Eighteen months

Dear Jordan,

On Saturday you turned 18 months old. That's a whole year and a half!

You continue to be the biggest joy in our lives, although today you're being kind of a screamy little tantrum-throwing crankpot and while I still love the tar out of you, I'm sure hoping it's because you stayed up too late last night.

Because if this is a phase, we are just plain screwed until it's over, because this sucks.

But on the whole, you are so much fun. You walk and you run, and your run is actually hilarious, because you careen around like a little drunk, not really minding that you bounce off walls or door frames. You fall down and pick yourself up and keep going.

You have to explore every little thing. You've discovered sticks in the park, and rocks, and holes to put them in.

You stand in the front window and watch the world go by. You wave at people. "Hi man! Bye bye man!" "Hi doggie! Bye bye doggie!"

When we walk down the street you point out cars, and every once in a while you head towards one you want to pet. "Nice car."

You did this with a Porsche the other day and your dad totally agreed with you. I think he wanted to pet it as well.

One of the things I like best is seeing your language development. It's just so interesting. Like, recently you've started using verbs: look, eat, go, walk, sit, kick.

Of course, these are all said with exclamation points, as everything is urgent. Look! Walk! If we don't respond immediately, it becomes WALK!

And you add them to other words. "Down!" is now "Down go!"

You keep surprising us with the funniest things. The other day Dad asked if you wanted to read Go (Dog Go) or (Mother) Goose and you said no, walked over to the book basket and said, "Haaw bout..." and chose a book.

You loooove books. You love being read to. And you have very definite opinions about what you want to read.

And really, just about everything.

The one thing you absolutely hate is getting your teeth brushed, and I'm not going to lie to you, you make it a tremendous chore. You suck on the tooth brush a little and act all compliant.

And then you do things like brush your knee. And stick the toothbrush down the drain.

When I take over, you scream and flail and wail and act like I'm ripping off your toes. I encourage the yelling, because it means your mouth is open wide enough for me to actually brush those little teeth of yours.

This leads you to try to wail with your lips curled over your teeth. It's rarely successful.

But it's a low point in our relationship every day.

That said, I love you like crazy and if I could clone you and have another one just like you, I totally would.

Except I read Pet Cemetery and even if I know that wasn't cloning and I wouldn't have to bury you to see if you'd come back the whole idea is a little creepy and I don't actually think they're up for doing it on humans yet.

But that's how much I love you love you love you.

Mama