Mandy and Chris: 23 months

Dear Cole,

Oh my word...this is your 23 month birthday. So you are one teeny month away from being TWO!

We've had an awesome few months, little man. I don't want to jinx it or anything, but so far toddlerhood with you has been a BREEZE! Sure, we have the odd little tantrum here and there (usually from overtiredness/hunger/overstimulation/too much shopping), but 99% of the time you are sweet and fun and ACTIVE!

This past month has seen HUGE leaps and bounds in your language development. We haven't really been doing anything differently - I think it's just like every other milestone for you - you just wanted to make sure you were doing it right before you did it at all! The best part? Last week, you said "Mama"! You've been sort of saying it for a while now (it usually comes out as sort of a "MAYM"), but this was a two-syllable, intentional, "MAMA"! Words cannot describe how thrilled I was to hear that from you!

With your language growing, it's been a whole new fun experience listening to you talk and laughing at the things you come up with. You know every single animal sound - as was proven when Daddy asked you if you wanted more grilled chicken and you answered, "YEAH! BAWK BAWK!"

You enjoy bossing around the dogs, now that they can sort of respond to what you're saying. "NYAH YAH (Nala), GO!" is one of your favorites to yell out. You are also discovering how cute you can be when you talk. The other night you decided not to take your nap, so I went in to get you with: "Young man, you did not take your nap. Now you're going to have to go to bed early tonight." Your answer: "HIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!" with a high pitched voice, a charming smile, and flirtatious wave at me. I couldn't keep a straight face...you have me wrapped around your little finger!

Things that you are doing AWESOME with:

Eating. Holy cow, you could probably eat a cow, little buddy. You eat just about anything - seriously, ANYTHING. You'll at least try it, which makes your mama proud. Some of your favorite foods are balsamic vinegar, anything sweet (you have a sweet tooth like me!), bread, peanut butter, cereal (MiniWheats), hummus, raw onions (mmm-hmm...if you see me chopping onions for a recipe, you run up and insist on eating it! "YUN-YUN! YUN-YUN!" you say), and every single kind of fruit.
Going down the slide all by yourself!
Being a helper. You are quick to help with anything (even without asking!) and follow directions so well. You LOVE to give the dogs their food and water. You can throw things into garbage or recycling, put your clothes away into your dresser, set the table (sort of...the silverware gets piled into one spot, but most of it usually ends up on table instead of the floor, so that's an improvement), dust, sweep...you name it, you love to help with it!
Sleeping/naptime. 98% of the time, you are amazing with sleeping. I plop you in your crib, you read until you fall asleep...A-MAZING!
Being thoughtful, sweet, and loving. Seriously, you are the sweetest little boy I have ever had the privilege of knowing. You give me hugs dozens of times a day. I'll sit down to read and be interrupted by your hand patting me lovingly on my cheek and your eyes looking up adoringly at me. Your serious-faced kisses are the highlight of my day.

Things we can do better:

Independence...in some ways. I try to foster your independence in everything I do, so much so that I don't even kiss your boo-boos because I don't want you to be dependent on me to help yourself feel better. Instead, I ask you how YOU can help it feel better so you are responsible for your own feelings. So most of the time you are amazingly independent. However, sometimes, you just want to be held, which is awesome and I usually don't mind, but it's usually also when you want to eat. It's a wee bit hard holding your growing self and trying to cook you eggs for breakfast, so we are definitly working on that. You've developed a gift for the koala bear grasp, where you wrap your legs and arms around me so tight that when I try to put you down you don't budge. It's pretty impressive, actually...