Letter to Toddler

Dear Big Boy Luke,

You are becoming quite the little personality!  You're a whopping 26 months old now!  I love hearing you respond 'ohhhh-kaaaay' when you respond to what your daddy or I say.  The way you draw it out is just so cute!  We don't know if you're really aware of what you're responding to, but at least you're acknowledging that we are actually talking to you.

You've started doing this little shuffle through your toys and it's so funny!  You dump all your toys out, make a big pile and then shuffle your feet through them while wiggling your little toosh back and forth.  It cracks us up and I wish I could catch it on video!  And when you're done doing your little shuffle, sometimes we can talk you into cleaning the toys up, but sometimes we can't.  But what's fun if you can't make a mess, right?

You've inherited this little car from your cousins and you love it.  You open the door, get out, check the gas cap, get back in, get back out, get your trucks, put your trucks in the car, get back in, shut the door and start on your way.  You especially love for us to walk around the cul de sac with you.  And if we aren't pushing you around in it, you either start in the garage and walk it to the edge where the garage meets the driveway, pick your little feet up and let the slant down give you a little thrill ride.  Otherwise you're pushing it all around the yard.  You did have your first accident, you killed the pot we've had since we lived in Texas.  Oh well!

It's getting harder to take you to work.  We only have a pack and play for you and you're fast outgrowing that, plus you're so used to your big boy bed, that you don't really sleep well there.  You love opening and closing all the cabinents and taking all the labels out of the file cabinents.  Also, you just can't get enough of turning the knobs on the audiometer or pushing all the buttons on the copier.  You're favorite part of going to work with mommy is getting to go down the hall to play on all the cars.  We don't put quarters in them yet because when they start talking on their own, it freaks you out a bit, so we just let you climb around on them.  You also love playing games on the computer or iPad and that keeps you entertained for the most part. 

And we have found that if you can reach it, it's yours.  There's nothing that mommy or daddy has that you can't have if you can reach it.  I recently found this out when I left the room for a few seconds and came back and you were happily gulping down my sweet tea.  It's a good thing you're cute, little Luke, otherwise I just may have cried that my sweet tea was all gone :)

And you're more interested in getting dressed and wanting to help.  You still have mornings (although they are very few) where you're okay putting your shorts or pants on, but you refuse to change shirts.  On these mornings I just go ahead and send you to Mrs. Kristin's in your sleep shirt and pack your t-shirt for the day with you.  On this particular day, once you got to Mrs. Kristin's you decided you wanted to change.  And you decided you wanted to do it all on your own.  And it was going great until you got stuck.  And then you got pitiful, and well, who could pass up a classic picture taking opportunity, even if it did mean that you were going to have to be miserable for a few extra seconds?

You are just the most awesome little guy, and you're getting so big!  And independent!  Please just need your mom for a few more years!  Please!! 

We love you, we adore you, and we think you're perfect in every way.
Mom and Dad