Letter to Baby

Dear Owen,

You know, we now affectionately call you b-rat.  It's half true, you really can be a b-rat, but part of it is learning, growing, exploring, and not having the vocabulary to communicate your thoughts and feelings appropriately.  But today, I'm the b-rat because I let you 22 month letter pass by and the 23 month letter sneak up on me.  So, we're just going to combine them.  Ok?  Ok.

You're doing great without your paci at school.  You know you have to leave it in the car and willingly do so when we pull into the parking lot.  But it is one of the first things you ask for when we get back in the car when I pick you up in the afternoons.  We've even started running errands without it.  We're all getting brave :)  And when we get to school you run as fast as you can to push the button on the elevator, so I have to stop you so we can take Luke to class first.  After we drop Luke off then you run again to the elevator, and I have to follow close behind, because I know if you got on that elevator by yourself, you're perfectly capable of hitting the correct button to the first floor and riding that elevator down.  You'd probably be pretty proud of yourself and meanwhile I'd be flipping out.

You are becoming such a little water baby!  Just the last couple of weeks you have gone from sitting at the edge of the pool and jumping into our arms to standing and taking a flying jump into our arms.  Sometimes you don't even wait for us to get close enough to catch you so you go under until your floaties bring you back up and you have this wide eyed expression that says 'let's do it again!'.  You even tried jumping off the diving board, except you didn't so much jump as you did fall.  I was there to catch you but you didn't want to do it again.  You thought it was hilarious when your dad jumped in.  You are so good to get out of the pool when it's time for adult swim and you go with dad and Luke to pick out a treat from the concession stand.

We went to the zoo again yesterday.  We have a season pass so we go quite often.  You love to get some fish food and throw it in and watch the fish fight over the food.  You love to see the monkeys and elephants and you make the best elephant noise.  We also love to see the lions and tigers.  Right now there are 4 baby tigers at the zoo that are so fun to watch.  You crack up watching them pounce on their mom.  The zoo has a new playground by the cafe and you and Luke love to play after we make our rounds seeing the animals.  You climb all over it and go down the slide all by yourself.  It's always fun being able to go and enjoy ourselves!

You are still such a great eater.  And surprisingly, you love egg rolls!  We totally expected you to spit it out, but you devoured the entire egg roll.  We're lucky you like to try different things, you're pretty good to at least try something.  You are not a fan of grilled cheese sandwiches and you don't really care for macaroni and cheese.

I can't believe you're going to be two.  You are my baby.  Not my big boy.  I just don't know if I can cope…but then again, I guess there's not much choice.

We love you goose.
Mom and Dad