Today this boy climbed into my lap and gave me a hug. He smelled like pee and he pulled my hair, but it may have been the best hug I’ve ever gotten.

  
Happy 15 months today, TWO. You yell “CHEESE!” when I pull out my camera, and “sit?” when you stand up in the tub and I give you The Eye.

Your vocabulary is growing almost daily, and your destructive tendencies have earned you a new nickname (courtesy of my friend Kate): Bam-Bam. Lately you like to walk around backwards, which is entertaining and dangerous all at once.

You keep this mama running, so … more hugs are welcome.

Are you familiar with owling? All the crazy kids were doing it at one point. Here is a fun collection of odd owling photos. I have to say, this one is probably my fave …

(source)

So you can imagine my amusement when I found TWO doing this.

Today, TWO got his first official haircut. Here‘s a “before” picture:

He was starting to look very much like he could pass for a girl. So I took him to Fantastic Sam’s, and it went suprisingly well. And by that I mean, no one was injured, and a scene was not made by us.

He was nervous. Clearly a stress eater.

 And … the “after!” So handsome!
 

Dear TWO,

You are a few days away from turning 14 months old, and you are the light of our lives. You run everywhere. You are still very peculiar. I often find you hiding in some odd little corner, eating a cardboard book.

You are your big brother’s shadow, copying everything he does. Watching the two of you play together is such a joy. You love to play hide-and-seek, sing songs, clap your hands, and yell “WHEE!” You can also now say the following words coherently: hi, bye-bye, uh-oh, Mama, Dada, bath, Mava (Maverick), yummy, Grandma (but she hasn’t heard you say it yet), baby, milk, and hot.

My favorite is “yummy” because you really enjoy eating and you often exclaim “YUMMY!” during a meal … this makes me happy. When you are hungry, you walk over to your high chair and say “nom nom nom,” which is something I wish I could take credit for teaching you but unfortunately I cannot. I have no idea where you learned this.

You have a ton of teeth, I’ve given up counting at this point. You love to take baths and play outside. You are now a very good sleeper. Finally. You really put me through it the first year, but I think you’re going to be a pretty easy kid. Every day I feel thankful that I get to watch you lick the floor and cabinets (another pastime of yours), instead of dropping you off at daycare so I can go work in a stuffy office.

Guess whose baby just ate coffee grounds out of the garbage can?

That’s right.

I just ate coffee grounds out of the garbage and it was AWESOME!

I just couldn’t stop myself … I’m sure you can understand …

I’m going to laugh about it since you’re laughing … also, I’m a little lightheaded …

I just reached in there and ate it …

… with this mouth.

I had big plans to cook a ton of food on this rainy Saturday. I took the kids out to get groceries, in the rain, which was my first mistake. I had a super long list, which was my second mistake. My third mistake was to underestimate the scope of TWO’s reach.

He knocked a bag of flour off the shelf with his giant baby arms, and that is when we made our exit. 1/3 of the way through my shopping list. So I took him home and fed him.

The end.