Dear Dylan: November 2011

16 Months Old

25 Pounds

Uber Tall

Vocabulary: Thank you, no (said constantly), peek-a-boo ("pay-a-boo"), baby, more ("mo"), nose ("no"), eye, toes ("toe"), cheek, bye-bye, ow, etc. You don't really say your s's but you pick up on so many words so easily. You're a smarty pants.

My dear sweet Dylan,

You are 16 months old today. I feel like I was just writing your 15 month letter yesterday. I'm already starting to miss your babyness. :) I love you so much. My heart just melts even thinking about you.

You are becoming such a character. You find hilarity in almost any moment. You laugh when we bow our heads and pray. You just giggle. Then you'll try to mock it (fold your arms, bow your head) and look up at us and start laughing again. haha.

You make faces at yourself in the mirror every day. You watch yourself smile, laugh, pucker lips, jump, dance, and even fake cry.

You mimmic everything. You try to repeat a lot of words we say. If another kid cries, you will try to make the same sound and you'll distort your face to look like you're crying too. If we laugh, you laugh... this entertains large groups of people very easily.

You love hugs. You give every kid a hug. You even kissed Lillie Killpack today (your 18 month old friend). Then she licked your cheek. haha.

You are independent, yet check to make sure I'm there. You like to walk off by yourself, but will check every 10 feet to make sure I'm behind you still. At home you like to sit on my lap while I work at the computer, you push all the keys on the keyboard and play with the mouse... it's hard to get work done with you here, but you are pretty cute acting like you have so much business to attend to. You like to play in the same room that I'm in, you do not like to go off by yourself.

We finally weaned you from the bottle. You're now using a sippy cup, happily. You were way attached to the bottle, so I'm glad the second time we tried to wean you it worked with only a few frustrated no's.

No. You say "no" ALL.THE.TIME. You love that word. If you don't understand what I'm asking you, you think for a second because you don't want to say no if it's something you want. We sometimes ask you things just to hear your cute little "no." You'll even come to my face, point at me, and yell, "NO!" You may have learned that from me.

I make loud noises sometimes, just joking around or if I'm frustrated... you copy all of them.

You understand what time out is now... but you don't really mind it. You find it a funny game to sneak away from the wall, have me "yell" at you to get back, and you run back to the wall.

If Dadda or I are lying down, you like to come put your face right over ours and talk to us.

You're a little chatterbox. You say hi to everyone. You say hi to every stuffed animal, action figure, picture of people on boxes or magazines, etc. When you say "hi" you smile and wait for a response and you'll say hi over and over until you get a response from someone. You also will lean forward and put your face in another kid's face to say hi.

You like to talk all day long. I'm pretty sure you think you make sense. It's fun to hear you try to learn a new word. Today it was "grapes" and you just kept make a "pake" type sound. It was so cute!

If we're at home, you can be a handful, but still pretty easy. If we're in public, you are sooo easy! You are so entertained by other people you barely think about your own needs.

Immediately upon entering the car, you start to point at the radio and fuss until I turn it on. If I turn it down at any point, you fuss until it's turned up to the proper volume. You love music. You love any cartoon that is singing, cartoon-talking is boring.

You love to draw. You've discovered markers, pens, pencils, etc. and you always want to play with them and write all over things. You learned you can write on your hand and that entertained you for awhile.

I found you one day last week with blush all over your face. It was pretty funny. I didn't have time to take a picture because we had to run out the door.

You just got your last canine in yesterday. YAY! You now have all of your first 16 teeth... should be a break now from your teething tears. You poor thing.

You're sleeping like an angel again since you're not sick and you're done teething.

You're still allergic to milk and eggs, we're crossing our fingers this allergy goes away... for now, I'm continuously learning of new foods I can feed you as I used to feel so limited without milk.

You had your first Halloween. You were a soccer player from Ireland. You really got the hang of getting candy from everyone. You got to have your first sucker, pixie stick, skittles, starburst, laffy taffy, sweetarts, etc. The only thing you didn't love was sweetarts and starburst.

It's been so much fun watching you learn and grow. You get really focused on different projects and you're so curious to understand how things work. You know how to turn on and off almost everything in the apartment, including all of your toys. You are mad that you haven't yet figured out how to take the lid off of your sippy cup (hopefully that will take awhile). You love opening and closing doors. People always comment on how it looks like you're trying to figure something out or comment that you're a thinker.

After I change your poopy diaper, I put it in a sack to take out to the dumpster (they stink up our apartment). You love to play with the sack and you always want to carry it to the dumpster and throw it in yourself.

You've started hitting yourself in the head and you say "Ow" every time you hit it.

You give us kisses with flat lips. The last couple of days you've been practicing puckering your lips for kisses. You'll watch yourself in the mirror to make sure you're doing it right, then you'll lean in for a proper kiss. :)

You love to laugh. You love when daddy comes home. You love to dance and you love when people notice you dancing. You love nursery at church. You love to play with other kids. You don't mind being babysat, we've never had a problem leaving you with someone.You prefer if I come and get you in the morning rather than daddy, probably because you're used to it and you like a schedule.

I've started a photography business, who knows how long I'll keep it up... but for now, you're my number one subject. I LOVE this picture of you.