2 Years, 6 Months, 12 Days

Dear John,

It has been about 6 months since my last post, but Mama has been a little busy raising a crazy toddler, so I apologize.  Now time to catch up a little!  Mom and Dad have been having fun teaching you new tricks.  One (to your father's dismay) is a Zumba dance move that I sometimes hear you reciting in your crib after nap.  You say "Boom boom, shake shake, now drop" while doing the dance moves.  Adorable.
Here are your current Top 10 favorite things:
1. "Why?"
2. "Goodbye everybody!"  You yell that every time we leave the grocery store.  You are a one toddler greeting committee.
3.  Pointing out things that you, mommy, and daddy love.  One example is "Daddy like beer?" or "Mommy love coffee?"  Right now, apparently "Birds love John". Not sure why birds do, but you like to tell me that  a lot.
4.  When Dad calls you a name, like Mr. No Naps, you respond with "No, John."  I may call you Monkey and you say "No, John."  You think we forgot your name.
5.  When we pull out of the driveway, you yell "Bye Penny! Bye Miss B!  Be good!"
6.  My all time favorite is the things you do when I get mad at  you to stop me from being mad.  There are a lot, but when you get done with time out, you walk up to Mom and say "Best friends?" which a huge fake smile on your face.  Where do you learn this?
7.  Every time you fart, instead of excuse me you smile and say "Toot!"
8.  Amanda and Thomas.  Any time you say you want to go somewhere, you want to take Amanda and Thomas.  Usually you say this when you are sailing an imaginary ship or plane to "beach Florida"
9.  Speaking of beach Florida, you like to tell my iPhone's voice, Siri, beach Florida.  You know to press the button, and when she asks what can she help you with you say Beach Florida.  Siri then misunderstands you and repeats what she thinks you said.  Sometimes she thinks you cursed at her.
10.  If I hear "All done sleeping!" yelled one more time from your room when you are supposed to be napping, Mom might have a nervous breakdown.  You are determined to never sleep again and let me know all the time that you are "all done sleeping".  Sometimes I think you are psychic because when I am thinking it is time for you to nap, you just look at me and say "all done sleeping".  When you are 30 and reading this you are going to wish you took advantage of all these nap times I tried to give you.

Below are some pictures of you at your favorite place, Beach Florida.

Love, Mom

1 Year, 11 Months, 15 days

Dear John,

Every time we pass the mall, you yell "Choo-choo!" because you love Barnes and Noble's train table.  This morning, we were the first ones there when they opened so you had the whole thing to yourself.  You decided this was the perfect opportunity to build the LONGEST TRAIN EVER.  You were very proud of yourself.  When children started showing up, I would pull of trains from your train snake to share and you would glare at me like I was messing it all up.  Sorry bud.  Sharing isn't fun.

Love,
Mom

1 Year , 10 Months, 16 Days

Dear John,

You and Penny had a blast yesterday. You two play keep away and tag all the time. I think she is officiall your dog. Luckily, I got a good video of your laugh. Also, your dad got a late birthday gift and when we told you it was for Daddy's birthday, you ran around the house yelling "happy Daddy!". So now we cann dad happy daddy :). You are also starting to understand make believe with your toys which is making you really fun to play with! I love every day I get to spend playing with you, buddy.

Love,
Mom

1 Year, 10 Months, 12 Days

Dear John,

Every day while Mom is getting ready you watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  At the end of Mickey, they do the Hot Dog dance and you dance with them.  It is adorable.

In this video, you yell "Toodles!" when Mickey is getting a mousekatool and then Cheers!  Hopefully you can hear it.

Love, Mom

1 Year, 9 Months, 30 Days

Dear John,

Mom has been hoarding photos, so it is time to post them.  Before each I do, let me tell you the big milestone of the week.  You say big words!  Like "blueberries".  You also love to dance to The Hot Dog song on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse :)

This week, you picked a new BFF.  We don't know his name yet so we just call him Teddy.  When we were having breakfast at Parker and Ottis, you found him in a basket with a ton of other stuffed animals.  You picked him up, hugged him, and wouldn't let him go.  Your big eyes looking at us while clutching him won you a new best friend.

