year old. You are no longer my baby, but my little toddler.

Well, you know what, you may not technically be a baby any more – but you will always be MY baby!

Your vocal skills continue to amaze me and this past month has seen a whirlwind of words and sounds. There’s no point in me listing all of the words that you say now because there are just so many.

You have even starting putting words together, saying mini sentences such as “mama cup” and “mo fwies peeeeeeas!”. Damn it, I love you. You are adorable.

I know that every mother thinks her kid is the cutest kid on the planet, but seriously – I mean, come on now. YOU ARE TOTALLY THE CUTEST KID ON THE PLANET.

You are still not a big fan of vegetables, but we will continue to try feeding them to you. Last week you ate an entire raw pepper (cut into strips, of course) all by yourself and got upset when it was gone.

Cooked peppers, though – no way. You will feed them to Buddy when we’re not looking. That dog will eat anything. Did I tell you he ate a ball of lint, yesterday?

I really do believe that the only way we’re going to be able to get you to eat your veggies is to smother them in ice cream.

At the end of June, we took you up north for the first time. Grandma Howard and some of your great-aunts and uncles own a bunch of cottages up there and so we took you to check them out. The 3 hour car ride went surprisingly well (meaning, you slept the entire ride there since we left after your bed time).

You spent the first morning at the cottage in the water. Never have I seen you so focused – so adamant about doing one particular thing over and over again, for what seemed like eternity. Eventually, I gave up trying to keep you and your clean clothes out of the lake and let you splash around. Your perfectly dry diaper swelled up so much that it eventually started to fall off – but we just let you play. You were having such a great time.

You loved pointing out all of the BOATS! and TRAINS! and TRUCKS! that you saw up north. Every time you saw one of those things, you would shriek in excitement and make sure that everyone around you noticed the same thing you just did.

“Look at that BOAT! Isn’t it AWESOME?!”

One of the cutest things you’ve started doing this month is showing interest in calling your Grandpa. You will point at the phone and say “Papa! Papa!” and you will NOT give up until I let you talk to him on the phone. All you do is blah blah blah and throw some random words like “poo poo” and “story” into the conversation, but I know that your Grandpa just loves it.

You’ve really taken a liking to chalk this year. We let you colour on the sidewalk and the front porch and you get so into it. You pretty much just draw a bunch of lines here and there, but you are so proud of yourself and that makes me smile. Especially when you draw on the front porch railing and tell me it is a “pretty mess”. *sigh* Are you going to be this cute forever? Because I don’t think I could handle that much cuteness.

Tonight we are going to celebrate another wonderful year with you by indulging in your favourite treat (and your mommy’s and daddy’s, too) – CHOCOLATE! Chocolate cake, that is. I can’t wait to smoosh it in your face and listen to you giggle.

I love you, pumpkin. Happy birthday.

Love,
Mama

Dear Elliott,
Today you turn 23 months old. There’s only one month left until your second birthday. I know it’s cliche – but wow, time flies.

You are a completely different person this month. You talk SO much. There are words you know how to say that I didn’t even know you knew about. When did I teach you the word/name “Elmo”? He is on some of your diapers and whenever I whip one out of the box, you scream his name. If I held up a book full of Sesame Street characters and asked you to point him out, I have no doubts that you could do it.

I’m not even going to list all of the worst you say now because there are just so many. You’ve just recently started to put two words together and my favourite is “Mama up” – which does not mean what you think it does. It means “Mama cup”. We’re working on pronouncing that “C” better.

Your Grandma warned me that there would be some words you’d start saying that are supposed to be one thing but sound like another.. like truck. Guess what that sounds like when you try to say it. In public. REALLY LOUD. Uh huh. I get some pretty awesome dirty looks when you belt that one out.

One of my favourite things to do is watch you read. You sit down with a book on your lap and start spitting out all of this jibberish and it just sounds SO CUTE. I can’t get enough of it.

You like talking to our neighbours whenever you go outside and the conversation often goes a bit like this:

sie ya ya ow sieeee
stawbey (strawberry)!
mama mama daddyyyyyy
sie ya go sie yaaaaaa

You’ve actually started eating (and enjoying) a few vegetables this month. You still won’t eat the delicious green trees known as broccoli, but you do like cucumber now. Of course, it has to be doused in our homemade salad dressing – but it still counts! I even caught you eating corn as if it was candy not too long ago.

