Seventeen Months!

Dear William,

I have been meaning to write you another letter for months now and can never seem to find the time. I wonder why? Oh, yes...it's probably because you, my darling boy, are a total handful! Life is never, ever boring. Or quiet. Or relaxing. Or clean. At least when you're awake. And I love it. Most of the time. :)

Physical Development
You started walking when you were 14 months old. We knew you were physically ready and able to walk long before then, but you just weren't ready. One day, though, you just decided you were ready. You had only taken a few practice steps-2 or 3 at a time-until then. But one day you just let go. You were halfway across the family room before I knew it! You haven't slowed down since then. A few weeks later you figured out how to stand up on your own, without pulling up on anything, and that was pretty much the end of your crawling. I think since you waited until a little later to start walking, you were physically strong and coordinated enough to avoid too many falls. You're now running, turning, walking sideways and backwards. You're unstoppable!

You have 7 teeth now. Your molars are coming in and you're chewing and drooling again like crazy!

Talking
You LOVE to communicate! It makes you so happy when you sign or say or tell us something in another way and we understand you. You also must be acknowledged when you talk. If not, you just keep saying the same thing over and over, usually at increasing volume.

You say: ah-choo! (when someone sneezes or coughs and when you burp), all done, ball, bath, bird, book, brush, bye-bye, car, dada, dog, hat, hot, keys, mama, that, what's that? ("wha da?"), where did it go? ("a go?")

You sign: airplane, all done, apple, ball, banana, bath, book, car, cheese, cold, dog, eat, flower, glove, hat, leaf, milk, more, no, please, read, rain, shhhhh, shoes, thank you, want

Eating
Until recently, you would eat almost anything I put in front of you with a few exceptions. I think you're finally starting to exhibit some typical toddler pickiness when it comes to food. You still don't like many things that are considered "kid food," like spaghetti or pizza. In fact, you don't like most foods that have any kind of sauce on them. I guess I should be happy, though, because you would eat fruit all day long if I'd let you. At least I know you're getting lots of good things that way. You also love chicken, black beans, cheese, pasta (but not if it has tomato sauce on it), green beans (most of the time), and anything snacky like crackers and anything sweet, which we don't let you have too often. Your new favorite thing is apples! You want them whole, with the peel on. You will sit in your high chair for about half an hour and just eat away. You still only drink milk and water.

Playing/Learning
You are a non-stop bundle of destruction energy from the time you get up in the morning! You love to play, but mostly with big people things. You rarely focus on any of your toys for very long, but you can spend a long time pushing a broom around the house, pulling dishes out of a bottom drawer, putting on/taking off gloves, or emptying your backpack or Mama's purse. You love putting things into other things (pipe cleaners into a jar, balls into a bucket, bites of food into the cup holder on your highchair tray), taking lids on and off (water bottles are your favorite), and opening and closing things with hinges (like boxes and doors). You love music and when Mama sings to you. You do some of the motions to "10 Little Monkeys," "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes," and "The Wheels on the Bus."

Your very favorite things to play with right now are cars. No, not toys ones. The real ones. Almost every night, Daddy takes you out and lets you play in his truck when he gets home from work. You push all the buttons, take the keys in and out of the ignition, and pretend to drive. You make stellar car engine noises. You like to play in Mama's car, too. Your favorite button in her car is the one that turns on the hazard lights. :)

You like to read books. You're becoming really opinionated about which books are read to you, though, especially at bedtime. Many times we'll go through all the books on the shelf before we finally find the one that that makes you lay back against us and relax. You don't really have a favorite. It seems to change every night. You always want to read something different, but if there is a dog or a car/truck of any kind in the book, chances are you'll enjoy it.

You're getting pretty good at identifying parts of your body. You can point to your tummy, head, hair, nose, ears, and tongue (well, mostly you just stick out your tongue instead of pointing to it). You're also understanding a lot of things we say to you. If I ask if you want to take off your shoes, most of the time you'll sit down so I can do it. If we say that it's bath time, you head to the bathroom. You throw your diaper away on your own and will sometimes return things to their place and close the cabinet door or drawer if I ask you to..

You love TV waaaaay too much. You were sick with a virus about a month ago and were so sick and mopey that we let you watch more TV than normal. Those 2 days apparently ruined you and we've been working to get you to not want to watch TV all the time when you're awake. When you do get to watch TV, your favorites are "Blue's Clues," "The Wiggles," and "Signing Time."

Sleeping
You are still a great sleeper. Aside from a few rough patches here and there, you always have been. You sleep 12 hours at night without a peep. You dropped your morning nap right around the time you turned 1 and usually nap from around 11:30-1:30 now. You're still in your crib, sleeping in a sleep sack. Next month we'll be trying you out in a big boy bed!

Rites of Passage
You took your first trip to the ER on September 3. We were eating at a restaurant for Nana's birthday and you had an accident with a glass. You cut your right hand really badly and had to get 10 stitches. TEN! You were as brave as a little guy like you could be expected to be and you really enjoyed the popsicle you got after they finished your stitches. The stitches stayed in for 2 weeks. We had to clean your hand and change the bandage twice a day and we all became old pros at it! It never really slowed you down at all, either. You didn't want to put weight on your hand for a few days after the accident, but got over that pretty quickly. Your hand is still healing, and you'll have a pretty nice scar to show around someday. I'm sure that won't be our last trip to the ER, but Mama isn't anxious to do it again soon. So be careful, OK?

A few days after your accident you started Mother's Day Out. This gives Mama some time to run some errands and get things done around the house so that when you're home she can focus more attention on you. And it gives you some time out of the house so you don't get so bored! You have 6 or 7 other kids in your class. You go to music and get to play outside every day. You hear Bible stories and play with new, interesting toys. You eat your lunch there and then go right to sleep when we get home. Around the time you started walking, you started having pretty bad separation anxiety. You would be so sad and clingy when we dropped you off at the nursery at church on Sundays. You were the same way the first few times we left you at MDO, but you are starting to get over this fear. I think it is helping you to go to MDO regularly, have the same teachers, and learn that you can expect to have fun for a few hours and then Mama will come back to get you.

Your Daddy and I love you so much, little man! Even though most of the time I feel completely at a loss for what to do with you and all your energy and enthusiasm, I am so thankful that I'm your Mama. It seems like you change a little bit or learn a little more every day, sometimes every minute. I can't wait to see what the next days, weeks, and months hold.