Eighteen Months

Dear Griffin,

Last week, you turned 18 months old. Happy half-a-birthday!!

Words can't even begin to tell you how much we love you these days. You are a sponge, a little taker-in of information, and a little spitter-out of information. Information we taught you, information that Linda (the daycare mom) taught you, or information that you just picked up on your own. You, my son, are fountain of words, of knowledge, and of beauty these days. You are a joy to be around, to learn with and to learn from!

You also still can't sleep through the night for shit! Dude, 18 months is too long to go without 2 consecutive decent sleeps. Work out your issues, get over it, how can we help? Seriously....we're tired!

When you are tired (or hungry for that matter) you are contrary. You are punchy. You are a pull-on-your-hair and throw-lego-at-you kind of guy, and though you try to be really tough about it you can usually be cured with a kiss and a cuddle and a long night's sleep. Humph...I wonder where you get that from??

Your vocabulary has exploded in the past few week, even the past few days. Where your sign language vocabulary used to far exceed your verbal vocab, there's hardly even a point in teaching you a new sign, because you usually just repeat the word back to us right away, sometimes words we didn't even know you already knew! Tonight you said "cheese," in reference to the parmesan cheese your dad was grating over his pasta. Since you rarely even EAT cheese, and the only cheese you ever know is the one that makes you smile for the camera, we wonder how in goodness name did you know that the little white contraption that your dad was twirling around in his hand held anything at all, let alone CHEESE, which you suddenly know the word for, which we didn't even know you knew EXISTED!! Good Lawd, we can hardly keep up!!

You have boundless energy, that almost makes me feel young again too. Keeping up with you certainly has become a sport, and I look forward to the disappearance of the snow, and to showing you all the wonders that our magic little slice of the country has to offer. I think you just may be thrilled about it! And if not, well, there's a shitload of grass to run around on to tire you the hell out!

My little G, you never walk -you run. You never do anything half assed. You must see everything, touch everything. You love to smile, you love to MAKE people smile. And although you're happy just about anywhere someone is paying attention to your cute little dimple, you are fiercely loyal to your Mama, your Daddy, and the Dudler. Home is where your heart is, and there are few things you love more than curling up with a cuddly blanket and a good book. You embrace nature. You love the smell, the feel (and especially the taste) of life. Even though I may be biased, I truly believe you are a special little person with a special little purpose, and what ever the hell that may be, we're having a fun time in the mean time just hanging out reading books and loving the heck out of each other.

Your Dad and I love you little guy, more than we ever knew was possible. You bring out the best in us (and sometimes, maybe, even the worst...) but we're better for you. We hope you'll feel the same too some day. Or, you'll at least take care of us when we get old, even if you don't like very much.

Happy half-a-birthday little man. You rock my world!

xoxox

Mama