Please tell me you are finally coming out of your “BREAD AND ONLY BREAD” phase!

This month we celebrated Father’s Day by making Daddy a tin can with treats and card. You love scribbling on paper, so I let you do so on your dad’s card and he loved it! We also went to visit Grandpa for Father’s Day and made chili for dinner. Of course, all you wanted to eat was the bread.

You always have lots of fun when you visit your Grandpa. You love sitting in his lap watching Disney movies. We also brought some of your books this time and you had a great time reading them all to Grandpa.

When I was pregnant with you, I was warned about “the terrible twos”. I had no idea what the eff that meant so I looked it up and was terrified. Surely my baby wouldn’t throw temper tantrums, right?

WRONG! You pretty much whine all day long. About everything. Your cup is too far away, your crackers (or “cashas”, as you like to call them) fell on the floor, your dad disappeared into the kitchen and you can no longer see him, you can’t open the front door – the list goes on and on. I honestly can’t remember the last time that you went the entire day without complaining about something.

Ahhh, how I miss the early days!

Of course, I love you no matter what, but really – you’re freaking out because there’s a piece of paper stuck to your foot? Come on now!

The weather has been really nice lately, so we’ve been spending quite a bit of time outside, which has been fun. We often go for long walks around the neighbourhood, but sometimes you just play outside with your dad, if I have lots of work to do. I honestly think you prefer that.

I’m really looking forward to the rest of the summer with you. We have so many fun things planned – I can’t wait to get started!

Love,
Mama

Dear Elliott,
Today you turn twenty two months old.

May has been somewhat of a boring month for us. I think we may have only had one full day of sunshine all month and because of that, we have stayed indoors quite a bit – which isn’t much fun. I’m really hoping that June will be nicer.

You have started to become extremely rebellious this month. You love to do things that we tell you not to do, such as stand on top of your play kitchen, or dive off the coffee table head-first. It’s difficult not to laugh when what you are doing is funny (even if it may be wrong).

You throw tempter tantrums easily now, especially when you want to be involved with whatever is going on in the kitchen. If I am in the kitchen doing something, you want to stand on the end table beside the couch, lean over the ledge in the kitchen and watch exactly what I’m doing. You aren’t yet able to get up onto the table yourself, so you just scream until someone puts you up there – and then you’re smiling and happy.

Another time you have bad temper tantrums is when someone leaves the house and doesn’t bring you with them. You will start pounding on the front door, screaming at the top of your lungs. Eventually you will throw yourself to the ground and start rolling around. I really need to catch that on camera, because it’s quite an exceptional performance.

This month we went to Toronto to see Dairy Queen attempt the “largest ice cream cake” record for the Guinness Book of World Records. You watched for about 60 seconds and then started to lose your cool. Have I mentioned that you don’t like to sit still for very long? Yeah…

Instead of watching the ice cream cake attempt, we decided to just walk around Toronto. We found a park that had lots of birds and let you run around screaming “bee!”, “bee!”. You were none too pleased when it was time to strap you back in your stroller and head home. We stopped off at the spot where they were building the ice cream cake to see if we could score a piece, but the line-up went around the block. Um… no thanks!

So, we headed home. It was not a wasted trip, though, as you did get to experience the craziness that is Toronto.

You grandma Howard turned 60 this month and to celebrate, we threw her a huge surprise party. Aunt Suzy helped us plan everything and then when the day finally came, she took grandma out to go shopping and then we showed up at grandma’s house to decorate and get the food ready. People started showing up a few hours later and when everyone was there, we sent the call to aunt Suzy to bring grandma home.

Everyone yelled “surprise!” when grandma walked in the door and the look on her face was priceless!

We spent most of the time hanging out in the backyard at the party, since the weather was nice. You loved running around from person to person, stealing bits of food off of their plates (Buddy enjoyed this part too… that dog must have gained 5 from all the food he inhaled that day!).

We had a fabulous time, enjoying barbecued meats, potatoes, salad and desserts. I’m so glad that the surprise party went off without a hitch. It was a wonderful day.

Your vocabulary has really revved up this month and you are now saying more than ever. Here are the words that you can say: socks (sos), shoes (sewey), sausage (saucy), baby, dog, daddy, mommy, car (ca), bus, truck (tuck), Missy, Max, Buddy, Dewey, stuck (tuck), fall, sticky (icky), no, yes, what’s that (was at), birdie (bewey), book, toy (ewey), stairs (stay), cereal (see-bee-yal), rice, poo poo, mouse, elmo, star (sta), story (stow-ee), apple…. the list goes on!

