I just found this letter, written but not published! And now, here we are 4 months later! Where has the time gone?
Reading this has reminded me of why I do these letters– in just a few short months, I’d almost forgotten about a lot of these things! It brings me such joy to remember them, because he’s already outgrown so much.
Dearest Gregory,
Goodness me, you’ve grown so much in the past couple of months! It’s as though you took the whole baby-to-toddler thing seriously!
You are super serious about any task you set your mind to. We joke that you have a mild case of OCD, because when you’re involved with something, whether it be coloring or shooting hoops in the living room, you are NOT to be dissuaded until you feel like you’ve done it JUST right.
Within just a few weeks, you went from 1-3 word phrases, to full on sentences and paragraphs. Instead of, “down!” you say, “Momma, peez get down now?” or, “No, I dunno wan a kiss kiss!” You remember what foods you like and request them specifically. Your favorites right now are “Yow-goot!”, “Sawbull ies” (strawberries), and “Back-a-deez!” (Mac and Cheese– you say this one so fast and full of excitement that it’s hard for others to understand).
You also made the huge jump towards knowing all of your letters and colors! We point to objects all over the house and say, “What color is this?” You repeat, “Whaa col-s’-dis?”, then you pause, thinking, and then you usually get it right! The difference between blue and green is still pretty hard, but you consistently get “back”, “pink”, “red”, “lellow” and “owange” right! Your aunts and uncles have been confusing you by throwing things like, “Teal” and “magenta” in there too.
You love to sing songs, and you have the sweetest little boy voice. Your favorites right now are, of course, Christmas songs. You stand at attention in front of the tree and sing, “Oh Kee-mas tree, oh Kee-mas tree, Luh-luh yuh banches!”. You sing “Happy Birthday” to random people, and every night you command mommy to “Sing SONG! SING Gegg-oly song! Sun-shine song!” (Mommy sings “You are My Sunshine” and uses your name in it). You also sing, “Spawn-bob, Squaw-pants!” over and over, since this is the only TV show you watch (we’ve tried others, you just don’t like anything else!).
You love to play pretend with musical instruments. Nana bought you a recorder, and you actually figured out how to blow it AND play it, all by yourself! You sit down at the piano and get super serious about playing the keys, often singing along at the top of your voice. One of your fingers got a nasty blister on it from strumming Dadda’s guitar a little too roughly!
Your bedtime routine is super cute and touching. You go around to everyone in the house, saying, “Night night! Kiss lips!” (we had to make a distinction between tongue-kisses and lips-kisses, because things were getting pretty messy!). You often add a, “Luv Yoooo!” in at the end.
When you get hurt, you instantly want someone to come and, “Kiss an’ make bettuh”. Mommy will kiss the “boo-boo”, and then you say, “Again?” over and over, until Mommy has given you at least a dozen kisses. You also return the favor when someone else gets an owie!
You intensely dislike Anthony’s crying. In your weaker moments, you yell, “NO CRYING! WEE! NO CRYING!” with almost a growl. When we remind you to be gentle and say things nicely, you get sing-songy and softly say, “No crying, Wee! S’ okay! No crying, Buh-buh-bear!” You get super possessive when he touches your things, but you often hunt for the “bes-toy” and bring him something nice to suck on play with.
Lately, you are also very good at remembering things that we say and bringing them up later. If Mommy tells you we are going home to eat dinner, and forget to mention it for over an hour (it takes mommy and daddy a long time to mobilize and get home sometimes!), you will say, “Num-num? Din-uh?” the moment we pull in the driveway. This memory of yours is especially sharp when it comes to Basketball games and Mac n Cheese!
You are not potty-trained yet, but you do sit on your potty then pretend to pat yourself with a baby wipe. You often point to your diaper and say, “Poo-poo!” giving us a bit of a head start with changing you. We’re sure that when you set your mind to being potty trained, we’ll know. All in good time, right? 🙂
We love to play imaginative games with you, asking ridiculous questions (like, “do giraffes live in trees?). You tilt your head to one side, think about it, then say, “Nawwww!” in the cutest little voice. Lately, you’ve begun making up your own and saying, “Naww!” before we even have a chance to answer.
One last thing– you LOVE to watch videos of yourself! If you hear a video coming from Momma’s phone or laptop (usually when she’s uploading), you sprint on over and beg to watch it, over and over. You giggle hysterically when you see yourself, and oftentimes you preemptively say the exact things that you do on the video!
Gregory, we couldn’t imagine life without you. You are one special little boy, and we want to keep you forever.
Love, Momma