Biscuit's Little Brother

Dear Grayson,

I can’t believe it has already been 18 months!!  You are growing so quickly!!! Your favorite word of “whoa!!” has been replaced lately by “oh no!!”  Your teachers say that you definitely don’t lack in personality:) And you have been getting so many more words….truck, tree, up please, read book, alright!, outside, etc. You will repeat most things we say and are chattering much of the time.  You know most parts of your body and will sometimes kiss yourself in the mirror.  You are obsessed with trucks and are always pointing them out on the roads and in your books.  You are definitely a daredevil.  You love to jump from the window onto the couch and climb up to the big slide at the park all by yourself!  You are so very active and are always challenging yourself physically-it makes me happy to see you so confident but also scares me because  you seem to lack any fear:)  I don’t want to hold you back from your exploration, however, I know I am scared to see what it will take to give you a healthy dose of fear because I know that will involve hurt in some way and who wants their baby to experience hurt?  You still absolutely LOVE water and bath time although you have been testing  lately-so now you will experiment with pouring water outside of the bathtub just to see how mommy will react.  And I am getting some practice in not reacting too quickly…you are teaching me patience and the power of the “pause”.  You are also getting more independent and while I delight in seeing you master new things, I am also sad because I am so aware that I will yearn for these days in the future…the days where you can’t get enough of mama…  I am trying to treasure these moments where I get to rock you to sleep and you want to be held all of the time.

I am also very aware of your adorable innocence and sweetness.  When we are playing, you walk up to other kids and are so sweet, waving and saying “hi!”   Sometimes they look at you like you are a bit strange (the older ones) and I realize that they’ve already been jaded and while I want you to have some protection from their cruel looks, I also never want you to lose that sweetness that makes  you want to reach out to everyone you see.

We’ve had a rough cold and flu season and spent much of last saturday (when daddy was out of town) throwing up on each other and then watching Bentley trying to lick it up.  It was quite an experience.  You didn’t like it that mommy was sick and would come up and hit me when I was getting sick.  I cried because I knew it scared you and you just wanted me to be okay.  Anyway, it is a funny story now but at the time, I was having a difficult time  finding the humor in it all:)  Now spring is in the air-we just had daylight savings time and have had a few warm days-we are spending more time outside and I am soo looking forward to the days continuing to lengthen (and the end of cold/flu season).  We are also anticipating the arrival of your baby sister-only 5 weeks away!

We have bought you several books about being a big brother but I am still uncertain if you really understand that she is on her way.  Still we try and talk with you about her and include you in preparing for her arrival.  I am excited for you to have a sibling and the incredible bond that I know the two of you will have.  At the same time, I recognize this change could be difficult for you initially because you still need so much from us.  Don’t worry, we’ll be here for both of you!

I love love love you so very much and am so excited to keep discovering who are!