May has been a bit boring, but since the weather has started to warm up, we have been planning to do a lot of fun things in June. I’m excited to get started!

Love,
Mama

Dear Elliott,
Today you turn 21 months old. Well, actually, that was yesterday. I’m late again – sorry! I have a good excuse though, I swear. Yesterday was the first sunny day in over 2 weeks, so we spent pretty much the entire time outside, and I fell asleep on the couch after dinner.

We went to a really great park near our house and walked along the trails for over 2 hours in the morning, then we stopped to have a little picnic. It was AWESOME. You are such a big boy now. You always want to walk on your own, without anyone holding your hand, and you especially love pushing the stroller when we go for walks. You get many smiles from passerby!

You say words all the time now. Mama, daddy, shoe, TV, baby, teeth, please, thank you, love you, bye, hi – you also know who all of our pets are and how to say their names: Dewey, Buddy, Max and Missy. Most of the time you are just speaking jibberish, but if we ask you to say something, you usually can. One of my recent favourites is hearing you say “woof woof” and “meow”, when we ask you what the dog and cat say. Another cute thing that you do when speaking is throw the word “yeah” after pretty much everything, which is probably because when you say something right, your dad and I will say “yeah!”. Oopsies! Oh well, it’s still adorable.

You got your first haircut this month and I really wish we hadn’t waited so long because YOU LOOKED SO FREAKIN’ CUTE. We thought you were cute before the haircut, of course, and we were worried that the hairdresser would mess up your hair – but you were growing a mullet… and I will not let my kid walk around with a hairstyle like that! So, off we went to the children’s hair salon. They had lots of distractions in there, like a TV that was playing “Go Diego, Go!” and bright colours everywhere. You were glued to the TV, and hardly moved at all while you were getting your hair cut. At the end, you had your hair spiked (which we would totally do more often, but I’m afraid that we would die from the cuteness) and we were on our merry way!

It has started to warm up a bit this month, so we have been trying to spend as much time outside as possible. You love going to the park, but all you ever seem to want to do is swing on the swings. For some reason you don’t like the slide, which is THE BEST PART of a park, dontcha know? We’ll keep trying. One of these days you will be terrified of the swings and the slide will be your best friend.

One thing that has not been going so well this month is your eating habits. All you ever want to eat is bread, rice, crackers, bread, bananas, bread… oh, and have I mentioned bread? You NEVER want to eat vegetables and if we even dare to try and feed you some, you will totally lose your cool and start screaming, while trying to attack us from your highchair. It’s not a pretty sight. You are so smart that you can always detect vegetables, even when they are hidden in your carb of choice.

A new routine that we have started this month is to have your daddy read you a story before bed. I will usually brush your teeth, give you a kiss goodnight and then hand you over. The story really calms you down, so you rarely cry at bedtime now. I think you really enjoy it.

The weather is supposed to be nice this coming week, and we are really looking forward to having lots of fun family time – outdoors. You love being outside.

Love,
Mama

Dear Elliott,
Today you turn 20 months old. Well, actually, that was 2 days ago. I would have written your letter then, but unfortunetely we had to take you to the hospital that day, as you were very sick.

You have had a bad cold for over a week now. It started last Wednesday as a bad cough that wouldn’t go away. Days later, it got worse and you started throwing up. It was the first time I’ve ever seen you do that and it was so sad. We took you to the doctor and she said you had bronchiolitis. You were prescribed some medicine and some puffers (which are rather frightening, by the way) and then we were on our way.

The entire next day was spent cleaning up vomit because you would puke every half an hour. It was awful.

On the day you turned 20 months old you had a very high fever and your dad and I were tired of seeing you so sick, so we took you to the emergency room. We were there for almost 4 hours. In the end, they said that you had somehow caught 2 colds, one after the other, and that’s why you had been sick for so long. They told us to continue the medication and puffers from the doctor and to keep you hydrated the best we could.

The next day you were so incredibly tired and clingy. You would just fall asleep on the couch… even with the TV on, which is totally unlike you.

