Letters to my Son. 2 years and 2 months old.

Dearest Dictator,

Your little cold kept me up most the night while I listened to you hacking from your bedroom. This morning though you seem to be fine except for a few boogers that you keep picking out of your nose and wiping on me. Mommy on the other hand is a little peeved that your cold has caught up with her and knocked me on my but. I am never a fan of calling in sick to work, but yet today I did. I need to get rid of your cold, my cold and catch up on the laundry. Also? I need some sleep since your coughing and Daddy’s tossing and turning kept me up most the night

Daddy and I would like to inform you that when the doorbell rings at 9:30am on a weekday morning, it is very unlikely that it is the Pizza Delivery Guy. Or Grandma. Please stop yelling PIZZA PIZZA to the Purolator/DHL/UPS drivers OK? You make it look like Mommy never cooks and has the Pizza Guy on speed dial. Stop turning me in!

Also, when Mommy goes to the drive through bank machine; it does not dispense french fries. No matter how hard you are wishing for them.

Other then that you are pretty damn awesome.

Love you more then chocolate,

Mommy.

P.S. Please stop asking for beer to drink when we take you out to eat. You are 2, and I am sure Daddy will have no problem letting you have a sip of beer at home when you are 97 years old but until them we have to continue pretending we are Parents of the Year.

Read Full Post »

This Just In.

Dearest Dictator,

Saying ‘Happy Birthday’ does not guarantee that you will be given cake. Especially when no birthday’s coming up any time soon. Sorry for any confusion previous birthday celebrations with copious amounts of cake may have caused.

Cake can happen on non-birthdays too. Thankfully you have not learned that yet.

Love Mommy

P.S. Please stop saying ‘Garbage Truck’ 200+ times a day, you are driving your Daddy and me insane. Garbage day is in 2 more sleeps. Wait for it.

Read Full Post »

Letters to my Son – 21 Months

Dearest Dictator,

You have been my pride and joy for 21 months now. Every morning is a new adventure with you and I never know if that day will be all about airplanes, the park, The Backyardigans, Bob (the Builder), or dogs and cats. You change it up each and every day. There is never a dull moment with you around.

Recently you have become obsessed with gum and mints. You will do anything for a Tic Tac, including remaining quiet in the car and not crying when someone else is taking care of you. You can jump, walk up and down stairs, run backwards and sort shapes like a pro. In the last two months you have learned a few colors, and you really like the color blue. BLOOOOOO! You can also count to six; usually you forget 2, 3, 4 and 5; but you have 1 and 6 down like a pro!

Airplanes fly over our home regularly and each time you hear one you run to a window and get so excited while saying “Dah-dee, Dah-dee!” We recently figured out that Daddy has a picture of an airplane on his ID and you made the association that Daddy and airplanes belong together.

When asking you who does certain chores in the house you always respond with: vacuuming -Dah-dee, dishes – Mama, laundry -Mama. I am amazed that you already understand who does what. Like any typical male you like to do whatever your Dad does – which usually means vacuum, shave and play Guitar Hero. You love rocking out to Guitar Hero with your Dad. In fact if you had your own theme song I am sure it would be Rock You Like a Hurricane; and you do rock us like a teeny tiny little hurricane each and every day.

 

Recently you have shown signs of getting to that age where your Dad will become the coolest. person. in. your. life. Honestly, I really do not know how to handle this at all. Although I am happy to hand you off to your Dad I still want to be your coolest person ever.

You have such a sense of humor now and you like to play Bubba jokes on your Dad. When Dah-dee asks “whats my name”? you respond Bubba! until he tickles you so much you give in and say Dad-dee. Then you usually run away and once you are out of his reach you say Bubba! again and start laughing your little butt off. I never tire of watching this game; which is a good thing because seriously, it never ends. I also love watching you try to dance along with The Backyardigans videos and you almost have one little dance down pat.

Mama and Dah-dee are head over heels in love with you little dude. You rock our world.

Love you more than chocolate;

Mama

P.S.

Sitting in the car does not entitle you to mints or gum. OK?

Read Full Post »

Letters to My Son – 18 Months

Dearest Rito, 

You are now 18 months old. It seems like it was yesterday when we brought home a helpless, wrinkly and oddly shaped baby home from the hospital. Now you are tall, lean and independent little boy. 

 

In the last six weeks you have gone through a HUGE growth spurt and clothing that was too big on you two months ago is now in the “I have outgrown it” pile; you have burned through an entire wardrobe faster then Mama ever could imagine was possible. You must be into another growth spurt right now as well since you have decided to wake up and eat every single night. Last night you were up five times between 2:11am and 6:30am; twice to eat and 3 times to holler at the top of your lungs. I don’t think you will be the smallest boy in our playgroup anymore!

