Wes! You are a year and a half old! This is such a cute stage and you are doing so many fun things now! Here are some highlights:
On Oct 11, you graduated from your helmet! It was such an emotional day for me. We went in for your checkup, did your measurements and they said you were looking fantastic and that you could be done wearing your helmet. They let you ring the little bell in the hallway, and we all took a group pic. I cried when I got in the car, just because your helmet had been such a big part of you for so long, and it was also something that you and I handled mostly by ourselves while your dad was deployed. And plus, you just looked so cute with it on! Everywhere we went, people wanted to talk about it because you were so cute. We came home and put your helmet in your memory box. I'll always remember you in it!
For Halloween this year, we dressed you up as a baby shark. There was a popular song called "Baby Shark" for kids, so we thought that was pretty funny. Daddy got a daddy shark costume - a big onesie - that he wore so you guys were twins! We pushed you in your toy car while your sisters trick-or-treated and you LOVED it. You seemed very excited to be out with everyone.
For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Didi and Pops' house in Beaumont. We spent the week there hanging out with family, then went to Crystal Beach for Thanksgiving. You loved riding on the golf cart down the beach and fell asleep almost every time. You also loved your Thanksgiving dinner and ate so much! On our last day there, we went to Galveston to see an ice castle. We had to bundle up in giant jackets to go in. You didn't like being so cold in there, so me and you left early and went to the gift shop where you pulled all the stuffed animals off the shelves for 45 mins while we waiting on everyone else.
For Christmas, Didi and Pops came to visit us. We decorated cookies and wore ugly Christmas sweaters and your favorite gift was a giant tunnel that you can crawl through like the one they have at daycare.
In Feb, you started becoming more expressive with your emotions. You learned how to crinkle your eyebrows like you were confused and you did it all the time - it was the cutest! Daddy gave you your first at-home haircut in Feb, too. He did a pretty good job! We had a few snow days in Feb so that was fun! You loved bundling up and going out to play in the snow with your sisters. In Feb, you also learned how to crawl up into the dining room chairs and get to stuff on the table. This is the worst! Because whatever is on the table, you make a giant mess of. If sisters leave their crayons on the table, you throw them everywhere!
In March, we roadtripped to Disneyland and Didi and Pops met us there. You really liked Disneyland! You pretty much fell asleep on every dark, slow ride we went on (Small World, Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc) and it was really cute. When we went to meet some princesses, you didn't want to go over to see them, so you stood by me and daddy. Your sisters went over and were talking to the princesses and Ariel said "Oh, who's that little Flounder over there? I bet he's silly. Is he silly?" and Elle said no and Ariel said "Oh, so he's more serious - more like a Sebastian??" The girls thought that was hilarious!
One of you favorite things to do that we tell you not to do is to play with the cats' food and water. You love to take cat food out, put it in the water bowl, put it on the floor, put it in little toy cups that you have. You like dunking things in the cat water bowl. You do it all the time even though we always tell you not to!
You also love to "sing" into microphones. Your sisters have a couple microphones and you love to carry them around the house singing. You basically open your mouth wide, shove the microphone almost inside then go "aaaaaahhhhhhhh" over and over again. :)
You also really love to play in the toilets - so gross! We put child locks on all the bathroom doors and we have to keep the doors closed so that you don't go in there, take the toilet brushes and make a giant mess by splashing water everywhere!
You really like to eat and you get pretty fussy around dinner time every day because once someone starts preparing food in the kitchen, you want to eat right then so you just follow them around and wine at their feet. You know so many signs from baby sign language videos daddy shows you. You can say water and cracker and so when you're hungry you point at your mouth and then hit one arm with the other hand, the sign for cracker. You also learned how to say "poop" in sign language, which is pretty funny.
You are still so cute that your dad and I say it a million times a day - "why are you so cute??" We call you "bub," "bubby" and "brother" for nicknames. You are still a very happy baby and you have the best laugh. You love to be chased and to play hide and seek.
You've learned a lot more words lately. I think your first word was either "hot" or "bo-bo." Our grass outside gets hot in the sun, so we taught you that it was hot and now you say "hhh" for "hot." (Sounds like just the first part of the word - like an "h" sound.) You do say "mama" and "dada" sometimes, but not to us really, more like just walking around saying it. You know how to say "flower" but it sounds more like "flala." One time I swear you pointed to a picture of a cat and say "kii caa" - but you've never said it again so I'm not sure. When you do your "poop" sign, sometimes you say "poooo" at the same time.
We know you understand a lot of words because if we ask you to find something, you can do it. Or if we ask you to throw something away, you can do that, too. One time the TV remote was missing so we asked you where it was and you opened up a drawer where you keep your toys and got the remote out - haha!
You also really love to dig in the trash can. We put something in, you take it out. You are ALWAYS over there opening the trash and sticking your head in to see what's in there.
You love to be outside and you love to play in water, whether it's outside or the bath tub. Water always makes you happy. You can play in the bathtub for hours, especially if we keep the water running for you, even just a trickle, because you like to be able to fill up cups and pitchers with water and then dump them out. You also like to stand up close to the faucet and stick your belly out so that the water runs down your belly.
We still give you a bottle every night before bed because we just love snuggling you up close so much. We put you in your pjs and your sleep sack and snuggle you up - your dad and I take turns every other night. You don't usually fall asleep on us, so we usually put you in your bed still awake. Lately you've been standing up in your bed and pointing at your rocking chair, so we rock you for a few minutes then lay you back down.
You love riding in your toy car that we push around. You sit in it and hold the steering wheel with your two little hands and just look at everything while we push you around. You love to hold a rock in one hand when you ride, so if you don't have one, you point at the rocks until we give you one. (In El Paso, everyone has rocks in their yards.) The front of your car lifts up for a little trunk and you love to put rocks in there and routinely stand up while we're riding to open your trunk and check out what's in there.
You are very good at climbing. We had to take some steps off the swingset outside so that you can't climb up into the top part. You climb on the garbage cans in the bathrooms to get into the bathtubs. If there's a stool, you'll climb on it! You can finally climb onto the couch by yourself, which makes us nervous because we don't want you to fall off. You love to climb onto the benches of the picnic table on the patio - that makes us nervous, too.
You don't like getting in trouble, so when we do get you in trouble for doing something wrong, you really cry about it - like loud wails and run all over the house like you are just heartbroken. You have a very sweet personality and really are such a lover. You know how to blow kisses, you always want to be picked up and really are just happy if someone carries you on their hip around the house all day. You always give hugs and kisses if asked.
We just love you SO MUCH, and feel so lucky that you are in our family! Love you, little bub!