Many kids want their mommy when they are sick, but you just want to lay with dad. I don’t know if I should be jealous or just enjoy seeing the two of you so close. It’s a toss up. Either way, you’re starting to feel better now and that makes me happy.

This last month has been absolutely crazy, to say the least.

Your cousins Alex and Thomas came to visit a few weeks ago. It was Alex and Aunt Amanda’s birthday and they were staying at Grandma Howard’s house for a few days, so we went over there to see them. You went twice during the time that they were there. The first time you went with your dad, while I stayed home and did some work. He took you to visit Grandpa Howard’s grave site and he said you were a good little boy while you were there. Then you went to the park and played with your cousins. You always have so much fun at parks, especially on the swings!

The next time you saw your cousins was a few days later. Grandma was having Alex’s birthday party at her house so of course we went to that. It was so much fun to see you interact with those little boys. My favourite part of the day was when you were standing around the coffee table reading books out loud with Alex. FREAKIN’ ADORABLE. Your dad and I could not stop giggling. I’m pretty sure it was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

You really like playing with other kids now. You share toys and the only time you really get upset is if another kid tries to take something that you are playing with. Like when Alex took a toy truck you were playing with and you smacked him in the head and said NO! Is it bad that I laughed when you did that? Cause it’s totally not cool to hit other people.. but it sure was funny (and kind of cute) to see you stand up for yourself!

You also visited your Grandpa Huckson this month and had lots of fun playing with your blocks at his apartment. Your favourite thing to do at his place is run all around, exploring everything… and talking on the phone. Well, fake talking. It’s so cute when you try to hang the phone back on the base when you are finished, and it doesn’t fit quite right and you get all frustrated.

One of our family dogs, Maggie, passed away this month. She got really sick with bone cancer and she had to be put down. This was a very hard thing for your dad and I to do, but we knew that Maggie wasn’t happy and that she was tired and just wanted to sleep. She was not her usual hyper self and and was very sore. I just want you to know that Maggie loved you very much. You would always jump around on her and she would never, ever growl or snap at you. You loved giving her hugs and kisses and would always squeal and run away when she would lick your face (and then you would come back for more). She was such a wonderful doggy and I really wish you could have had her around much longer.

Let’s get back to the happy stuff that happened this month, shall we?

You helped mommy and daddy make cupcakes this month and it was lots of fun! We really enjoyed watching you stir the batter and then try to scoop it all in your mouth (gross!). I think your favourite part is when the cupcakes were finally done and you could stuff your face with their chocolatey goodness.

This month has been very exciting in terms of your education. You are able to say so many words now! Here are some that you can say well – dada, daddy, mama, buddy (our dog), dewey (our cat), dog, book, shoe, baby, up, no, yes, yeah, and bus. It’s so amazing to hear you say actual words (and know what they mean)!

There have been many highs and many lows this month, but I’m glad that we could experience them all together, as a family.

Love,
Mama

Dear Elliott,
Today you turn nineteen months old. You have become such an active little kid this month. You never EVER sit still. You are such a Daddy’s boy and follow your dad everywhere. You get very upset when he leaves the room or he puts you down after holding you for awhile. You scream bloody murder and throw yourself on the floor, mercilessly kicking your legs. You have an instant smile on your face the second your dad returns to the room or picks you back up. I honestly think you should consider becoming an actor. You can go from one emotion to the next in a matter of seconds.

The animals are your best friends. You can now say dog (even though you still forget the G) and you point to them when we ask you where they are. Buddy is your current favourite. You are always hugging him and giving him kisses. You love the ‘Fido’ commercial where there is a little Jack Russel and a huge pile of dog treats. You will stop everything you’re doing just to show everyone in the room that there is a DAW! DAW! on TV.

You’ve just started saying some new words within the last week. ‘Shoe’ was the first real word that you said. You can also say ‘bus’, ‘up’, and ‘bear’. Speaking of busses – you love to point them out. When we are driving or walking outside, if you see a bus, you will get very excited and point – while yelling BUS! BUS! BUS!

You really love to explore every day items. Dishes, blankets, shoes – everything. You bring them all over the house and play with them as if they were your own toys. Your actual toys don’t get played with as much. Most of them stay in your bedroom because if they are down in the living room, you will throw them over the baby gate and into the basement. I got sick up cleaning them up every day, so we don’t keep many downstairs anymore.