 

Christmas was a lot of fun this year, you attempted to open some presents (but preferred the boxes and wrapping paper over the contents of the boxes), ate a bunch of junk (chocolate! and candy canes!) and learned a new game called RUN from your much older cousins. Santa was very good to you this year and brought you a toboggan, which is still in the living room since you insist on “riding” it daily. All the gifts were great but your favorite new toy is not a toy at all, but a pair of winter boots. You love putting your boots on (usually on the wrong feet) and running around the house illuminating the dark hallways with the blinking lights on the side of your boots. We haven’t even worn the boots outside yet because we don’t want to take away your favorite new toy. 

 

You have mastered eating with a fork, and you are getting pretty good at using a spoon now. Lately you prefer to have juice from a glass (yeah glass) not a cup or a sippy cup; it has to be a glass or you get pretty angry about it. This week you started calling me Mama (instead of the nagging Mahm! that you have been doing) which is music to my ears. Your vocabulary is growing each day and I can not even keep track of how many words you can say now but it has to be close to 100 words. Whenever I ask you to sing your “Christmas Song” you sing “Wa La La Wa La” (like the fa la la la la  in Deck the Halls) it is the cutest thing I have ever heard. 

 

In the last 18 months you have taught me how to be a Mom. You are the first thing on my mind when I get up each morning and the last thing I think of before I fall asleep. My dreams are filled with your smiling face and sweet voice. You keep me busy and perpetually exhausted. On the good days we laugh and chase each other around, and on the not so good days I always promise to do better for you tomorrow. I love you so much it really does hurt. 

 

You are such a great little man that Daddy and I are crazy enough to try to do this again. 

 

Love you more then chocolate, 

Mama 

 

P.S. Vegetables are NOT poisonous and even though you don’t believe me your favorite cucumbers ARE a vegetable. 

Read Full Post »

Letters to My Son 16 Months

Dearest Rito, 

You are now 16 months old. The time has gone so fast and each day passes in a blink of an eye. Never in my life did I think I was going to be a Mom to such a sweet and active little boy like you. 

 

Last month Mamamama had to go away overnight for a work trip and you got to spend the night and Grams house. Now, Mamamama has gone to work overnight before but I have always been just minutes away from you and know I could spring into action if something was ever wrong. Going to a different city was a very scary experience for me. I was 3 hours away from you, and I now know that I am not so good at being separated from my little man. I must admit that I cried when LoudGranny picked you up from home to take you to Grams house. The evening I came home, I was so happy to see you in the tub and having a good time while Grams was giving you a bath, but I decided I wasn’t going to go away for a while because frankly, I suck at leaving you. 

 

In the last two months your vocabulary has grown immensely. You now have phrases you like to say such as : “where you going”, “what we doing” and the newest one is “I’m running”. You learned the word “stop” while playing with Dad! yesterday and finally said “Baba” to your Baba (and my goodness is she proud, her whole neighborhood knows you can say Baba now). You learn new words fast, use them lots and then the next day you quit using them (and figure them out again a day later, thankfully you have unlearned that swear word you figured out last month) and you have started adding words together like bubba-gum. I love listening to you talk, it is like music to my ears and our conversations are getting longer and more animated each day. 

 

The cutest thing you have done this month is start to hold my hand when we are walking somewhere. Holding your hand makes me so happy, you walk so nicely with Mamamama and Dad! when holding our hands and I am proud that everyone can see that you are my little boy. I am pretty sure I puff my chest out like a proud peacock when we are walking together. You also have been really good with your listening. Now when Mamamama and Dad! tell you to put something in the toy bin, you do it with a little coaching and you are so happy with your accomplishment when you complete this task. 

 

We also started in a new playgroup this month, and it is great to see you play so well with other kids. In our playgroup there is a baby who is about 6 months old and every time you see him you rock his baby seat and lie your head on his lap and hug him. This is almost cute enough for Mamamama to reconsider her one baby rule…. almost. You really do love smaller children and you always check out a baby car seat when you see one in the grocery store. You also love dogs and bark (wuuf) at them every time you see one (never mind that you bark at rocking horses at the store too); I hope you never lose this love of animals. 

