Dear Beanie: 16 months

Dear Beanie,

Running, skipping and trotting! 

You are sixteen months old. Not days, not weeks, months. Can you believe it? My tummy quivers when I think about the day I'll be saying that you are sixteen years old. What kind of young man will you be? A gentle, kind one -- this much I know. Because you are the most gentle little boy I have ever set eyes on.

My Mum, your Nanny, had me when my sister was sixteen months old. That means that I would already have another newborn. WOWSERS. But you are still a wee little bubbaloo to me! You still need so much from me, and the thought of not being able to give you every ounce of everything you need scares me so much. And the thought of not being able to give a new baby every ounce of everything they need because I also want to give you everything? Also. Scary.

Enough of that! Onto you!


Your Personality: 

I love writing about your personality the most. I remember having to write about that in your baby book when you were just one, two, three months old, and always saying you were a very sensitive little thing. You certainly still are. At six months old I remember writing that you are a real thinker. You still are. But now you are a real little giggler too! You are a very sociable being, but still not a fan of too many people - around six is your maximum (another thing that hasn't changed since you were little!). You are a very cheeky little sausage too, which makes me laugh. We had our first big family hysterics session the other night, where you were laughing as you tried (and semi-succeeded) to drink from a big-boy-cup, and then you did a huge burp. Oh the giggling! And then when you saw your daddy and I laughing so hard as well, it was as if you were about to fall out of your chair from laughing so hard!

I've already said it, but you are such a gentle boy. You pat animals and play with my earrings with such gentle fingers. You give your toys to other children if you think they would like them more than you. You get upset when other children are upset. Your daddy and I have been talking about the fact that perhaps in the future we will need to teach you to stick up for yourself, because often in the playground it seems other kids take advantage of your gentle nature and you are sometimes pushed around - and not just because you are younger. But I want to keep you just the way you are!


Things you love: 

It's a big wide world out there!

You love being outside. At around 9am, you start having ridiculous tantrums and become very whingy. You aren't hungry or thirsty or bored or tired, you just need to get outside. The moment we get out the door, you are squealing with excitement, either running along the road with your new harness (yes, really. I got one. And you never even notice it's there!), or bopping up and down in your pram until we get to the lake. This makes me reconsider our wonderful apartment as a place to bring up my outdoors boy...

Meeting little L, six days old

You love washing your hands. You now pull up your little stool, climb up to the basin, say 'more' and proceed to splash about in the one centimetre of water I pour into the basin. Once you've splashed it all out, you turn on your puppydog eyes and say, 'more?' again and again.

You also love little babies. Every time you see a little baby (I'm talking around four months and under), you trot up to them and become all squeaky and cute. You often put out your pudgy little hand but you know they are fragile so you don't touch.


New skills:

You've started to communicate your needs really well! The other day, you bypassed all your usual toys and found your toy fork and spoon. You came up to me with them to show me you were hungry and then, at an unpredictable time, ate a huge amount of food. How smart are you! You have also started to bring me your shoes when you want to go for a walk, which is super cute and helpful too. You've learnt how to say 'more'. You use it mainly for yoghurt. :) You also use it for anything you want - a car, a wrestle, a calculator, your toothbrush, a song, some water to splash in, etc.

You're also really honing your skills as a terrible-two-tantrumer... your daddy and I are having to navigate our way around these very gently and are learning the best ways in dealing with these at the moment is not to attempt to reason with you (you are just plain too little!), but to distract you and try to get you to want something else instead.  But if you are well fed, if you have no pain (which I think has been pretty rare in your little life thus far, thanks to those horrible teeth of yours!), if you have had a good sleep (which is also pretty rare... often due to pain... but possible!), and if you have been outside, then you are tantrum free. This is what I'm learning!


I love you, my big boy!

Love, Mummy.