Another thing you don’t show much interest in anymore is television. You do NOT like it when we have the TV turned on. If you are in the living room and see that the television is on, you will run over and turn it off. This is annoying. Please stop. You also found the power bar recently and were turning it on and off whenever no one was paying attention to you. To stop this, I had to sick your big play kitchen in front of the bar so you couldn’t get to it anymore. I’m pretty sure you will catch on eventually. It’s times like these that I wish you weren’t so freakin’ smart.

Bath times with you are interesting now. You used to always stand up, but now you absolutely refuse to do that. You prefer to lay down on your belly and use one of your toys to splash the water around. You would stay in the bath tub all day long if I let you. You are not very happy when I try to take you out and get you dressed. You will scream and try to climb back in the tub. It was much easier to bathe you when you didn’t really move, but that’s okay. At least you’re having fun.

The weather is warming up now and I’m so excited. We have so many fun things that we plan to do with you! This summer is going to be awesome.

Love,
Mama

*Note: If you wish to read more letters like this, you can view the Dear Elliott category.

Dear Elliott,
Today you turn 18 months old and you certainly aren’t a baby anymore. You are constantly on the move. I don’t think I’ve seen you sit still for more than a full minute in the last 4 weeks, if not longer. The only time I can get you to stop running around the house like a mad man, is if I strap you into your high chair and give you something to eat.

Speaking of eating, you eat A LOT, but you are still not too keen on those pesky vegetables. You have started eating meat again, but those veggies just haven’t made it into your mouth yet. You always know when we are trying to disguise them. YOU ALWAYS KNOW. I think that the only way I’m going to be able to get you to eat vegetables is to start dipping them in chocolate.

This month was the first time you walked outside in the snow. It was actually the first time you had to wear snow pants and boots as well, and you were NOT A FAN. You pretty much screamed the entire time I was putting them on you. You refused to wear your gloves so I only had you outside for a few minutes and you just kind of stood there in the snow, not sure what to do. You took a few steps and then fell down, completely covering your hands in snow – and that’s when you just went nuts! Damn that snow!

About a week later you went out in the snow again, but this time your dad was there so you didn’t cry at all. You just watched him intently as he shoveled the driveway and sidewalk. I couldn’t get you to actually sit down or play in the snow, so you just stood there the entire time. Hey, whatever works for ya!

After we had some really good snow falls, we decided to go out tobogganing. Your dad was so excited to take you down the hills with him! The closest hill from our house is about 20 minutes away, and when we left to go there it was already late afternoon, so when we arrived, many people were leaving. Oh well… less competition! We found a hill that wasn’t too big and you got to go down a bunch of times with dad and then twice with me. It was lots of fun, but we had to leave pretty soon after arriving, because it was SO COLD outside.

Your Grandma Howard was here this week because I needed to get some work done and didn’t want any interruptions. She said you were a good boy all week! You played with your toys, you played with the animals and you got to watch all of your favourite TV shows. You had a great time with your grandma! I’m glad that I was able to get lots of work done while she was here, but I missed seeing you all the time. I’m so happy that I get to see you whenever I want now!

You have learned to climb up on furniture, and the leather ottoman in the front room is your favourite. You will crawl right up on that thing and then sit there while you watch TV. You also love to crawl up on to the big chair and then stand on the arm so that you can turn the living room lights on and off. By the way, that’s annoying.

You still haven’t started to really talk yet, but I do think that it will be soon. You do a lot of babbling and sometimes I hear words, but I don’t think you are actually trying to say THOSE words, but something else. It’s adorable, though. I love seeing you “talk” and have conversations with people. I’m pretty sure it’s the cutest thing ever.

Love, Mama

Dear Elliott,
Today you turn 17 months old. This month was crazy full of holiday celebrations. When we put up our Christmas tree, we only had lights and one lonely strand of red beads on the tree. Last year was bad enough with all 3 cats knocking the ornaments off – we didn’t want to add you to the mix! I can just imagine how much fun you would have had taking all the ornaments off of the Christmas tree EVERY SINGLE DAY and how much it would irritate the hell out of me. Hopefully we can have a less naked tree next year.

Speaking of Christmas – this year was awesome. We decided to simplify and only go to 3 houses this year. Last year we went to 7 houses over the course of 2 days and it was absolutely exhausting. So this Christmas Eve we went to visit your Grandma Ruth and Aunt Lindsey. Uncle Daryl wasn’t there because he had to work. You spent the entire time running around the house trying to find something to get into. Your new thing is cupboards. If you can get to them, you will open them up and take out everything inside. I am so glad we have that baby gate seperating you from the kitchen.