 

We have started pre-potty training at home. You have sown considerable interest in your potty and even like to sit on your potty when Mamamama is using the toilet. Last week we went and bought training pants, and when we are spending the day at home you wear your new training pants around the house. Seeing you run around in little underwear is too cute for words. Sure we have accidents (surprisingly few) but you know what the potty is for and you do try and use it. Yesterday we got a potty book to read to you so that you will become more comfortable with the idea. I find it funny that you are interested in the potty because Mamamama really didn’t care if you waited until you were 3 or older to be potty trained (and maybe it will take that long, who knows?) but since you made the first step, Mamamama will cooperate and help you along at whatever speed you choose. 

 

Each month you change so much, yet stay so much my little baby boy and I love you more each day. Some nights I am sad to even put you to bed because you really are such a joy to us. 

 

Love you more than chocolate, 

Mamamamama 

 

P.S. PLEASE stop walking up the stairs (and standing on them half way up), I am seriously going to have a heart attack soon if this reckless behavior continues. 

 

Consider these letters as your new baby book, since I am officially a year behind on the scrap-booking.

Read Full Post »

Letters to my Son, 14 Months

Dearest Rito,

This last month has been a whirlwind with you. This month you have managed to not grow too much, yet the changes in you have been huge.

In the last month you have learned a few new things physically. Recently you have learned how to run. Now I must admit the first few days of running in the house was a little nerve wracking since you spent much more time falling then being upright. You do have the running thing totally down now and have burnt off much energy doing laps around the main floor of the house. You also started dancing a couple weeks ago, but you always held onto the coffee table each time you danced (it looks like a little jig, your little feet move so fast) but this week you have let go of the table and danced your little but off. Now all Dad! has to do is sing this little dancing tune and your little feet go like crazy. Three weeks ago you scared the crap out of Mamamama and decided to walk down the stairs (not “on your bum” like Mamamama commands you to do), you are pretty smart though and waited until it would be a short fall before you attempted this feat.

You are full of words and language now. You have added “gum” to your little vocabulary, we have not figured out how you learned this word since we don’t actually chew gum in this house. You also like to knock on doors and yell “Daddy!” no matter who is on the other side. If no one answers the door, you like to find a heavy object to whack the door with hoping someone will hear you on the other side. You love to say “bubbas” which is of course bubbles in our language. This gets a little crazy though, since you always seem to want more bubbas, Dad and I started hiding the bubble containers because quite frankly, we are kinda tired of blowing them all the time. You have started saying Mamamama again, which is nice because you dropped that word for a while now and I was fearing you would never call me Mamamama again. Last night, I think I heard you say nanas too, and you ate the banana you were pointing at. Pretty cool, you can order your own food now…. as long as it is nanas and bubbas I guess.

Mamamama and Dad! love you SO much, and you are learning so many things each and every day. There is never a dull moment in our house since we had you; there is never a quiet moment in this house either but nevermind all that!

Love you more then chocolate,
Mamamama

P.S. Thanks for all the awesome sleeping you are doing, Mommy loves it when you sleep until 8am and take those 3 hour naps.

Read Full Post »

Letters to my Son. 13 months.

Dearest Rito,

Mamamama has had a run of fantastic days with you. I really like the nice little toddler stage you are in this week. You have been sleeping quite well, taking nice long naps and being generally pleasant during the day. Even the temper tantrums have been at a minimum.

This week you have been eating very well, and yesterday you even ate ribs for the first time at LoudGranny’s house. We have started trying to eat with a fork, but sometimes you forget what end goes in your mouth and need to be reminded which way it all goes. You really like stabbing tortellini with the fork and are pretty proud of yourself when you get it on the fork AND into your mouth in one try. So far letting you eat with a spoon by yourself is a disaster, and there is only so much yoghurt I can handle washing off the walls.

The most exciting thing this month is how you have turned into a full time walker. For the last few months when people asked if you were walking yet, we always said “Yes, but he likes crawling better”. Now your primary mode of transport is walking and you crawl when you lose your balance. Climbing has turned into a favorite exercise with you, and nothing seems to be off limits. You climb on the couch, the coffee table and the dividing wall between the kitchen and family room, some day Mamamama is going to have a heart attack watching you climb everything in sight.

The Evil Monkey is still your favorite toy, and you like to grab his tail and rub it in circles around your left eye when you fall asleep. It is so cute. Around the house you have a little toy airplane that you push around and around the main floor while laughing your butt off. I fail to see what is so funny but the look of joy on your face when you do this warms my heart right up. Dad! bought you a cute little lookout tower and slide for the backyard, and you really love that, but you like to crawl up the slide and down the stairs which is just a little backwards.

This month has been pretty warm and Dad! and Uncle-J have invented a new sport with you, extreme wagon rides. Usually this involves putting you in the wagon and running around on bumpy ground pulling you as fast as they can, and sometimes they add in a big water hazard (the sprinkler). You love this game and could play it all day, unfortunately none of us is in good enough shape to do it for a long period of time.

