18 months

Dear Cassius,

You are officially 1.5 years old!  Wowza!  The last few months have been so much fun.  Perhaps this is a little weird, but I'm glad you stil have 6 months before you are two.  Two is just too old, so another six months at one suits me just fine.  I have to say this IS the best age.  You are so inquisitive and you learn so much every day.  You are like a sponge and soak up all kinds of things... which reminds us daily that we have to watch what we have to say. 

Your vocabuary has exploded and is astounding.  You try to say everything... and you do a pretty good job.  You definitely have the syllables down and you mostly get the sounds right.  Some of the more impressive words (to me) are:  broccoli, your name (it's sooo incredibly cute), hoop, apple, orange, pineapple, belly button.

You love bike rides with your dada and the new swing in the backyard under our beautiful oak tree.  We got the swing for a steal at the P. Hill City Garage Sale, so we feel like rockstars.  You probably have already picked up on this but your parents are huge dorks for free and recycled stuff... so this swing was and continues to be a feel good piece to our little abode.  You rocked the slide, thanks to your dad.  You used to be a tad afraid of the darn thing, only choosing the very small slides to go down by yourself, but your dad helped you go down a bigger one at the playground next door and you continued to go down it, by yourself!  Way to go Buzz!

You actually celebrated your 18 month anniversary in Iowa.  We visited your Mimi, Vic, Elle, Mikki, Brett, Karsyn and Kinley and you had a great time.  Your auntie Mikkie bought you a little lawnmower which was just perfect as you just had become obsessed with the one your dad uses a week prior.  You loved pushing that thing around, but you actually loved pushing Kinley's pink stroller around more.  Occasionally there was something in the stroller, but you just really like to push it around.  You traveled like a real trooper and slept soundly through the night for the entire trip.

Another super smart and cute thing you do is "two."  As in more than one of something.  If you see two birds, you say two, if you see 10 birds, you say two... but you know when there is more than one of something!  You would love to have two loveys with you at all times, but we are working on that.  Speaking of working on things... you are d-u-n with the bottle.  We left it at Mimi's in Iowa and we were left with no choice and you've adjusted pretty well.  The first morning back you screamed for about 15 minutes, but after we explained to you that we left it at Mimi's you relaxed and were able to move on with your day.  It's kinda funny that you wanted your bottle the first morning home when you didn't use it at all in Iowa.  I will miss you requesting "joos" or "melk" in the morning but I'm glad to be done with the bottle and the cleaning of it!

Cassius, you are such a joy.  I am so happy you are my kid.  I love you!

Love,

Mama