We had a yummy dinner with turkey, chicken, potatoes and veggies. Like usual, you would only eat the mashed potatoes. I am going to find a sneaky way to get vegetables into you and YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE THEM.

On Christmas morning we ate pancakes and opened your presents. I’m sorry to say that all you got this year was some clothing and a blanket. It’s a good thing you’re not old enough to tell us we suck. You also got a toy vacuum which you love to push around the house.

After breakfast, we went over to visit grandpa. We spent some time with him for awhile and you kept playing with his phone. It’s right in reach and you would pick it up, push a bunch of buttons and pretend you were talking to someone. When you were done, you would try to hang it back up, but couldn’t quite get it – which made you so mad that you started screaming and slamming the phone on the table. Have I mentioned that you’re a bit of a drama queen?

Christmas evening was spent at grandma Barbara’s house. We opened presents and had a super yummy turkey dinner. Well, we did – you chose to eat buns instead. The buns were pretty damn good, but COME ON NOW. Eat something other than carbs! You love grandma Barbara’s house because she has a dog and 2 kitties that you can chase. Unfortunetely, they are not as friendly as our animals.That doesn’t stop you from trying to hug them though.

Ahhhhh, the hugs! You LOVE to give hugs and kisses. If I ask you for a kiss, you will plant one on me and say MWAH! If I ask for a hug, you will lay your head on my chest and say AWWWW. You haven’t really grasped the whole “put your arms around me” aspect yet – you just do the head resting, which is cute!

Your favourite things to eat lately are oatmeal with honey and peanut butter (you can’t get enough of this stuff), crackers, bananas, bread, raw celery and carotts, potatoes and rice – lots and lots of rice with soya sauce. You drink 1% milk before bed and in the morning and drink water and/or juice during the day. You LOVE juice! Any kind.

Mommy and daddy went on a little weekend getaway this month and grandma Barbara came over to babysit you and the animals. She said you had lots of fun playing with your toys and eating. You do love eating! I love that you will pretty much hang out with anyone and don’t get scared when your mom or dad aren’t in the room.

You still sleep from 8pm-8am, sometimes as late as 9am. You just looooooove to sleep which is FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. You also still nap from 12-3pm, which gives mommy some time to work. You got a new Toy Story blanket & pillow set from Aunt Lindsey and grandma Ruth, and you love to snuggle up in your crib with them.

For an hour or so every day, I let you watch TV while I get some house work done and your favourite shows are Thomas The Train, Dragon, 4 Squares, The Backyardigans, Yo Gabba Gabba, Dora The Explorer, Toot & Puddle and Toopy & Binoo. You really love shows that have lots of singing and dancing. You’re not sure how to dance yet, so you just kind of sit or stand in one spot and bounce up and down.

You are not a fan of bath time anymore, since I took away your infant seat and plopped you directly into the tub. You stand up right away and cling to my arm for dear life. I sure hope you aren’t as afraid of water as I am.

You are starting to like brushing your teeth now, except it might just be for the simple fact that I let you hold the toothpaste while I brush, and the container has a big picture of Thomas the Train on it. Oh well, as long as your teeth are clean!

I can tell that you are really starting to turn into a big boy now. I no longer have a baby, I have a toddler – but that’s okay with me! You’re still awesome.

Love,
Mama

Dear Elliott,
Today you turn 16 months old and I am in complete awe of you. You “talk” all the time, which is really more babbling than anything, but I know you think you’re actually saying words so we’ll just play pretend, ok?

You are so in love with women. Young girls, teenagers, middle aged women, elderly ladies – all of them. Your goal in life is to somehow catch their glance and then smile really big to get some type of reaction out of them. Like today when we were shopping at the store, I was paying the cashier and there was a lady behind us. She was reading the back of her cookie box, and you start babbling and staring at her. She finally looks at you and you smile reaaaally big and start giggling. She smiles back and starts rubbing your head. Apparently that’s what she thought you wanted her to do, but all that really did was make you upset. As soon as she stopped touching you, you were all smiles again. I think people just need to understand that TOUCHING A BABY WITHOUT ASKING THE PARENT IS NOT COOL. EVEN THE BABY GETS THAT.

