Letter to a 15-month-old

You seem so much less like a baby as of late and more and more like a little boy. This thrills us and saddens us at the same time. I already can't remember you as a little newborn and that was not that long ago!

You understand so much. I feel like you get almost everything I am saying these days, which definitely means the boundary testing, on your part, has begun. You know when I don't want you to do something, and you get a little glint in your eye, and most of the time, you do it anyway. This means mommy and daddy need to brush up on our 'how to get toddlers to listen' info.

You try to talk now and that's fun. You say a bunch of babbly stuff and look at us like you are making perfect sense, even though you have made none. You try so hard to tell us stuff with increasing fervor and daddy and I just have to laugh because your attempts at conversation are so endearing. I have a feeling you'll be a pretty chatty toddler.

You say 'uh-oh' right before you find or grab off-limits things such as cellphone or glasses of water. You also so 'whattttt?' and 'wowww'. You have also started obnoxiously yelling 'MAAAAA!!!' which kind of reminds me of Will Ferrell in Wedding Crashers, trying to get the attention of his mother in the other room to cart in some meatloaf.

You are so super physical. The other day you climbed into a drawer, balanced on a ball inside the drawer while simultaneously holding onto the oven door and reaching for the fridge. Any onlooker probably would have freaked a bit, but I see you do the most dangerous things kid.

You now go to playcare at my gym on a regular basis, and the woman who is there all the time said she couldn't keep you off the older kid's playground equipment. She showed me how you climbed up the big kid's stuff and then as you headed for the slide she started to stop you. I told her you were fine, and she was like 'No! he'll go down that big slide by himself?!' And I said, 'Oh yes, just watch." And of course, you smartly turned around backwards and there you went, all by yourself, squealing the whole way down the big kid slide. She said  "He's fearless!" And I would have to agree.

you're so independent. you would run that whole field without looking back

Unfortunately though, everyone still notices how you still take a bunch of tumbles though. People say, "I've never seen a kid fall so much!" And this is true, you biff it all the time. But I know that the only reason you do is because YOUR WILL is beyond what YOUR BODY is yet able to do. So you kind of go full force on everything, but you still got these short little toddler legs with developing muscles that haven't quite caught up with your desires, so unfortunately this ends up with your head hitting almost everything all the time. Your glee overrides your caution every time.

You went all the way to Alaska this month to visit your Grandma Deb & Grandpa Dan & Uncle Dalton on their farm in Anchorage. You had such a blast! They have animals everywhere, and you were beyond thrilled. They had a newly hatched little chick in the entryway and atleast 20 times per day you went to check on it--you peered through the little kennel and pointed and said 'ooohhaa!' or 'ddaaa' (these are your universal words for 'things that are pretty cool').

Grandma Deb took you out every day! She strapped you to her back in your puffy snowsuit and big fur hat and off you went to help her feed the horses & chickens & goats & sheep & cows & dogs! You loved it, especially the goats and the chickens. It was freezing and snowing, but you didn't mind, you loved your trips out into the yard. Daddy took you out too and even you & I went for a long walk, but mostly, you were Grandma's little helper.

outside with Grandma Deb, a chilly 10 degrees!

the sheep

your fave, the goats

 the chickens

petting Angel & Precious, the retired sled dogs

out for a walk with Daddy

Inside the house you became BFF with Zeus, the house doberman, better known as 'the nicest dog ever.' You loved to give him your breakfast and you found the dog biscuits and gave him like 20 per day.  I'm sure Zeus is missing your friendship immensely.

You were good to the cats & pretty interested in the parrot that visited one day too. You pretty much ran the place for the week we were there, and it took three days for you to be normal Dax again--you missed it so much. We missed it too as your Daddy and I got lots of breaks with all those babysitters around (it also didn't hurt that your Uncle Dalton showered us with homemade delicious pizzas everyday). I wish so much that more close relatives lived in town here--I feel like you would benefit greatly from all of those extra hugs in your life. I wish I knew how to reconcile that for you (us).

a parrot?!

hanging out with Elizabeth, your first cousin once removed :-)

a Christmas book from Grandma

saying goodbye  at the Anchorage airport,

This month has been huge for you on the sleep front. As I've already raved, you've been sleeping through the night for a couple months now. But this month, we were able to put you in your crib while you were awake! WHAT?! This is unheard of. Prior to this month, if we put you down even a smidge before you happily fell asleep in our arms or in my lap while nursing, you would stand up and scream and cry so hard. Now, it seems as if you prefer it! We get you really sleepy and then when you're almost there, we lay you down and then AND THEN you grab your blanket, turn on your side, and VOILA, Just. Like. That.

I've always laughed when people would advise 'put your baby down when they are sleepy but awake'! Ha ha ha, yeah right! You would never allow that. Until NOW! It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. We've never really done any sleep training whatsoever (despite everyone's assurances that if we didn't you'd never learn how to sleep EVER), so the fact that you've naturally evolved into this is pretty awesome to us. Of course, you won't let us leave the room yet if you're still awake and in your crib, which means we frequently snooze next to your crib until you pass out, but hey, baby steps right?!

You had your second Christmas this year and still have no idea what's going on, but you got lots of books, toys, and clothes. Me and your daddy and your uncle cole took you on a Holiday Hayride at the Del Mar Fairgrounds to look at the cool Christmas lights. We also took you to see Santa at Old Poway Park, although we didn't get any pics with you and Santa because the darn line was too long. We figured you'd forgive us.

at Old Poway Park, awaiting Santa's arrival

You love to look out the window. You make piles of blankets and dive bomb on them. You play with cars and planes and even make the "vrooooom" sounds. You point at the sky when you hear a plane. You love to play your little instruments and when a good song shows up on Pandora you stop what you're doing to dance. 

We love you so much Dax. I know these letters are so long, but we forget so quickly--this helps me remember every you that ever was!