I am looking forwad to what Month 14 is going to bring.

Love you more that chocolate,
Mamamamama

P.S. I am so thankful you were not in the car with Mamamama when that dingbat hit my car at the crosswalk. If you were in the car Mamamama would of been in jail for opening a big can of whoop ass on that girl.

Read Full Post »

The Big One

Ginger Beer Celebration
Originally uploaded by SleepyNita

Dearest LittleMan,

A year ago today was the second most important day of my life. On Wednesday June 28, 2006 we brought our little boy (YOU!)home from the hospital. At first I was amazed that i didn’t have to pass some sort of exam or sign papers to take you home, it took a while for me to understand that you belonged to us. The day you came home was a hot day(32 degrees), the sky was blue and BuddyLove was pleased to meet you for the first time outside of Mommy’s belly (you had been kicking her for months before this).

Mommy was so very tired after being stuck in the worst hospital room ever for days on end, and went to take a nap after coming home. Daddy took care of you and when you got fussy, he took you for a car ride to calm you down; we were amateurs back then and the car ride was a helped you relax when you were little.

That night was sweltering hot in the house (because Daddy took his time getting us air conditioning), and you spent it screaming, and screaming and screaming. We thought all babies screamed; Mommy was breastfeeding you at the time, and little did she know that because of an operation years ago you were not getting enough milk. You were a hungry little man. Soon we found out that Mommy needed medicine to help feed you and you needed formula to top you up. By the end of the week (Friday night) we had a little system figured out, and you became a pretty happy peaceful baby; until Mommy and Daddy wanted to eat, then you started to fuss and we ate many cold meals after calming you down.

Daddy and I can’t really remember what our life was really like before we had you, and we would never change it for the world. Mommy had a rough year before you were born, and you have made me (and Daddy) so happy and proud; I could just kiss and squeeze you forever. You are the light of my life.

Love you more than chocolate,
Mamamamama

P.S. The most important day of my life was the day you were born.

Read Full Post »

11 months going on 13 years old

Dearest LittleMan,

You are just over 11 months old now, and I have to admit you are officially a Toddler.

Sure you don’t attempt to walk with any regularity, but you are as strong as an Ox and you can pitch little temper-tantrums like a seasoned pro. So far, you have not pitched any fits when we go out (knock on wood), you tend to only get mad when Mamamama won’t let you crawl up the stairs or play with Dadadadada’s stereo.

You are getting to be a rough and tumble little boy, you are never alarmed when you hurt yourself, and only cry when your pride is injured. This week, you have learned how to crawl on top of the coffee table and sit there to play with toys. You only seem to do this when Mamamama leaves the room to go pee. You are starting to manhandle BuddyLove, when sitting at the window she barks at the cars going by and you go “ooo ooo ooo” and then grab her collar and pull her down from the window like she is in your way. You now give her full frontal hugs and roll with her on the floor. Lately, you are most amused when she is playing fetch; you giggle endlessly at her antics. I can not wait to watch you and the dog grow up together. Someday, she will spend the night snoring in YOUR room.

Yesterday you finally learned how to go both ways on the stairs, now the problem is you never just go strait up them, you go up two then down two, up two the down two. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but since we do need to get upstairs to change your diaper I need to pick you up and that starts a tantrum; which is never pretty but is thankfully short.

Love You More than Chocolate,
Mamamamama

P.S. I know you like to play with doors now, but can you PLEASE stop locking Mamamamama in the pantry?

Read Full Post »

Changes….

Dearest Littleman,

I want to tell you about how much you amaze me.

In the past ten months you have grown and changed in ways I never thought or believed possible. You have learned to crawl, attempted walking, can climb stairs at lightning speed and developed an impressive little vocabulary. You know what Monkeys are and really like the one Dadadadadada hung on your wall; and this week you have become attached to a stuffed monkey. Most days you are stubborn, noisy and are in constant motion. It is amazing that you even gain any weight since you move about so much!

In the last 3 days I have noticed something very alarming to me. You are becoming more a little boy, and less a baby. You do little boy things now; taking things apart, climbing stuff you shouldn’t, pulling BuddyLove around and digging in the dirt. The things you do provide us with endless entertainment.

Although watching my baby dissapear and turn into a little boy makes me sad, I am excited to watch you become the boy that you will be.

Love you more then chocolate,
mamamamamama

P.S. We understand boys like dirt, but please leave the plants in the house alone O.K?

Read Full Post »