We also learned how fun it was to run through the sprinkler!  Mom and Dad have not done it in 20 years, and we had just as much fun as you.

Here are a few more pictures I have had piling up.  My favorite is Elmo with the three binkies in his mouth.  You left the binkies in there and went upstairs for a nap, when you came downstairs and saw elmo again, you died laughing.  It was adorable.

Love, Mom

1 Year, 9 Months, 20 Days

Dear John,

Last week, Mom and Dad went on a trip to St. Martin while you got to have Grandparent Camp :)  One of the many things you did at Grandparent Camp was learn to ride a tricycle!  Papa J got a great video of you doing it.  Also, after Mom and Dad got back, we were throwing a ball and you said "One, Two, Three" before throwing without being prompted.  That is huge!  Your other big milestones are staying more than two words together (like "sit down"), counting, and getting all 4 canine teeth at once.  You are growing up so fast!

Love,
Mom

1 Year, 9 Months, 7 Days

Dear John,

You without a doubt know how cute you are.  We were at the museum and you were smiling at everyone with your shades on.  You stopped every single person in their tracks to admire you.  You are such a ham.

Love, Mom.

1 year, 8 months, 28 days

Dear John,

There are so many moments I want to capture that I don't have a camera for. This morning you woke up next to me when it was still dark out and stretched out so you could hold my face between both of your hands and just stared at me with half open tired eyes. It was as if you were making sure that I didn't turn away from you once you went back to sleep. It gave me the best warm fuzzies.

Instead, I captured your new favorite activity. Play-doh! We played with it for hours. Oh, and your other favorite activity is dancing to the "hotdog dance". If it comes on the radio, the whole family drops everything to silly dance with you. You also sing Hot Dog Hot Dog randomly through our the day. I love it.

Mom

1 Year, 8 Months, 3 Days

Dear John,

Your Papa loves to make you laugh.  Luckily, we caught a good video of him making you laugh by sweeping you up with a broom.

Also, you have had some big milestones the past month.  You have learned to do puzzle boards like a champ.  You have had a word explosion, but the best is that you say "Bewoo" for Bella and "Teennnyy" for Penny, which is adorable.  I think we need to rename Bella because Bewoo is so much better.  You also say "cheese" and "shoes" in this voice that slowly gets higher and higher and I am not sure where you got that from.  You have started sleeping soundly enough that it is fun to snuggle with you (before you were too much of an acrobat), which I think might be because you started sleeping with a pillow.  Lastly, you say "uuut ohhh" for just about every scenario with a sheepish look on your face.  Every time I don't think you can get any cuter, you do.

I have to run now because you are almost done with your lunch (you currently have hummus alllllll oooovvverrr you and are smiling at me like it is awesome) and we need to get you ready for a nap.   I love you a bunch sweetie.

Love, Mom

1 Year, 7 Months, 9 Days

Dear John,

Your first ice cream!  I was so excited to share ice cream with you knowing that you would just love it.  I even put chocolate syrup on it.  What this video doesn't show is you taking 4 bites and then signing for grapes instead.  Too bad Mom had to finish your share of ice cream.  I was really upset...ok, maybe I was kind of happy to eat it.

By the way, this week you started doing the cutest sounds to make a conversation.  Usually you just make single syllable sounds at me, but now it is long strings of babble.  I love it.  It sounds like "Boojabooja beeju fa".  Not many words yet (just up, big bird, and bath) but I love the babble!

I also took a super cute picture of you today.  You like to "bob for binkies".  You put a binky or two on a table, and pick them up with just your mouth.  Today you managed to get two in there at once.  Bravo.

Love,
Mom