Month Eighteen

Dear Colin,

Happy 18 months little man. 1 ½ years old may seem young to many but not to their mom. I don’t know where the time has gone.
By time, I mean your life, I mean this month, I mean the days. Time is flying by faster than I want. I wish I could just slow everything down. Bottle up these mild sunny breezy summer days to open at a later time. Cherish the smile on your face as you hear the airplane in the sky. Or your laughter as you run through the green grass; your excitement of something as simple as a sandbox. I want to slow down this stage of your life where you are mostly toddler but still part baby. The toddler stage where daily you surprise us with new words. The toddler stage where you ask questions, have an opinion, use your imagination, and amaze us how quickly you learn new things. But the baby side of you is somedays what I cherish the most. After a long day, there is nothing sweeter than holding you and singing you to sleep.
Colin, you are a delightfully funny boy. In earlier months, you made us laugh solely by your actions. You farted, we laughed. You tried rolling over and would get stuck, we'd laugh. You walked like you were a baby giraffe, we laughed. Now that you are a big boy, all of 18 months, you make us laugh on a whole new level. You engage us. You show your intelligence. You are just plain silly. Now when you fart, you plug your nose and say "PU." Instead of not being able to roll over, you throw your self on the floor repeatedly sliding backwards in a mighty temper tantrum. You are quick on your feet and love playing games with Daddy and me that make us all squeal in laughter. You, my dear, are my greatest joy.
In these 18 quick months, I can already see certain personality traits shine through. You are a people pleaser, just like your mom. You learn what people like and do it, often. You run your chubby hands up and down my arms when I feed you at bedtime. You give me the same round of kisses before you go to bed (mouth, right cheek, left cheek, nose, then head bump.) You love clearing off the table after dinner. With two hands, you carefully carry every item from the table to the baby gate handing it to daddy and then say "Thank you welcome." Although you are a loud talkative curious active little boy, you are also sweet and sensitive. If you hear someone cry, you instantly get concerned and need to assess the situation. You give kisses when you've been naughty in your attempt to say sorry. You are quick to give hugs, kisses, and cuddles.
I think I say each month how smart you are but I cannot seem to wrap my head around how quickly you learn and retain things. Your word count is extremely high and you are now string together 2 to 3 words. You have a huge thirst for knowledge and need to know what everything is...atleast twice. You've begun learning your colors and know blue and yellow well. You adore doing "itsy bitsy" {spider} and playing "ring around" {the rosy}. You cover your mouth when you burp, cough or have the hiccups and say "Pe-Pe" which we figured out is excuse me. You've begun using your name and call yourself CoCo while patting your chest.
We are excited to see you continue to grow, learn, and live life. We are excited to see how much you'll have changed by your next milestone birthday. 6 Months from now, we'll be eating cake, singing Happy Birthday, telling you how much we love you and are proud of you. And while, I am not able to bottle up this beautiful sunshine and open it on your birthday, don't forget this. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away. You are all the Sunshine I need.

Love always,
Mommy.