November is a pretty boring month, since there are no holdays or birthdays. It’s also starting to get really cold and I assume snow is coming soon. Winter sucks! Although I am hoping you like the snow alot better than you did last year because I think I could get some pretty awesome photos of you playing in it! You know me, never leave home without my camera!

You love your Daddy’s teddy bear. You would carry it around the house all day if I let you, but the dogs like to steal it from you and slobber all over the poor thing, so we keep it in your room. You snuggle with it at night and it always makes you smile when you see it. If we ask you to get us your bear, you bring it right to us and smile. Adorable!

You still really love bathtime, which I’m so happy about. When you hear the water running in the bathroom, you go running and stick your hand under the flowing water. You’re eager to get into the tub and play with all your toys. I think we are going to have to retire the bath seat soon and just put you directly into the tub. You’re getting so big! At your last doctor’s appointment, I was told you are right around 25 pounds…. forgive me if I don’t want to carry you all the time.

You are starting to look alot like your dad now. For the first year of your life everyone said you looked exactly like me, but now they can see him in you as well. You’re turning into such a cute little man! I love watching you grow and turn into the cutest little toddler I’ve ever seen.

Speaking of your dad, you are crazy obsessed with him. When you hear the front door unlock around dinner time, you yell DADA really loud and start smiling and bouncing around. If you are not already in your highchair and eating dinner, you will run to the front door to greet your daddy. You are always so excited to see him! You especially like it when he picks you up and lets you flick the lights on and off. You get incredibly upset when he puts you back down. You will throw the biggest temper tantrum by screaming and smacking your head off the floor. Weirdo.

Next month is Christmas so you and I have spent the majority of November in the stores, picking up all the great deals that we can find. Daddy put up the Christmas tree this past weekend and I put up the Christmas decorations. It is looking so festive in here! Of course, our tree is pretty naked, considering there’s only lights on it. As much as I would love to have ornaments on there, I know I would be cleaning them off the floor every single day if I put them on. You, the cats, the dogs… no thanks! Hopefully we can put them up next year.

Love,
Mama

Dear Elliott,
Yesterday you turned fifteen months old and I totally would have written your monthly letter then but I was very busy packing our suitcases. Why? We had to leave this morning to come HOME from FLORIDA! That’s right, we were in Florida for our first every family vacation and it was freakin’ amazing. You were very well behaved on the plane (shocker!) and you loved our massive resort suite. Your favourite part was running all over the place in your bare feet so you could hear the smacking sound of your feet hitting the floor.

On our vacation we did lots of exciting things. You met Mickey and Minnie mouse, Donald duck, Goofy and even Lilo and Stitch! I think they may have freaked you out a bit but you didn’t whine or cry which is a success in my mind. We saw a parade, went to the beach, ate at lots of fantastic restaraunts and you even went trick or treating in Downtown Disney. Awesome!!!

It was a great vacation and I can’t wait to go back and have even more fun with you.

You have an entire mouth full of teeth now. You like to bite pillows and blankets and stuffed animals – oh, and fingers too. I think fingers are your favourite. You hate to have your teeth brushed. All you want to do is suck all the toothpaste off of the brush and call it a day. Sorry, kid. That’s not how it works. If I have to brush my teeth every day, so do you. Fair is fair!

This month has brought two wonderful new habits for you. Throwing your toys and smacking people in the face. Sometimes both at the same time. I keep telling you that every time you throw a toy, I’m going to take it away but that doesn’t seem to bother you. You’ll just find something of mine to throw. And the hitting? Yeah, that’s not cool either. Especially when I’m trying to be all nice and snugly and kiss you and you pop me one right in the eye. How rude! If you keep that up, I won’t keep sneaking you chocolate.

Thanksgiving was this month and we went over to visit your Grandma Howard. Have I mentioned that she makes the best apple pie ever? No? Well, she does. Just so you know. You ate almost an entire slice yourself and then kept bugging your dad for some of his pumpkin pie. Ewie.

We went to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago and man, you do NOT like pumpkins! All I wanted was a few pictures of you playing in the field full of pumpkins and every time I’d walk away to get some shots, you’d sit down in the dirt and start crying. You were okay if someone was holding you, but that was it! You did like holding your little baby pumpkin though. I guess it’s just the big ones that freak you out. Whatevs!

Love, Mama