Eighteen Months with Alvie Bean
Dear Alvie,
You turned 18 months on Tuesday (i.e. NOT today). I totally meant to have your letter up on time this month, but alas! I failed.
Guess why? Go ahead…guess.
Did you guess that it was because you were stricken with the plague? Well, you were. The hand, foot and mouth plague, to be exact. Let’s back up, though, shall we?
It was another busy month. You got to spend lots of extra time with mama this month, though, and we had fun! There were lots of walks and parks and other fun times. There was also a lot of bleeding from the face and even an ER visit!
You are really starting to develop your own personality. You know what you like – and really hate not getting your way.
You also got your last two canines early in your 18th month. We’re all done with teeth now, except for those last four molars, which I’m hoping will hold off for a few more months.
You love to draw and color, and love your crayons and paper. And the walls. And furniture. And floors. And mamas. The cats don’t hold still long enough to be part of your canvas, but I bet you’d color on them if you could!
The artist at work.
You continue to love the outdoors, even though you have plunged to the ground from high up! We’ve had so many fun park visits in the last month, including a fun, un-documented play date last weekend with your bestie from the nanny’s.
Lonely merry-go-round ride.
The rains started again this month (yay!), and you loved the combo of wet + outdoors. Your new, shiny rainboots arrived this week, and I can’t wait to try them out. Not that the lack of boots kept you from puddle splashes before:
Soggy Bean plays ball
You want so much to be a big boy. You try to imitate the bigger kids at the park (to your detriment) and love to do whatever mama and daddy do. You love to help clean up messes, to play the guitar and piano, to look up important information on the internet, and to do complex spreadsheet operations (that last one isn’t quite true).
Bean counting!
You can be exceedingly silly at times, and there is no better sound in the world to me than your laughter. I can’t help but join in. Endless games of hide and seek make you giggle (which gives away your hiding place!). There is never a shortage of silly in our house!
The less successful spin-off from “stuff on my cat”
You really started talking up a storm in the last month. New words (recorded here for all posterity in English with the Alvie translation) include:
cracker (cacker), doggie (doddy), diaper (die-die), poo (poo), milk (muk), keys (cah-kee), broccoli (brock-E), bath (ba ba), ball (bah bah), walk (wah), water (wah-wah), yucky (yucky), uh-oh (uh-oh), yes (yuh) no (NO!) and stop (stop). No sentences yet, but I’m trying to get you to say “Mama rocks,” “Can I shake you a martini,” and “I’m hungry, please prepare my evening repast.” You’ve also started a little more signing, adding please & thank you to your repertoire.
Mother, I believe it is time to utilize the restroom facilities and then put myself to bed. I’m knackered.
You started at a new full-time daycare on 10/1. I was so nervous for your first day of “school.” There were attempts to get a lovely picture for an album, but mostly I got you moving too rapidly to recognize. Your first day of school (age 18 months) photo is not quite what I had in mind – but it is definitely indicative of your personality!
This IS holding still!
Your first week went swimmingly! You were so excited for all the news toys and people, and hardly wanted to come home at the end of the day.
SO! MANY! NEW! TOYS!
Of course, on day five of new school, I got a call from the director letting me know that I needed to come fetch you. Turns out that fever you had last weekend was the early warning sign of hand, foot, and mouth. You were pretty miserable for a couple days, and honestly, looked a little gross:
You should see the feet & mouth…ewww.
You didn’t want to eat at all, and only drank begrudgingly on Tuesday. So, I pulled out the big guns and introduced popsicles. You were skeptical at first, but quickly learned that this was a delightful treat. Once you got to the stick part, it was a bit tricky, but a bath and some laundry took care of those problems.
This is mmmmmm
I am looking forward to another fantastic month! Maybe you could go to daycare for four weeks in a row with no illness? (We’re also just over 14 days with no time-lost injuries; too bad re: the time-lost illness.)
Anyhoo – you are still awesome, even with the plague-sores. You give the best hugs and kisses, and you (almost) always make me smile.
I love you muchly, little Bean.
Mama
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